As a business owner, one thing that can come in very handy is the ability to have your Virtual Assistant make phone calls on your behalf. Since a Virtual Assistant works from her own office, it is her information that will appear on the recipient’s caller ID. There can often be situations when this might not be preferable to you. One solution is for her to dial *67 before dialing to block her calling information. This would make the number come up as “private.” The problem, however, is that not all numbers accept private, unidentified callers. I’ve identified a solution to this issue using the Toktumi Virtual PBX service.

Step 1: Set up the Toktumi Virtual PBX service either using your existing phone number, or by establishing a new/secondary number. For example, let’s say the number is “555-1234.”

Step 2: Once service has been established, log into the control panel and specify the phone numbers that you want to have dial-in capacity (i.e., the Virtual Assistant’s number who will be making calls for you). This is where you can also customize what information is displayed on caller ID.

Step 3: Your Virtual Assistant simply dials in to place an outgoing call.

That’s all there is to it!

How It Works When you call the specified new/secondary phone number (in our example, 555-1234) from any of the numbers designated in step 2, rather than placing a call to your business line, the system recognizes the number and instead sends you to a menu where you can either check messages or dial out. This is the number and information that will then be displayed in the recipient’s caller ID.

Toktumi includes this feature in their basic monthly service, so there are no additional fees, which I think is great! Toktumi also has a software interface which you can download to your computer so you can make and receive calls right from your desktop or laptop. You just dial the number you want to call and it automatically comes up on the recipient’s caller ID as being from the business registered with Toktumi. Of course, if you want to use a regular handset, you would have to place calls using the steps above.

Happy calling!

RESOURCE: Toktumi offers a rich array of options for Voicemail and call directing. Find out more about Toktumi Virtual PBX service and features at their website: http://www.toktumi.com. Be sure and take advantage of their no-cost 30-day trial!