Email, chat, texting, and social media have brought us a long way, but in business you always need to have a phone number. For whole industries and tiers of your supply chain, the phone is the primary form of contact. For many businesses, certain things can only be confirmed on the phone or in person. And, of course, there must be a way for you to be contacted by clients or your boss.

Multiple Business Numbers

This means that you need a business number: A line of contact you can put on your website and business cards. A number you will almost always pick up during business hours. But this is easier for some professionals than for others. People who work at the same desk all day long have it easy, they can pick up their desk phone at any time during the regular work day. However, if you are a field service professional, visit clients, or travel often, you rack up a lot of ‘out of office’ hours where everyone must reach you at a second–personal cell–number instead.

Providing a Unified Company Number

Professional phone lines aren’t free. Businesses buy package deals but must still install the hard lines one by one to connect desk and office phones. On top of this, professionals who travel for business are often provided with company cell phones. In part to provide them the privacy of also having a personal cell if they choose to. This means that any professional with both a desk and a company cell carries the cost of two unique phone lines.

In the age of wireless technology, this is no longer necessary. VOIP, also known as internet phone, allows a business to provide each employee with exactly one phone number. A number that will follow them around on any device with internet access. Because you log into it like an app instead of needing a line or SIM card. This one little change from wired and cellular phones to internet phone simplifies so much about business communication.

Now, professionals who travel often or work in the field can give their clients and colleagues one number that can reach them any time during business hours. You can set it to ring through to your current device on a schedule or even schedule off-hours that go straight to voicemail. But it gets better.

Connecting In the Field

Staying connected while traveling is a constant search for signal coverage areas. Based on how 2-5G cell networks and wireless internet work these days, connectivity is almost identical between when a cell phone and a wireless hotspot can connect enough to make a call. But VOIP can do even better.

There are a great many places that have a wired and local wifi internet connection but do not have cell signal, and in these places, VOIP is always superior. No matter where on-the-go professionals find themselves, any device with an internet connection can make and receive calls, keeping you in touch almost everywhere.

Staying Connected in Emergencies

When traveling for work, equipment emergencies are the worst kind. If your laptop or cell phone break down on the trip, it could mean disaster. But accidents happen anyway. Your cell phone could fall out of your pocket, get soaked, or sat on and you would be left out of touch. Unless you have a VOIP number.

Most VOIP providers work like an app, where you can install and log into the VOIP platform then access your number from any capable device connected to the internet. Unlike a cell phone with a unique SIM card, VOIP numbers can be answered from your office desktop computer, your laptop, a tablet, your phone, or even borrowed device or hotel lobby computer. VOIP is the ideal phone number solution for emergencies in the field.

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Traveling for work and working in the field both require you to be away from your office much of the time. But that doesn’t mean you have to give out your personal cell number or be tethered to a company cell. VOIP allows on-the-go professionals to answer one number from any device on any available network. For more information about how VOIP can improve your workflow, contact us today!