Not a week goes by without a story of a major data breach. Now there is increasing concern about the need for data privacy and digital security. People realise that hackers can easily get sensitive information merely by using their mobile phone numbers. This has encouraged both individuals and companies to resort to call masking.

What is call masking?

Call masking, or phone number masking, is a feature that enables you to hide your phone number and display a different number when you make calls. The individual who receives the call will only see the designated number and not your real number.

As a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) feature, call masking protects the individual and the organisation from fraudsters and hackers. It can also improve customer experiences. Call masking isn’t restricted to calling. Using this feature, you can hide your personal number even when you text someone or leave a voice message.

Why is call masking important?

Most people don’t know the extent to which they share their personal information online. A mobile phone number is necessary whether it’s to start a social media account, buy something online, book flight tickets, make restaurant reservations or do online banking.

Since the same mobile phone number is tied to all your personal information, anyone with access to it can potentially gain access to the other data.

Secondly, even if your number doesn’t reach hackers, it can reach spammers. More visibility for your private number means more robocalls. This is why it’s important to protect your personal phone number and why experts advise against using your personal phone for work.

Business benefits of call masking

These are the main reasons why people are considering using a call masking service:

Protects your privacy

With call masking, you can freely interact with both existing and potential customers and clients. By saving their private phone number, you’ll also be empowering your team members to make more calls and increase the number of leads.

Separates work and personal calls

When you hide your private number, you’re also separating all work-related communication. When a call comes in, you want to know whether it’s a personal or business call. This also improves your work-life balance, although there are better ways to do it.

Saves money

You don’t need to outsource call handling to a business answering service when you can safely make and receive calls with your designated number. Phone number masking also helps scale your business since you won’t have to buy local numbers.

Centralises communication

Since it’s a VoIP feature, you can automatically direct incoming calls to a company number. By centralising communication, it will be easier to set voice messages and customise them.

Call management

Call masking allows businesses to manage their calls and improve customer satisfaction. By tracking messages and calls and analysing conversations between team members and customers, you can gain insights, which will help improve your lead generation.

How does number masking work?

To use call masking, you would need to use specific software. When you make a call, it will be routed to that cloud-based software which will assign you a masked number. The software will then forward that call to the recipient who will only see the designated number.

If the call gets disconnected for any reason, the recipient can call back the number they see on their screen. They will get the original caller through the software. What’s important here is that the number you get through call masking is a temporary number.

How is call masking different from a virtual number?

There are several differences between call masking and a virtual landline number. Call masking is for the specific purpose of protecting your mobile phone number. What you get is a temporary number that will mask your private number.

A virtual number isn’t temporary, it’s more permanent. With a virtual number, a business can establish a local presence and significantly save on both device and monthly fees. Secondly, you get several business-friendly tools with the right virtual number that you won’t get through call masking.

Chalkboard: The professional alternative to call masking

Call masking is only a makeshift solution. If you want a professional alternative that comes with enhanced business features, you should be considering Chalkboard. With this virtual number, you can: