Enable your old telephone line to receive calls from the Internet
05 January 2016
The phone system as we know it today, is dying, and there’s nothing we can do about it but to adapt.
Phone numbers have been around for more than a hundred years. It’s actually quite impressive how successful they are to be around practically unchanged since its conception, but with Voice over IP taking over the world, it is a matter of time until someone creates a way of mapping numbers into something more inteligible and easy to remember than a series of digits.
In a globalized world where your business can have customers from literally any part of the world, the #1 option to be contacted when they are not in the same country as you, is email (or live chat), and when it comes to calling, Skype, WhatsApp, etc. show up as long and they are free or (very) inexpensive.
If you are one of the visionaries that understands this trend, you probably want to start the transition already, and one of the most cost-effective ways of doing it is to keep using your existing phone infrastructure (phones, wires, PBXs, numbers, etc.) but making them available as a free calling number through the Internet.
How does it work?
- You already have your business number(s) and you want to keep it/them.
- You want to reach customers outside your city or country, enabling them to call you from your website or social profiles (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) using a web link.
- You don’t want to spend money replacing your existing system. You want to continue using it but enjoying the benefits of Internet calling.
If these items describe your reality, you have a few options you can choose from:
- If you are a developer/programmer, you can do it yourself by using Twilio, Plivo, TokBox or the series of other providers that support calling to your country of origin.
- Hire someone to does it for you constructing it exactly as you need it. You can use UpWork or Freelancer to hire the right person. If you have special needs or ways of running your business, this is definitely the one you need to choose.
- Use Toky: create an account, get a username for your business (like toky.co/MyBusiness), and setup call forwarding to the business number you already have. The end result will look something like this: Click to call Google .
Click to call is a new trend that is growing very fast, like having a live chat widget on your website was a few years ago. Be early and enjoy this new way of offering support or acquiring more customers.
Originally published at blog.toky.co on January 5, 2016.
