Your personal phone number is used by everyone from family and friends to classmates and neighbours, to distant relatives and telemarketers. Can the same number accommodate business calls from customers, clients, associates, vendors and marketing teams? No. To effectively conduct your business, you need to get a second phone number.

Most local business owners realise that having one phone number for work and pleasure can be damaging to their work-life balance. But the thought of getting a second phone number might seem indulgent to some.

After all, why should you have to spend on another smartphone, get another SIM, and start carrying two phones with you? (Yes, we know, the very thought of two bulging pockets can be off-putting.)

This is why you’d be delighted to know that you don’t need a second device to have a second phone number. All you need to do is to download a second number app to get a business number. From the same phone, now you can unlock the benefits of a professional phone number for your local business.

The benefits of a second phone number app

A second number app will give your local business demonstrable advantages while going a long way in separating your personal and professional lives. Once you download and start using a second number app, you’ll wonder why you didn’t do it earlier because of the immediate and tangible benefits.

Protects your privacy

Let’s be honest: you don’t really know how many people have your phone number. While most of these are credible business associates, clients or customers, all it takes is one of them to share your number with an unwelcome individual or organisation.

While the most common forms of privacy violations are scam calls, things can graduate to misrepresentation, fraud or other serious offences. A second phone number ensures that you have a business number to share for business purposes only. It significantly reduces the exposure of your personal phone number.

Built for business

Unlike your regular number, a second number app provides a phone number that’s designed to facilitate business operations. It allows you to add and manage as many numbers as you need, which would make organising your business contacts easy.

You’d be able to fetch any business number without having to look for it among personal contacts. You would also be able to manage all business communication separate from your personal messages. No client or customer messages will be lost among family chat threads.

Auto-response

One of the reasons local businesses should set up a second phone number is to automate and professionalise communication. When you use the same number for personal and business needs, your response would be similar and at times, amateurish.

For example, if you’re busy with your family or friends, you may have to tell the caller that you’ll get back. While that’s the right thing to do at the moment, it may not look professional to the individual who made the call. When you get a second phone number for your local business, you can easily solve that problem.

All unattended calls or messages can be directed to voicemail or get customised responses through auto-reply. They can also be forwarded to the concerned teams in case there’s a need for immediate remedy. So, if a client asks about the status of their order, you can direct that to the customer service department.

What are you waiting for?

A business phone number offers you better work-life balance, privacy, professional communication, value-added services and better organisation of your business contacts. Importantly, it’s exceptionally easy to manage and doesn’t require an additional phone. For those reasons alone, what are you doing still reading this? Get started with your second phone number!