What is a Virtual Phone Number & How do you get one?

Customer behavior has drastically changed over the years. Their expectations have grown tremendously, especially when it comes to experience. With brand-hopping becoming popular, customers are likely to switch after a single bad interaction.  Hence, improving communication has become integral to enhancing customer experience.  

Out of the various channels of communication, calling still remains one of the most popular. To ensure seamless incoming and outgoing calls, you need a phone setup and more importantly, a virtual phone number.   

In this article, we will discuss the main points to keep in mind while procuring a Virtual Number. But first, let’s understand the functioning of virtual numbers and how they fit into a business.  

What is a Virtual Phone Number?  

As the name suggests, a virtual number is a phone number used to make business calls without any physical identity attached to it. When deployed intelligently, these numbers help with revenue generation and improve customer loyalty. Unlike wired telephony services, virtual mobile numbers operate through the Internet with voice over internet protocol (VoIP) technology. They can route calls to a variety of telephone numbers like landlines and mobile.  

Cloud-based virtual phone systems offer a wide range of solutions and products. Since the cloud isn’t limited to the product portfolio, it offers a myriad of features alongside virtual number solutions. An efficient Interactive Voice Response (IVR) can be easily paired up with your number. This is the perfect combination for any size and type of business.  

Compare auto dialer vs. predictive dialer to match your virtual number strategy.  

How Virtual Numbers Operate 

Virtual numbers function through a simple, four-step process: 

Step 1: The customer places a call
A customer dials your virtual number just as they would any standard phone number. 

Step 2: The call is routed through the cloud
Instead of using traditional landline phones, the call travels over the internet through VoIP.  This allows for quicker and more dependable connections. 

Read this blog “VoIP Vs Landline” here. 

Step 3: The call is delivered to your selected device
Your setup determines where the call goes next. You can route it to someone’s mobile phone, a VoIP system, or a support dashboard for your team. 

Step 4: Smooth, transparent communication
You pick up the call and speak with the customer. They have no visibility in your location or the underlying tech. 

No matter the use case (business, support, or sales) virtual numbers ensure a quick, smooth, and dependable calling experience. 

Types of Virtual Phone Numbers 

Not every virtual number serves the same purpose. The right choice depends on what you’re aiming to achieve. There’s a different kind of virtual number for each building local trust, reaching international audiences, or providing toll-free access.  

Here’s a quick overview of the main types: 

1. Local virtual numbers 

These numbers use area codes tied to a specific city or region, helping your business appear local. For instance, if you’re based in New York but want to connect with customers in Los Angeles, you can use a 310 or 213 number to create a familiar, hometown impression. 

Why it’s useful: People are much more likely to pick up calls from numbers they recognize as local. It boosts trust and gives your brand a more personal feel, even if you’re operating remotely or from another country. 

2. Toll-free virtual numbers 

Toll-free numbers (like 800, 888, or 877) don’t cost customers anything to dial. The call cost instead shifts to the business they are calling. You can easily use these numbers for support centers, order lines, and high-volume inbound call campaigns. 

Why it’s useful: If your business depends on receiving calls from various regions, a toll-free number removes barriers. This makes you appear more established and customer centric. 

3. International virtual numbers 

If you want your business to appear local in international cities without physically opening offices, you need international virtual numbers. They give you a localized presence in countries you serve or plan to expand into. 

Why it’s useful: Ideal for global support teams, international operations, and cross-border sales. Customers see a familiar local number, while you manage everything from your current location. 

Virtual Vs. Regular Phone Number: What Is the Difference?  

Understanding the key differences between virtual and regular phone numbers can help you choose the right solution for your needs. Here are a few:  

Key Benefits of Virtual Numbers  

The demand for virtual numbers is increasing at a rapid pace, and for good reason. According to a recent study, 86% of customers say they would leave a brand after even a single bad experience. Hence, businesses across various industries are embracing them to enhance customer communication, reduce costs, and build a stronger brand presence.   

Unlike traditional phone systems, virtual numbers offer unmatched benefits. They help you establish a local or even international footprint without physical infrastructure.   

Here’s why more and more businesses are making the switch:  

1. Establishing a Strong Local Presence  

Maintaining a local presence is essential for building trust and credibility. Customers are naturally more inclined to call a number that appears local rather than a long-distance or international one. Virtual numbers help you achieve this by offering phone numbers with specific regional codes, creating a sense of familiarity for customers.   

This is especially beneficial if you are operating in multiple cities, as you can establish a virtual presence in different locations without opening physical offices.   

2. Significant Cost Savings  

One of the most compelling reasons to adopt virtual numbers is the substantial cost savings they provide. Traditional phone systems require separate landlines, additional SIM cards, and expensive telecom infrastructure. All of this can quickly add up.   

However, with a virtual number, you can significantly cut down on these expenses. Since calls can be forwarded to any device, employees don’t need separate business phones. This makes it easier and more cost-effective to manage communication. Additionally, for handling high call volumes, you can set up multiple call-forwarding options, ensuring that no customer inquiry goes unanswered.   

3. Enhanced Flexibility for Remote Work  

Virtual numbers enable your employees to answer calls from any device, whether it’s a mobile phone, laptop, or desk phone. This ensures uninterrupted communication, whether team members are working from home, traveling, or managing a remote work.  

Your team no longer needs to be tied to a specific location to receive business calls, which improves productivity and customer service. Whether an employee is at home, on a business trip, or working from a co-working space, they can seamlessly stay connected with clients and colleagues through a virtual number.  

4. A More Professional Business Image  

If you are looking to enhance professionalism, a virtual number is the way to go. With it, you get a dedicated business contact. This eliminates the need for employees to use their personal phone numbers.  

The separation between personal and business communication not only boosts credibility but also ensures consistency in customer interactions.  

Sometimes virtual numbers might also come with advanced call management features such as Interactive Voice Response. IVR allows you to set up an automated menu system—like “Press 1 for sales, Press 2 for support.” It also helps you avoid spam calls, saving your agents’ time. 

This ensures that calls are routed to the right department efficiently. Having a structured approach to call handling streamlines operations and enhances customer experience.  

How Are Businesses Using Virtual Numbers? 

Now you know how virtual numbers have become essential for managing customer interactions. Let’s understand how businesses across industries are using them to enhance flexibility, security, and scalability: 

1. BFSI

• Secure customer communication: Virtual numbers mask agent phone numbers during outbound calls, protecting privacy. 
• OTP & transaction alerts: Dedicated virtual numbers can be used to send SMS alerts, OTPs, and transaction notifications. 
• KYC & onboarding: Virtual numbers route calls automatically to KYC agents or IVR flows for identity verification. 
• Loan collections & reminders: Automated outbound calling with virtual numbers for EMI reminders, collection calls, and repayment confirmation. 

2. Retail & E-Commerce

• Order confirmation & delivery updates: Automated calls/SMS from virtual numbers can help keep customers informed. 
• Personalized marketing: Trackable virtual numbers assigned to campaigns (ads, SMS, billboards) to measure ROI. 
• Store-level routing: One central virtual number that auto-routes callers to their nearest store. 

3. Healthcare

• Appointment scheduling & reminders: Patients can call your virtual number to book/reschedule appointments; automated reminders reduce no-shows. 
• Teleconsultation: Virtual numbers mask the personal numbers of doctors and patients during consultations. 
• Emergency helplines: A single virtual number can route calls to the right department like ambulance, emergency desk, or specific specialties. 

4. Professional Services

• Client communication masking: Consultants/agents can communicate with clients without disclosing personal phone numbers. 
• Project-based tracking: Assigning unique virtual numbers to different clients or projects can simplify call tracking and billing. 
• Lead management: Real estate or consulting firms can use virtual numbers in marketing campaigns to track conversions. 

5. Education

• Parent-teacher communication: Virtual numbers ensure privacy when teachers call parents. 
• Attendance alerts: Automated SMS/calls for attendance, fee reminders, and announcements. 
• Online classes support: Students can call a support virtual number for login issues, course doubts, or technical assistance. 

How to Get a Virtual Phone Number?  

Virtual phone numbers are easy to procure and easier to implement­ with the ‘right’ service and provider. Here’s what you need to look for:  

1. Assess The Type of Virtual Numbers  

Cloud telephony providers offer a variety of contact solutions—local, toll-free, and vanity or premium numbers. Local numbers help you overcome geographical barriers by creating a presence in varied locations across the globe. For example, you can buy a local number for Chicago while operating your business from New York City.  

Further, customers are motivated to call toll-free numbers as they are free of cost; the charges are borne by the business instead. These numbers usually begin with 800. 0800 or 1800 depending on the country. They are deployed specifically to encourage people to call businesses. Vanity or premium numbers have an even greater recall value. For example, 9988776655 is a promising number, albeit at a higher price.  

2. Focus on Maximum Automation  

The main objective while searching for a suitable service is always for smoothened workflows and accelerated automation. Therefore, your virtual number solution should also offer features such as IVR or automatic SMS alerts, allowing you to gather information and resolve queries. Moreover, with intelligent AI, you can improve first call resolution through skill-based routing.   

With a multitude of features available, why settle for mediocre service? Make sure you opt for a combination of power-packed features for streamlined operations in your call centers.  

3. Aim for Better Call Management  

If your virtual number solution is packaged with the right features, it acts as a sophisticated call-management suite that can better equip you to manage heavy call flows. A robust IVR acts as an auto attendant and lets you transfer, route and forward incoming calls in multiple ways—saving your agents’ time and energy. Managers can also evaluate customer interactions using the analytical dashboard and thereby aim for higher service quality.  

4. Explore Ways to Track Missed Calls  

Every missed call is a missed opportunity for your small business telecommunication solutions. While comparing service providers, you should cross-check if the solution is backed by a tracking tool for missed calls. Coupled with automated SMS service, you can receive timely intimation of missed calls and improve your communications.  

5. Employ Comprehensive Reporting  

With the advent of omnichannel customer communication, call analytics have become imperative for smoothening your business processes. The dashboard allows you to access every little detail of the virtual number, including call recordings, missed calls and even the quality of answered calls. It also lets supervisors assess their agents’ interactions in real-time, and through comprehensive reports that provide useful insights to improve CX.  

6. Continue Using Your Existing Number  

The option to convert your existing business number into a virtual number helps achieve a better work-life balance and also creates a strong brand identity that customers feel confident to reach out to. Additionally, you save on the marketing cost for a new number and you’re able to maintain a certain volume of calls since your number is already saved by the customers. Multiple extensions can be added to the line to streamline the channels further.  

7. Pay Attention to Post-Purchase Support and Assistance  

Even with a variety of features in your favor, customer support remains a crucial differentiator for your brand. Offer unlimited customer support by using multiple communication channels—calls, emails and chats. A pleasant CX also implies maximum uptime, ideally no less than 99.99%.  

Why Choose Acefone for Virtual Phone Numbers? 

Now that you understand virtual numbers in detail, you might be looking for a provider who can meet your needs within your budget. Acefone can be that provider.  

Here’s why:  

1. CX-first virtual numbers, not just another VoIP add-on

Most providers sell virtual numbers as a small piece of a UC or VoIP stack. Acefone’s numbers sit on a CX-focused contact center platform built to handle 2.5B+ calls annually for 5,000+ businesses, with a 4.7/5 average rating across review sites. This means your “simple” virtual number is already wired for serious call volumes, SLAs, and customer experience use cases. 

2. Contact-center intelligence baked into every number

Acefone turns a basic DID into an intelligent touchpoint: AI voice bot greetings, call forwarding, call recording, number masking, post-call analytics, and softphone access are all available on the same virtual number stack.
Instead of stitching together separate tools for IVR, analytics, and privacy, teams get a single, ready-to-scale virtual number solution. 

3. One provider for local, vanity, and toll-free presence across key markets

Acefone lets you build a global yet “locally present” brand from one dashboard. You can leverage a variety of local numbers with regional area codes or vanity and toll-free prefixes like 1-800, 0800, 1800, 888, 833 and more.
You don’t need different vendors for marketing campaigns, support lines, and brand recall numbers. Everything lives in one routed, reportable layer. 

4. Deep integrations and enterprise-grade security out of the box

Virtual numbers plug straight into 20+ CRM, helpdesk, and collaboration tools including Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho, Zendesk, Freshdesk, MS Teams, Google Workspace, and Dynamics 365.
All of this runs on an ISO 27001 and Cert-In certified platform with VAPT assessments. This gives regulated industries a more compliance-ready foundation than generic VoIP solutions, or UC tools.  

5. Value-based pricing with a built-in ROI story

Acefone leads with transparent, value-based plans for virtual numbers, starting from $19.99. The features include unlimited calling (in included regions), one DID, one-year CDR storage, and more.
If you are switching to virtual numbers from traditional phone lines, you can cut bills by up to 49%. What’s more? The solution is backed by 24×7×365 support, dedicated account managers, and 3-minute SLA response times 

Conclusion 

Given the huge demand for cloud telephony solutions in the marketplace, there’s a wide range of service providers to choose from. You can benefit from a virtual number in many ways. However, it is imperative to mindfully choose the best-suited solution since it will act as a single point of contact for your business and facilitate centralized communication. In addition to features, the appearance of your virtual number is also a vital point to be kept in mind while opting for one.  

Discover more about virtual numbers with Acefone. 

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