Multiple "Storefronts" Ringing to One Phone, Is There A Way To Do It?

[williaty 1]

So our business model has us selling to different market segments through specifically targeted websites (so the sci-fi geeks don't get scared by the products for the middle-class homeowners and vice versa), each with their own unique domain name. This works fine and dandy when all the communication is online as it's easy to see which domain the email came into and reply accordingly. However, it's not working as well for phone support. When my cell rings, there's no way to tell which site the customer has been looking at. So if we have sites called Foo, Bar, and Baz (yes, yes, I'm a computer geek), if I randomly say "Hello, thanks for calling Foo Inc., how may I help you?", I have a 2 in 3 chance of having guessed wrong. Similarly, if I just answer the phone "Hello?", many people get confused and hang up, thinking they've called a personal number.

Is there any way to get a different phone number for each site and have them all "ring to" the same final destination and somehow identify which number was originally called? I feel like this somehow ought to be possible with Google Voice, but I can't make it work.

[keetch 3]

can you put it on call forward to 1 number and have call display?

[bayotle 26]

Look into VoIP and an Asterisk PBX, you would need multiple phone lines for each entity, but the phones would ring at one or more locations.

You prefix the incoming lines so when the phone rings you know how to answer. You can also program the system to respond different with each incoming line.

I have 3 business entities and all handled by the same pbx. The phones ring in 3 different locations and corporate clients ring to my cell when needed.

[MrMopar64 47]

I use google voice... All numbers ring my cell  and I can send them to more than one phone at a time

MM64  

[wasatchcars 0]

Simple.

Just answer the phone like this.

Good morning, Afternoon this is Bob how can i help you.

Now they know its a business and from there first sentence you will know what business they wanted.

I have 3 persona's and it works for me,

[Neuromax 97]

Simple.

Just answer the phone like this.

Good morning, Afternoon this is Bob how can i help you.

Now they know its a business and from there first sentence you will know what business they wanted.

I have 3 persona's and it works for me,

This is what I do, my work line is also my personal cell so I just answer with "hi, this is _____" Seems to work just fine for an unrecognized number.

[Rodger 527]

Interesting 1rst post . What do you sell ? I have an " enterprises " business that is the head for several different type of busness  ( " division of " ) . Nothing wrong in most people's eyes in having many different business " hats " . I think it would make you look worse trying to cover it up & get caught .

[xJoey Dubsx 42]

I am on the Google Voice Team.

[williaty 1]

Interesting 1rst post . What do you sell ? I have an " enterprises " business that is the head for several different type of busness  ( " division of " ) . Nothing wrong in most people's eyes in having many different business " hats " . I think it would make you look worse trying to cover it up & get caught .

Vinyl graphics. We just sell different stuff to different people. For instance, middle-class homeowners get a site with just decorative things to put on the wall and on glass, etc while the car guys get a site with rally window names, track shapes, stylized car outlines, etc and the scifi/geeks get a site with stars and planets, space ships, computer stuff, and references to sci-fi/fantasy literature.  The reason it's separated is that in an earlier business selling a different line of stuff, I was going like gangbusters via word of mouth at my parents' church when someone there noticed that I was also selling "evil" things promoting magic and devil worshiping. Lost about 60% of my sales in one swoop. So with this new vinyl graphics business, I'm trying to keep potential customer groups from offending each other  

I never thought of just answering the phone formally, but somewhat vaguely, like a previous poster mentioned. That may well be the best solution given the complete lack of technological complexity  

[Rodger 527]

I can see where church stuff & " evil " stuff could cause a conflict   . But as long as you are not combining those , KKK & Black Panther stuff etc , I don't think anybody minds a diversafied business . I agree with answering the phone with your personal name instead of business name . That is how I do it . Ever thought about combing everything , but the objectable stuff & have a seperate deal for that stuff ?

[williaty 1]

The problem with that is defining objectionable. The Fundies find anything referencing referencing (as an example) Buffy the Vampire Slayer evil while some of the geeks find anything referencing god distasteful. It's not just a one way street of annoyance, so it's not as easy to isolate a group of stuff.

[sbarr 0]

There used to be a feature from the phone company called signal ring or distinctive ring.  It assigned a second number to a single phone line.  I used it about 15 years ago when I sold computers.  Home phone and business phone shared the same line, but had different ringers.  Personal calls rang normally, business calls rang twice.

Steve

[screenprintr 319]

Do you sell only Vinyl, and catering to different groups? If that's the case, can yourself Custom Vinyl or whatever your company name is, and when people call answer: Custom Vinyl, how may I help you?

On your different sites, tell them to call Custom Vinyl at (xxx) xxx-xxxx.

Distinctive Ringing or Call Porting works too, but then your cost goes up with each line you port.

[thebuttontaylor 1]

I second Google Voice. You set up 3 different numbers(using 3 different email addresses) and forward them to you phone. The caller ID will show the Google Voice number so you can tell what persona they are calling.

Bill

[bayotle 26]

Back to what I originally said...

Asterisk would work great, actually it does since it's what I have in the shop now and have been using for the past 10 years give or take.

You can use magicjacks, google voice or whatever you want to use, each line for each business.

When the line rings asterisk plays a specific greeting depending on the line ringing and then can pass the line to a wait queue, ring all your phones with a prefix so you know which line was answered. now theres no need to even greet the caller since they were already greeted when the line was picked up

I have 3 businesses here and 7 lines, 6 are VoIP and only 1 cost me out the a$$ (AT&T). I also have 2 remote offices and my cell phone tied into the system. It's worth it and the price is probably right on track - unless you want to pay for it, then I'll leave that up to you