Reliable and scalable voice services coupled with the right phone number are critical to a successful business. While consumers prefer messaging when they are at work, on lunch break, or commuting on public transportation, a survey featured in PR Newswire found that consumers still prefer voice calling when driving or at home.
A numbers API from a reliable cloud-based communication platform will ensure your company or client has scalable and dependable voice service with the local or toll-free number it requires. Exploring your options and selecting an excellent partner for your numbers API will ensure your client or organization gets optimal benefits from its new voice-calling service.
How Can a Business Use a Numbers API With Its Cloud-based Voice Services?
A numbers API allows a business to select and manage its phone numbers to provide seamless voice calling for users. A cloud-based voice provider allows you to use a numbers API with Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) for just voice calling or Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) for multiple communication channels like calling, chatting, messaging, and faxing. The right phone number and configuration will ensure callers seamlessly reach their intended recipient.
Local Numbers
Local numbers are vital to the success of certain businesses. Consumers often feel more comfortable answering a call from a company with a local phone number. Many consumers also prefer to call a local number for customer service, having more confidence that their issue will be resolved quickly by a local representative. Local numbers provide a level of trust that can help the business form a relationship with its customers.
One use case for local numbers is a business that places frequent long-distance or out-of-state calls. For example, a trucking company making nationwide deliveries can use local numbers to take calls in their service regions. A local number gives customers more confidence when communicating with dispatch members and drivers.
Toll-Free Numbers
Toll-free numbers use a familiar three-digit area code like 800 or 888 and allow potential and existing customers to call the business without additional fees, such as long-distance charges. The numbers are ideal for customer service operations because they offer a low-cost and convenient way for customers to contact the business for support.
With a reputable cloud-based voice services provider, you can select toll-free numbers in over 100 countries and provide 24/7 availability. Features like direct inward dialing (DID) lead the caller to the appropriate representative without using an extension or interactive voice response (IVR) system. Businesses that receive high call volumes can rely on toll-free numbers to streamline management and guarantee inbound calls are received.
Vanity Numbers
A vanity number is one that spells out a word or features a memorable set of numbers. You may be familiar with 1-800-FLOWERS or 1-800-CONTACTS because of their recognizable vanity numbers.
Recognition is the primary reason businesses invest in vanity numbers. They are easy to remember, helping boost brand awareness for steady lead generation and improved customer retention. When you partner with a reputable voice services provider, you can choose the right vanity number for your client or business.
Number Porting
While a numbers API allows you to select from various new phone numbers for your business or client, many organizations already have a phone number that they prefer to use and their customers recognize. Number porting allows you to bring the phone number from an existing carrier and use it with your new cloud-based voice services.
Related: What Is Number Porting and What Are Its Advantages for Your Business?
Any company that has ported a number in the past knows the process can be slow, especially when porting higher volumes of numbers. A reputable voice provider can port business phone numbers in as little as two weeks with a two-hour porting window, ensuring your client or company can use its phone numbers quickly. With a numbers API, you can seamlessly port your business or client’s numbers to the voice service.
Direct Inward Dialing
As mentioned above, DID can make calling your business or client seamless without complex extensions or lengthy IVR prompts. While an IVR can help businesses with high call volumes manage incoming calls, it can also frustrate customers if navigation is challenging.
According to a survey in Forbes, customers prefer a fast response, with over 5 out of 10 callers choosing the company with the quickest response times. DID ensures your business or client’s callers can speak with the intended recipient immediately.
A numbers API allows you to implement DID into your client or company’s voice service to assign a CNAM (caller ID name) and phone number to each recipient within the organization. With a reliable network using dynamic failover, your organization has guaranteed delivery of inbound DID calls.
Choosing the Right Communication Platform for Your Business Phone System
While a numbers API can offer various solutions for your client or company to enhance its business phone system, selecting the right communication platform is critical. An excellent voice partner will make it simple to integrate the API and get the optimal benefits for your business. Consider the following when selecting a provider for your numbers API and calling service.
Simple Integration With an API
As a developer, you are likely familiar with APIs. A numbers API is an interface that allows you to configure and manage voice and messaging phone numbers conveniently. An API saves you hours of coding and testing, providing a ready solution that you can drop into your existing codes in a few lines. You can configure microservices, such as E911, from Docker containers and have your client or company’s voice service running in minutes.
Select a communication platform that provides a numbers API with documentation in the leading programming languages, such as PHP, Python, and Ruby, ensuring you can use your preferred language. Look for a dedicated section on the provider’s website with software development kits (SDKs), use case articles, and code examples to simplify implementing and configuring the API.
Scalability
When you rely on a cloud-based communication platform with an expansive numbers API, you get the near-unlimited scalability and elasticity of the cloud. Users can connect to your client or company’s voice services worldwide from a stable internet connection and compatible device to make clear and consistent voice calls.
Related: Routing Inbound Calls Based on DID Numbers
When your client or organization needs increased capacity, VoIP will dynamically allocate call capacity on the business voice service or SIP trunk. There is no need to invest in costly infrastructure and hardware to scale your business or client’s communication, and it can scale back down without any wasted investments.
Pricing
Often, scalability comes at a price. If you use a cloud-based communication provider with a flat-rate pricing plan, your client or company may need to pay extra when it requires increased capacity. A metered pricing plan or per-minute voice plan ensures your client or company only pays for the voice calling service it uses within a billing period. The flexibility of a metered plan also allows you to test the API implementation and configuration without a large initial investment.
Reliability
An ideal business voice service offers cost-effective implementation and scalability. Reliability is also critical to ensure your company or client has consistent voice and messaging services. Reputable voice providers use a network with dynamic physical failover to change to a new network when there is an outage or issue.
Delivering Reliable Business Calling With the Right Voice Platform
Business voice services with an expansive numbers API can help your client or organization reliably scale its calling services and enhance customer satisfaction. Flowroute’s unique numbers API allows you to select and manage new toll-free, local, or vanity phone numbers for your business or port existing numbers from another carrier. Our HyperNetwork™ ensures inbound callers can reach your DID phone numbers with dynamic physical failover and 99.999% reliability. Get started simplifying your business phone numbers with our numbers API and reliable VoIP and SIP services.
