Company Blog » Local Numbers

Grasshopper Invades Canada (Toronto to be Specific)

Jonathan Kay — Thu, 20 May 2010 15:23:49 +0000

Well, the Grasshopper Buzz Team is at it again. We are heading to another city (or country in this case) to meet local entrepreneurs and share some free drinks! Only this time it’s a bit more exciting than usual…

For the first time in Grasshopper History (–> Insert Star Wars Theme Music) we’re going to be able to offer Local Canadian Numbers (currently in beta but available to everyone in the next couple of months)!! We decided in honor of the occasion we needed to do something fun.

So what did we do?

We partnered with a great organization and decided to throw a fun event. We joined forces with the Canadian Youth Business Foundation (CYBF). Not only are the folks over there just as passionate about helping entrepreneurs as we are, but they do some great things to inspire & mentor young Toronto entrepreneurs.

On June 1st at 6pm Grasshopper and CYBF will take over the roof deck of The London Tap House. It’s an unbelievable venue, and the local entrepreneurs who run the place have been really awesome in working with us. Our event is 100% free and all entrepreneurs, innovators, and small business owners are welcome! You can reserve your spot and see all the details here: http://ghcanada.eventbrite.com/.

A few highlights of the night:

30 Minute Panel:

Made up of young, engaging and passionate local entrepreneurs
Topic:

“How to build a community and WOM (word of mouth) around your brand!”
Our Panelists:

Saul Colt – Thoora.com’s Head of Magic @saulcolt

Erin Bury – Community Manger at Sprouter @erin_bury

Anthony Del Col – Founder of Kill Shakespeare @killshakespeare
Free Drinks!

The first 100 people will get their first drink free!!

If you have any questions, comments, thoughts, concerns, or brilliant ideas feel free to reach out to myself (Jonathan Kay – @grasshopperbuzz – jkay(at)grasshopper(dot)com) or Rachel Azagury (@CYBFcanada or razagury(at)cybf(dot)ca).

Please feel free to pass this invitation on to any friends, colleagues, or random aquantances you know in Toronto that might want to come. Register for your free ticket here: http://ghcanada.eventbrite.com/

A Virtual Phone System for Non-Profits

Gary G — Mon, 17 May 2010 19:29:06 +0000

One of the great things about Grasshopper is that it can be used by just about any company, in any industry. We have customers who work in construction, law, accounting, transportation, real estate, marketing and many other industries.

One industry that’s really started to pop up on our radar here as of late is the non-profit sector. Several customers have reached out to us and let us know not only how valuable the Grasshopper virtual phone system has been to their non-profit organization but also how they actually use it.

Here are 3 ways Grasshopper can help non-profits:

Phone # for Volunteers

Volunteers are an integral part of many non-profit organizations. They help man the phones, run events, organize fundraisers and much more. With tight budgets, not all non-profits can afford to provide phones or even walkie talkies to every volunteer and trying to keep track of everyone’s cell phone number can be next to impossible. With Grasshopper, no additional phones are necessary. You can create extensions in minutes and calls can be forwarded to any number on any phone.

Have an event? Using your Grasshopper toll free or local number, simply create extensions and have the calls forward to your volunteers’ cell phones. The same extensions can be used for any event. All you have to do is change the forwarding number.
Fundraising/Event Information

Wouldn’t it be great if you could give people all the information they needed without ever having to answer a call?

With informational extensions, you can give people information they need on events, fundraisers, the company and more. Simply record your greetings and upload them to your account. Give callers hours, dates, directions and more.
Taking Donations

Donations are a big part of the non-profit industry and the easier it is for people to give them, the better. Question & answer extensions can make taking donations simple and you don’t have to worry about being out of the office and missing calls.

With question & answer extensions, your callers will hear a series of questions to which they will respond to. A voicemail will then be compiled and emailed to you with all of the information the caller provided.

Create a dedicated extension for donations and gather the info you need from callers. This ensures donations can be taken 24/7.

The Grasshopper virtual phone system can help non-profits with their phone needs for a low cost. Have questions? Listen to a live demo, visit our FAQ page or call our support staff at 800-820-8210.

Should You Have a Local Number for Business?

Gary G — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:34:04 +0000

If you are a regular reader of the Grasshopper blog, you know that a main feature of our virtual phone system is the toll free number. What many people may not know is that we also offer local numbers for cities across the United States.

While a toll free number is a great way to give your customers an easy way to communicate with you, a local number can have a positive effect as well.

There are two main advantages to having a local number:

Create a Local Presence

The great thing about having a local number is that you can create a presence in a particular city. As a bigger company, it can be beneficial to have local numbers in cities where large percentages of your customer base live.

Local numbers also allow you to increase your local presence through local business listings, phone books, online search results and more. This could prove to be especially important as search engines like Google continue to show more and more localized results to searchers.

Sense of Community w/ Customers

The second main advantage to having a local phone number for your business, is the ability to create a sense of community with your customers. By achieving a presence in the city, you are establishing a connection with the people who live there, the people who are your customers and potential customers. As a large company, it is important to be able to connect with people rather than being a faceless corporation.

Local numbers can be a valuable asset for a business when used by themselves or even when combined with a toll free number. The great thing is, no matter how many different numbers you have (toll free or local), with a virtual phone number, all calls can be forwarded to the same place.

Have you considered a local number for your business?

With the New Year, Exciting Changes are Knocking on The Numbers Door!

Gizem Gaudet — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 16:52:24 +0000

I am very pleased to announce to everyone that we plan on doing some great things with our number inventory after the New Year. Some of these changes are already in progress and are taking place in our Number Porting Process.

What are these exciting changes?

Local Number Inventory Expansion including Canadian DIDs
Automation of Grasshopper Porting Process

We are in the process of finalizing a contract with a carrier that can issue us Canadian local numbers. Our goal is to have Canadian numbers available for the first of 2010. We will be getting in touch with our Canadian customers via email in an attempt to find out how many numbers and what areas they need the most so that we can order them accordingly.

We continue to expand our local coverage area based on the number of requests we get from our customers, so please don’t hesitate to check for additional local numbers in your desired area using our Search Tool under the “Find a Local Number” section.

Did you know that you may also send us a number request with the city, state and area code for the desired location by creating a Support Ticket?

Please visit the Create a Ticket section or Grasshopper Support. Representatives can take your order 24/7/365 toll free at 800-820-8210 and create a ticket for you if you let them know your criteria.

What will change with the Grasshopper Porting Process?

We all know that porting a number (local or toll free) from one carrier to another can be a long, nerve breaking process so we wanted to avoid any difficulties that you may face while using our tools to initiate the process.

In addition to automating our internal processes by improving our communication tools and how we transfer data among carriers, we will also be making our Number Transfer process much easier for our users.

We will be implementing a user friendly Number Transfer Tool that will walk you through with the step by step instructions.

I have been working on the requirements of this tool so I can easily say that it will be almost like a wizard with some very helpful tips/ information and will contain our online transfer forms. I can’t wait for you to start using it to port your numbers to Grasshopper.

We are very excited about the upcoming improvements and hope you are too!