International Call Forwarding - Worldwide Call Redirection

If you operate a U.S. business, your standard 800 number isn't necessarily an international toll free number. In fact, callers from Europe, Asia, South America, and other locations around the world may not be able to reach you unless you provide them with either a direct phone number or an international toll free number that's local to their countries.

If you want to expand your reach to another country, you need international call forwarding. By offering a toll free number specific to that country, not only are you providing your customers with a convenient way to contact you, you are also creating the appearance of a local office. This is crucial!

Think about this for a moment: If you're in Ohio and you see a business phone number that is obviously foreign such as a London phone number, would you dial it or would you keep looking? Most callers want to dial phone numbers that are familiar to them. Just as you might hesitate to call London, so too will Londoners hesitate to call your U.S. phone number.

By creating international toll free numbers for each country you are targeting, you are immediately overcoming this major obstacle. Now, callers will see a number that's familiar to them and they will not hesitate to call you.

How International Call Forwarding Works
Having an international toll free number doesn't mean that you need to have a local office in that country nor do you need a local service representative stationed in that country o answer the phone. Instead, you'll want to set up international call forwarding so that those phone calls are redirected to a phone of your choice. You can set up your international toll free number to ring to virtually any phone you'd like such as your cell phone, your office phone, a call center, or even voicemail. Many telecommunications service providers that offer international call forwarding provide you with an online account management tool where you can change the "ring to" number as you please.

When a caller dials the international toll free number, the call is then redirected to the number that you have designated. For example, if you've set up the call to ring to your cell phone, your cell phone will ring and you will be connected to the international caller when you answer the phone.

International Call Forwarding Challenges
While setting up and using an international toll free number is easy once you've selected a service provider, international call forwarding does present a few challenges to overcome. The two biggest obstacles involve time and language differences. Your ring to phone could be ringing non-stop in the middle of the night because business hours overseas are different than they are where you are based. Similarly, many of your international callers will speak different languages. Unless you're willing to field calls at all hours and speak many different languages, you'll need to address these two challenges.

Many providers offer "time of day routing" where you can specify different ring to numbers based on the time of the day that the call comes in. Similarly, you may want to set up different ring to numbers for each country and have the calls routed to customer service representatives fluent in the target languages.

An international toll free number with worldwide call redirection is an affordable way to expand your reach into foreign markets. Take advantage of call routing features to route calls to fluent customer service representatives and create a global presence.

AIT offers low-cost international call forwarding services with time of day routing, local ring tones, online account management, simultaneous call processing, and more. With international toll free numbers for 91 countries, AIT can help you expand your global reach with their world’s telephone call service.