We’ve all seen it—local businesses trying to save money and simplify by having their employees use their personal mobile numbers for work, attempting to juggle business contacts with personal communications.
But did you know that doing so actually leads to higher hidden costs, lower efficiency, and even security breaches?
Read on to learn why every one of your employees should have a business phone number and how you can get started with world-class voice technology that will allow you to deliver the best service you’ve ever given.
Why You Shouldn’t Use a Personal Phone Number for Work
Using a personal phone number for work is a shortcut with serious adverse side effects and risks. Of course, the primary risk of this practice centers around data. When you allow employees to use their personal phone numbers, privacy and security become major problems.
A serious security breach can threaten your customers, damage your business reputation, and call for legal action and civil penalties. Personal data loss is also a risk for your employees.
And of course, we can’t overstate the adverse effects of a bad work-life balance—the sneaky culprit that fuels the quiet quitting trend. Making it difficult for your employees to separate their business communications from their personal ones can lead to distraction, fatigue, and critical mistakes when focus is vital. Because these communications are often difficult to differentiate on paper, this practice leads to a potentially higher (even significantly higher) phone bill cost for you.
7 Reasons Every Employee Should Have a Business Phone Number
With the right phone system and phone provider, local businesses can field incoming calls with higher accuracy and care, vastly improving the service they offer their customers.
There are countless reasons your employees should each have a local business phone number locked into a secure business phone system, but we’ll keep the list to seven.
1. Their Personal Numbers Remain Private
One of the main advantages of giving each employee a business phone number is that their personal phone number will remain private. Not only does this protect your business from security risks and data loss, but it also protects your employees from risks to their personal security.
Crossover between personal and business life can increase personal stress levels, inefficiency, tension in personal relationships, disengagement, and ultimately burnout.
Keeping personal calls and business calls separate is the best practice to ensure that there isn’t any crossover between communications. When your employees are at work, they are fully present and know that each call they receive to their local phone number is work-related and should be handled accordingly. Local phone numbers offer real relief from multitasking and divided focus.
2. They Can Designate Business Hours
Unlike the use of personal phone numbers, using business phone numbers allows your employees to designate business hours, which is critical to establishing routines and expectations for your business operations and customers.
With the right phone system, your employees can automate responses for when they are out of office and lay out next steps to ensure customers receive the best service possible. Here’s an example:
You’ve reached Jordan at Corvin Auto! Thanks for calling. I’m out of the office now but will be back tomorrow morning at 8:30 MST. Please feel free to leave me a voicemail or text and I’ll get back to you ASAP. If this is an emergency, please contact: [ number ]. Thanks for your business.
3. Better Call Notifications and Screening
A local business phone system offers better call notifications and call screening, especially if you’re using a virtual phone service, voice, or softphone technology through a VoIP provider. This feature gives your employees more transparency into the nature of the call, allowing them to offer more personalized and specific assistance and allocate their time to calls that are already vetted for them.
