Owning a phone number

December 15, 2008 6:42 PM

I am considering getting an 800 number for my business. How to go about it?

I have a number of offices and sites where I practice medicine. I would like to have one unified number that my business owns, and be able to set it to forward to a certain number.

Currently my landlord owns the number that's on my business card, which I've lately realized is suboptimal. I'd like to put the new number on my new business cards and have it forward to the current number. I'd also like to reserve the right to change the number it forwards to with no notice; that way I wouldn't be in a situation where all my patients are calling a defunct number, if for some reason I needed to move my office.

Does such a thing exist? Can it be obtained at an affordable price? Is there a particular vendor who is best-of-breed? Should it be an 800 number, or the local prefix, or what? Are there issues I'm not thinking about?

Time of day-based forwarding (i.e., after-hours calls go to a different number, say, my service) might be useful too. Does that exist?

If it matters, I'm in Central California.

posted by ikkyu2 to Work & Money (7 answers total)

This sort of thing is pretty easy to do (free) with a service like Grand Central, however it's in private beta and seems to be sort of stagnant since Google bought them. So, for what it's worth, you can

- get a local number within some constraints [mine is in the VT area code but not my local exchange] don't think they have 800#s
- which will forward to whatever number or numbers you want
- which can be limited based on address book stuff [so family can always get you at home whereas patients could potentially get the "this office is closed" message]
- some time of day stuff but I think it's pretty limited

I am aware this is pretty unhelpful without a way to get an invite and it's in beta so who knows what will change when, but I bet there's some MeFite around with invites or ways to get them.
posted by jessamyn at 7:01 PM on December 15, 2008

Yes, there are several companies that do this at pretty affordable prices. I've had the best luck with Kall8. There are cheaper ones out there, but they are prone to much more frequent problems and outages than Kall8 is. I have had rare occasions with Kall8 where the phones were stuck on busy, but we're talking maybe once or twice a year.

It's very easy to change what number or numbers your lines forward to, and you can also set the forwarding by time of day. You can set auto-attendants, phone trees, voice mail boxes and several other things. Their customer service is pretty helpful if you have questions about what the service offers.
posted by diamondsky at 7:18 PM on December 15, 2008

I would suggest a Vonage account. If you're unaware, Vonage is an Internet based phone service that uses your broadband Internet connection. You can get a plan with unlimited calling for $24.95 a month. You can add an 800 number for $4.99 (100 minutes of incoming calls, $.049 each additional minute). You can also specify a number for your calls to forward to if the call is answered.

Best thing, if your situation changes, just grab the Vonage box and take it with you. Your phone number isn't tied to a physical location.
posted by PhillC at 7:19 PM on December 15, 2008

I just want to underscore that PhillC is right--that Vonage (or another voice over IP provider) is the ideal solution to your problem. PhillC has done a much better job than I would have in articulating it - just wanted to add my support.

You might also just want to Google "800 number follow me" -- every day some new entrepreneurial company offers a twist on this kind of thing.

I'm a health IT researcher so if you want me to dig in and see if there's a solution that ties in with your other office equipment, just let me know.
posted by azieger at 8:08 PM on December 15, 2008

Take a look at http://www.grandcentral.com

Very flexible service that allows you to "port" existing numbers that you use (or own).

Call forwarding, scheduling, etc. all are standard parts of the service.

Your landlord may be flexible and allow you to "port" your existing number so you'd be able to keep the same number to use with the service.

Tip: Sign up for the free service, and stop at the credit card screen. They'll send you a followup email offering the service without having to enter your card.
posted by joshbb at 8:13 PM on December 15, 2008

I am a big fan of Ring Central, which provides a ton of options for call-routing and forwarding, etc. They have the best answering rules that I have seen. If you buy your 800 number through them, you can route it to any location based on time of day, etc. (or just have it ring a bunch of phones at once).

I've used them for about 3 years now and have never had any problems with the service.
posted by ajr at 8:40 PM on December 15, 2008 [1 favorite]

I can second Vonage. It has worked well for our business and is flexible as far as forwarding goes. You can just log into your vonage management page and change the number it forwards to. You can even have it forward calls if your internet connection is down and the Vonage line can't connect. IIRC, the business plans are a little more expensive than the regular 24.99 rate, but not too much more. We have 3 business lines. One is unlimited and the other two are 500 minutes per month and the total monthly cost is about 80 dollars. There is a one-time, 10 dollar set up fee for each line as well. The business accounts come with a free "fax" number. Fax quality is really poor for us.
posted by battlecj at 5:54 AM on December 16, 2008