Reach customers where they are with OpenPhone’s local and toll-free virtual SMS numbers. Message at the right time with features like auto-replies, snippets, and scheduled texts. Plus, enjoy free calls and texts to US and Canadian numbers.
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A virtual SMS number is a cloud-based phone number that allows you to send text messages to your customers without being tied to a single location or device. The best phone solutions let you easily call from the same number your contacts can recognize more easily. A virtual number service is powered by Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology, which means your calls and texts are made over the internet instead of traditional cellular networks. This offers your team more flexibility to choose new numbers when needed and provide great customer service from anywhere.
With virtual mobile numbers, you can select the ideal phone number for your business needs, including local US or Canadian numbers or North American toll-free phone numbers. You can also create a vanity number, like 1-800-FLOWERS, which improves brand recognition and helps customers remember how to contact you.
Virtual phone numbers are great for collaboration. You can share access to your virtual numbers across team members so they can split the responsibility for incoming calls and texts and have full visibility into all customer conversations.
Every phone number assigned to you in OpenPhone is a virtual SMS number. Once you create an OpenPhone account and complete your A2P 10DLC registration, you’re all set to start messaging with your customers.
OpenPhone helps you nurture customer relationships with two-way SMS capabilities. You can send and receive SMS and MMS messages with your customers with your virtual SMS number. This is different from other virtual SMS providers that only allow you to bulk text your customers with SMS short codes or long codes and don’t enable you to have two-way conversations with your contacts.
Before getting started with SMS messages, you’ll have to file for A2P 10DLC registration to message US phone numbers due to emerging regulations pushed for by large US cell carriers. Any business sending messages to US numbers through a cloud-based phone provider must complete this verification step.
It only takes four steps to get started messaging your customers with a virtual SMS number in OpenPhone.
Virtual SMS numbers are the smarter way to text your customers. Here’s why:
Build confidence and get better response rates by reaching customers with a local number they’ll recognize. Your customers are more likely to open and respond to text messages from a familiar local area code.
Never miss an important customer call. With virtual numbers, your entire team can be notified to pick up a customer’s call. Plus, create a custom ring order that works for your team and make adjustments as needed.
Provide a great customer experience – even when customers contact you outside business hours. Ensure your customers know what to expect when you’re unavailable with an SMS auto-responder or a custom voicemail greeting.
Create after hours call flows with OpenPhone’s call flow builder to direct your customers to the correct answering service or department.
Wherever your team needs to get work done, OpenPhone can go as long as you have a solid internet connection. With our Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, and browser apps, your team can take OpenPhone wherever they work.
SMS and MMS messaging
Send text, photos, videos, and GIFs to your contacts.
Auto-replies
Take care of your customers after business hours with SMS auto-responders.
Snippets
Respond to common questions in seconds with business text templates.
Scheduled texts
Schedule texts at a time that works best for your customers.
Automate messages
Create automated text flows for appointment confirmations, reminders, and more via Zapier or the OpenPhone API.
HubSpot and Salesforce integrations
Automatically log your texts in your CRM with our native integrations.
OpenPhone is more than just an online SMS app. Here’s why OpenPhone is the #1 business phone as voted for by thousands of professionals.
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With OpenPhone, you can easily set up and assign phone numbers to your team as your business grows. Get local US and Canadian numbers and North American toll-free numbers in minutes.
Each team member in your organization gets their own number, and you can share numbers for different departments. Need more numbers? Each additional number costs $5 per number per month.
Handle more incoming calls without overloading your team.
Reduce missed calls by simultaneously ringing all available teammates. Set up a phone menu to help customers direct their calls to the right team member, reducing the extra workload caused by unnecessary handoffs. If a live customer call needs to be passed to another colleague, use warm transfers to personally hand off customers and provide context.
Customize how you organize and manage contacts with custom properties. For example, filter conversations between prospects and existing customers so you can triage responses by priority.
Give your team the tools they need to work better together with OpenPhone. Use shared numbers to share incoming calls and messages across the team. Multiple calls can happen from the same number in real time, ensuring no customer is kept waiting when team members are available.
Have real-time discussions with your team to find solutions to customer issues and assign tasks to team members with internal threads. Track whether a teammate has viewed a conversation with inbox viewers.
Help your team spend less time on admin work and more time talking to customers. OpenPhone’s CRM and VoIP integrations ensure your customer data automatically stays updated.
Quickly move from one call to the next, knowing that important context has been captured with automatic call recordings and AI-generated call summaries and transcriptions.
After-hours call flows make it possible for your team to rest and rejuvenate, knowing incoming customer calls are being taken care of.
Set custom business hours that forward after-hours calls to an external answering service. Create a custom voicemail to greet your customers and set expectations for next steps.
Integrate OpenPhone into your existing workflows with the OpenPhone API. Trigger messages based on custom criteria, like when your customer submits a form on your website.
With the OpenPhone API, you can automatically log activity in your CRM, keeping your pipeline and contacts in sync. Plus, easily build custom integrations with your tech stack for all your team’s use cases.
Amir Ghorbani
Find out how much you’re investing in your business phone solution upfront on our pricing page.
Can’t find the answer here? Check out our Help Center.
You can get a virtual number to send free SMS and make free calls using a service like Google Voice. However, if you need a virtual number for business use, there are no viable free options. Virtual business phone solutions like OpenPhone offer affordable paid plans that you can sign up for and get your virtual SMS number.
Yes, you can send and receive business SMS and MMS online with your customers using a VoIP number.
Getting started with a virtual phone number in OpenPhone is easy. There are just a couple of requirements:
Join thousands of businesses already using OpenPhone to communicate better with their customers.
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OpenPhone was issued a successful SOC 2 report and is actively monitored by Vanta.