Voicemail for Virtual Companies with GotVMail

During the course of conducting the Virtual Professionals Survey, I learned that a great many people who work virtually don't know what virtual voice mail is. I would like to give an overview of this service, in particular to talk about the GotVMail service I recently learned about.

Essentially, GotVMail works by giving your virtual solo practice or micro business the ability to appear larger and even more professional. It provides you with a toll free phone number which provides voice mail box capabilities, multiple departments and a dial by name directories if you have a virtual team of people.

Each mailbox you configure in the system can have customizable call forwarding, so if someone asks for "operator" it sends the call to your virtual assistant, and calls to "sales" go to your cell phone wherever you are. If all the different extensions or departments are going to the same number, the system can indicate what the caller is calling about. For an additional fee, you can have your voice mail sent as an audio attachment to your email address.

If you have virtual teammates, they can each have their own voice mail box to access, or forward their calls to the number of their choice. Every customizable action remains seamless to the caller, so it appears you have one cohesive location. You can also use the system for sales and marketing and set up extensions for different messages; for example, dial 1 to hear upcoming events, dial 2 to hear hours and location.

GotVMail has three levels of services with different features and pricing, as well as add on features for additional fees, making it quite flexible. However, the monthly fees do not include usage rates which are applied for the incoming long distance calls. I know there are a number of other similar services out there. Now that you understand how a virtual voice mail service actually works, you can consider it for your business if it is appropriate, and be informed enough to compare options!