Setting Up a Virtual Number in India for 24/7 Customer Service

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For global businesses, outsourcing customer service can be a great way to keep call centers up and running 24/7, but the resulting telecom charges can often be unnecessarily high–and may soon become even higher. Fortunately for companies struggling to manage high international communications overheads, virtual number technology can now provide a cost efficient solution.

The Traditional Cost of Outsourcing to India

Outsourcing customer service to India is popular because of India’s high population of English-speaking workers, low employee wage rates, and convenient time zone. Businesses that make the decision to outsource to India can choose between three basic outsourcing approaches:

1. Hire an Established Indian Call Center: Indian call centers are established businesses that offer IT and telecommunications outsourcing services to companies across the globe. While hiring a call center may initially seem like the simplest option, it is also the most expensive, and the service quality offered is often poor.

2. Establish an Indian Call Center: Some businesses choose to hire their own international employees and establish an independent call center. While this gives business managers a greater level of control over customer service quality, the overheads involved can be crippling, even for large businesses.

3. Utilize a network of virtual employees: Using virtual numbers to hire remote customer service employees is a cheap and manageable option that is rapidly gaining in popularity. Through virtual numbers and call forwarding, businesses can develop global employee networks that ensure 24/7 customer service at minimal cost.

How Virtual Numbers Work to Reduce the Cost of Outsourcing

Virtual numbers enable global businesses to create local phone numbers for all of the area codes that they market to. Calls made to these local virtual numbers can be automatically forwarded to customer service representatives anywhere in the world. Virtual call centers work in three ways to eliminate high telecom overheads:

1. Scalability:  since virtual lines require no equipment installation and can be activated instantly, businesses can hire customer service representatives on an as-needed basis. Employees can even work from home, eliminating the overheads involved in maintaining a brick-and-mortar international call center.

2. SIP Routing: Calls made to virtual numbers can be routed both through traditional PSTN phone lines and through enterprise-grade SIP. SIP calling enables businesses to connect calls through any wireless capable device, which can help to significantly reduce international toll charges.

3. Quality Control: Most good virtual number providers offer free call recording with cloud storage, enabling business managers to closely monitor remote employee performance.

How to Activate a Virtual Number in India

Activating a virtual number in India is a simple process that can take just a few minutes. Merely choose the toll free, vanity or local phone number that you want to activate and select a trustworthy virtual number provider. Once your virtual phone system is up and running, you will be able to add additional lines and manage call forwarding right from your computer, creating a seamless customer service network that keeps your business running 24/7.