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Businesses looking to consolidate their global numbering solutions and expand their footprint worldwide have a number of different factors to consider. Many organisations find numbering solutions confusing, and lack understanding about how they work. Complicated regulations, variable costs for mobile versus landline, and multiple billing systems and services, all varying across many different countries are just some of the issues organisations can fall foul of.
For a growing business, a global numbering solution is often the first step in gaining ground in a new territory. To ensure numbering is on the right track from the start, organisations must initially answer the following questions:
Do I want to deal with multiple suppliers in different countries with different currencies?
The short answer to this is no. Dealing with one supplier for all services and support issues can help businesses reduce costs and streamline services, saving valuable time for staff who have to manage the billing process.
Using a supplier who has developed long-term partnerships with carriers across the globe helps as it will have built a vast network for international inbound telephone numbers and therefore have the scope to facilitate an international presence instantly. This is ideal for multilingual and global businesses that want to operate in numerous countries. It also simplifies the process for those that cannot afford the overhead of setting up multiple international offices.
Would it be simpler to find a solution that consolidates all costs into one bill?
Billing systems can be inaccurate and inefficient to manage. We often find IT and finance teams are consulting multiple arms of a supplier in different languages, dealing with multiple bills based on the services deployed from a range of countries quoted in different currencies.
Selecting a global numbering solution which offers partnerships with carriers across the world that can be consolidated on one platform for reporting and routing calls can simplify billing immensely. This means a business receives a single bill in one currency for an entire network of global voice solutions, saving staff precious time and money on unnecessary administration.
How can I manage access to 24/7 support, call reporting and disaster recovery across a range of countries?
If problems occur, some suppliers can take days to resolve issues, costing organisations and their customers greatly. Using an online platform to manage global numbering, an organisation can make moves and changes itself, providing greater control over its estate which can help get services back on track faster.
Using a centralised online platform, reports can be generated every 15 minutes to provide the best support possible. In most cases we find this actually decreases the need to use 24/7 support services, freeing up IT teams to spend more time focusing on other projects.
Solid call reporting should be available daily, weekly or monthly. It should include visibility of calls answered or unanswered and other add-ons such as call queuing, which gives staff the capacity to handle more calls without investing in extra infrastructure.
Can I risk leaving customers without rerouting options in case offices suffer outages?
When offices suffer outages the ramifications can be serious and include loss of data and sales with potential customers who are unable to make contact. Whether as a result of natural circumstances, human error or technology problems it is essential to have a plan in place for such circumstances.
Access to an online management portal means calls can be routed easily and seamlessly with just a few clicks. A number can go wherever the business does, whether it moves offices or suffers an outage. Should staff be unable to get into work or simply want to work from home calls can even be rerouted to mobile devices with ease, enabling business to run as normal.
Does my current supplier offer a long-term solution to manage my ambitions for global growth?
It is vital to choose a supplier that offers flexibility and room to grow with a business. Receiving limited services, no added functionality or features or benefits is not going to help.
A global numbering solution should provide businesses with opportunities to cover new cities and countries and enable better access for clients and customers around the clock.
Numbering can also provide marketing departments with useful date on the successful or uptake of advertising or PR campaigns. Using unique numbers, businesses can monitor which regions have seen the most uptake ensuring success is tracked and growth targeted in the right areas.
Global numbering solutions provide businesses with a multitude of benefits to streamline services, consolidate costs and offer customers the 24/7 support they have come to expect. The ability to report on progress and reroute calls in the case of disaster or outages ensures businesses continue to run smoothly. But above all they offer a long-term solution to support business growth.
