Google Voice for Business: Everything you need to know!

Google Voice is a VoIP phone service that allows you to make and receive business-related calls and messages. It is a popular virtual phone number provider that works with your existing mobile or landline setup. Through it, you can receive phone calls over the internet and have them forwarded to your device.

Google Voice offers a free personal number, unlimited domestic talk and text, and several other features. And that makes it more popular amongst entrepreneurs and freelancers. It has also attractive and affordable business plans.

The best part of it is that setting up a Google Voice number is very easy and straightforward.

What is Google Voice for Business?

Google Voice for Business is a VoIP phone system that is used to make both inbound and outbound calls via an internet connection. It is available on all types of devices like smartphones, tablets, and desktops. It is suitable for solopreneurs and small businesses who just want basic communication services and features.

Features of Google Voice for Business

It provides a wide range of features required for communicating with your team members and clients. The features of Google Voice for Business are:

• Unlimited Calls and Texts
• Can Setup Business Hours
• Call Forwarding
• Ring Groups
• SMS Texting
• Auto Attendant
• Integration with Google Meet & Google Calendar

Google Voice for Business Pricing

It provides four types of pricing plans with basic to advanced features and services like storage, secure business email, standard support, and many more.

• Business Starter: $6 /user/month
• Business Standard:$12 /user/month
• Business Plus: $18 /user/month
• Enterprise: Contact Sales

Pros and Cons of Google Voice for Business

How does Google Voice for Business work?

Google Voice for Business is completely different from Google Voice for personal plans. The personal plan is free and has very limited features, which makes it unsuitable for teams. It only provides you with a phone number through which you can call, text, and voicemail. It doesn’t offer any productivity or team collaboration features either. So it’s not quite preferable for business use.

Since Google Voice is a VoIP service, it requires stable internet for phone calls and messages. Apart from the Internet, you need a smartphone, tablet, PC, or any other device that has access to the Internet.

What’s even more interesting is that Google Voice allows you to use your existing number. But there is always an option to get a new one if you don’t want to port your personal phone number.

There is also a feature to forward your calls from Google Voice number to any other number. For that, you can choose your personal number, and office landline number, among others. So if you don’t have stable internet or a smartphone, you can enable call forwarding to traditional desk phones or mobiles and receive calls normally.

How to get a Google Phone Number for business?

1. Log in to the Google Voice Website and click on “Get Started”.
2. Pick a suitable plan that matches your budget and requirements.
3. The Google Voice is for Google Workspace customers only. So a new window pops up asking you to sign in to your Google Voice Account.
4. Sign in to your Google Workspace account. If you don’t have one, you can create one with ease. The Basic Google Workspace pricing plan starts at 6$ per user.
5. After signing in to your account, click on “Add or Upgrade a subscription”.
6. Now click on Google Voice which is available on the left sidebar. Then select a suitable subscription plan that matches your workspace requirements. You’ll have Google Voice Starter, Google Voice Standard, and Google Voice Premier to choose from. Click on “Get Started” to proceed further.
7. Click “Get Started” again. After doing so, you will have to checkout, and place an order.
8. Now the next task would be to set your primary or secondary location in the Google admin.
9. After that, assign licenses to every member of your team. You will have to assign a license to yourself even if you are a solopreneur for using Google Voice.
10. Now, you are ready to assign area codes and phone numbers to your team. You may either allow employees to select their own number or assign them a new one. But remember, you need to be a “Google Voice Premium” user to assign a number outside of your home region.
11. If you wish to proceed with your existing number, you will have to port your number to Google Voice. This feature, though, is available only in the United States and Canada. Start a port order and begin the request by filling in your personal details.
12. Congratulations you have successfully set up your Google Workspace and Google Voice account. You can now set up Ring Groups and Auto Attendant service if you are a Google Voice Standard or Premium user. Ring group service allows multiple people to answer a single call. Likewise, auto attendant route calls to several extensions without having to go through a receptionist.

You are now ready to use the Google Voice service for your Google Workspace.

How are companies using Google Voice for Business?

1. Customer service

Many businesses use Google Voice as a customer service line as it offers phone support to their clients. Google Voice can also be used as an answering machine to answer calls from a potential lead or client. After all, missing such calls can lose you a possible client or a potential sales opportunity.

Driven by that fear, businesses are using Google Voice services more and more these days. Its use is more common in real estate, insurance agencies, financial advisory, brokerage firms, etc.

2. Using numbers outside the service area

Google Voice allows business owners to select phone numbers with a wide range of area codes. Besides the ones provided by Google, users can also select different area codes.

That can be a handy feature for businesses operating globally. Having a local phone number for the targeted area can help connect with the local target audience at ease.

It also creates a sense of trust in the brand and avoids long-distance calling issues. So most organizations use Google Voice services while expanding business in new territories.

3. Maintaining business and personal privacy

Personal phone number contains a lot of private information about you. So while using such numbers for business use, your personal information can get leaked or misused.

But Google Voice allows you to have separate phone numbers for business and personal use. And you can make or receive calls for both numbers from a single device. When required, you can also forward your business calls to your personal phone number.

4. Handle large volumes of calls

For businesses that aspire to grow, getting a large volume of phone calls is a good thing. But it does come with its own share of call-handling challenges.

To alleviate such problems, Google Voice comes with a Speech-To-Text Feature. This feature transcribes voicemails into text and sends it straight to your email.

So by enabling the service, you can receive customer queries through emails. This streamlines your workflow and saves you a lot of time.

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5. For texting (SMS) and Customer Relationship Management

Not just the calls, business owners also use Google Voice to send and text receive messages. You can send SMS straight from the web app or through mobile apps available for smartphones. It also saves all the SMS in an orderly, well-organized, and searchable format, like in Gmail.

Another amazing feature of Google Voice is that it supports CRM software integration. Integrating CRM tools to Google Voice adds new features to your cloud phone. It also helps business owners manage their customers in a proper and orderly manner.

Limitations of Google Voice

1. It lacks flexibility

The general rule of Google Voice is that you can associate only one number to your Google Voice account. So if you have a business that services several areas with different area codes, Google Voice is not the right VoIP service for you. In such cases, you will have to look out for its alternatives.

Also, the Google Voice service is available only to a limited list of countries. So it will be of no use if you have a client base in a country where Google Voice services are unavailable.

2. Limited Customer Support

Another major drawback of Google Voice is its limited customer service. So if there is a problem, you will need to rely on technical forums and Google’s self-documentation. As the resources available to sort out the issues are few, it can be challenging if you run into a problem.

3. You must have a Google Workspace account

To set up Google Voice for your business, you need to have Google Workspace first. And Google Workspace is not free at all. It costs you $6 per month. So besides paying for Google Voice, you also have to pay for Google Workspace every month.

4. No Toll-free Numbers

In marketing and providing customer support, toll-free numbers are an important entity. It allows your leads and customers to reach out to you without them having to pay for the call. So businesses with a toll-free number are more likely to receive more product/service-related calls. It also allows your existing customers to reach out to you at the time of their need.

But Google Voice does not have a provision for toll-free numbers. So if your competitors have toll-free numbers, it can keep you on the back foot.

5. Lack of external integrations

Google Voice supports integration with other Google apps like Gmail, Calendar, and Meet. But there is no provision for other third-party integration. With no third-party integration support, features are quite limited in Google Voice.

6. No text marketing campaign

With Google Voice, you can’t launch SMS marketing campaigns. That’s because it only allows one-to-one text messaging. The bulk messaging feature is glaringly missing over here. So if you have to run a promotional campaign through SMS marketing, you’ll have to look elsewhere.

Will Google Voice be the right choice for my business?

It requires thorough research before implementing a business phone system for your company. As there are plenty of VoIP service providers out there, it’s easy to find one that matches your needs.

Google Voice would be one noteworthy option as it offers a handful of services for free that are only available in paid telephony services. But it also comes with its share of drawbacks. You get no reliable customer support if you run into a problem. It also lacks toll-free numbers, bulk marketing features, and support for third-party integrations.

So while weighing the benefits vs. the drawbacks, it doesn’t seem so worthwhile to employ it for business use. Several other services outclass Google Voice with a rich set of features and an affordable price.

One such alternative is KrispCall. It’s one of the notable cloud telephony services in the market with a broad set of features. Unlike Google Voice, KrispCall helps you manage multiple phone numbers from a single workspace. What makes it even more compelling is that you can share these numbers with your team members.

Even if you have local, national, international, or toll-free numbers, you can handle them simultaneously. Yes, you can buy toll-free numbers as well. It has a Unified Callbox, which helps to manage all the conversations with a contact from a single window.

Besides that, KrispCall has a bulk SMS feature (Coming Soon). By using it, you can run your SMS marketing campaign and reach out to a large client base. It also supports integration with CRM software and business tools. So you get more features from a single app.

After all, KrispCall is a cloud telephony service provider. So you can get all the features available in a cloud-based phone system. There are features like call recording, call transfer, call forwarding, voicemails, etc.

To cater to large businesses and big enterprises, there are several call management features as well. You can utilize its Automatic Call Distribution (ACD), IVR, and skills-based routing features to handle a large volume of calls. So it also finds scope in big customer care services and large call centers.

Despite the amazing portfolio of services, KrispCall is affordable when it comes to price. The subscription plans start at a meagre price of $15/month. For first-time users, we are also offering a Free demo. So you can explore its features without spending a penny.

Arun Chaudhary

Arun is SEO Analyst at KrispCall. He has written in extensively in the field of cloud telephony and call center solutions.