Key Takeaways
- Most small businesses have one mobile number that customers text, and it lives on one person's phone.
- Passing a work phone around or forwarding SMS to other mobiles both leave gaps: only one person can reply from the business number, and history ends up scattered.
- A virtual mobile number is not tied to a SIM card, so it can become a shared mobile number: the same number, used by multiple users in an app.
- With Ozetel, everyone you put on the number works from one shared SMS inbox on Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android, with conversation history synced across every user and device.
The one phone problem
Ask most Australian small businesses where customer texts go and the answer is "the work mobile". Sometimes that is a phone in a drawer at reception. More often it is the owner's own mobile, or the phone of whoever set the business up.
It works until it does not. The owner goes on holiday. The tradie with the work phone is up a ladder. The receptionist who looked after the bookings mobile moves on, and the phone goes with them or sits uncharged for a week. Customers keep texting the number on your van, your website and your invoices, and the messages wait.
Customers have come to expect a reply to a text within minutes, not days. When nobody sees the message, the job often goes to whoever answered first.
The usual workarounds
Businesses tend to try one of two fixes.
Passing the work phone around. Whoever is rostered on carries the business mobile. It is cheap, but only one person can see or answer messages at a time, the handover relies on someone remembering, and nobody can text from a computer.
Forwarding SMS to other mobiles. The work phone forwards a copy of each text to a few staff. Everyone can now see messages, but they cannot answer from the business number. A reply from a forwarded copy comes from a staff member's personal mobile, which hands their number to the customer and splits the conversation in two.
Neither fixes the underlying problem: the number is tied to a SIM card, and a SIM card lives in one handset.
Why a virtual mobile number changes this
A virtual mobile number is a real Australian mobile number that is not attached to a SIM card. Calls and SMS to it are handled in the cloud, so the number does not have to live in any particular phone.
That is what turns it into a shared mobile number. With Ozetel, a virtual mobile number can be used in the Ozetel Phone app by several people at once. Each person signs in to the app on their own devices, and every one of them works from the same shared SMS inbox. They can:
- See the SMS conversations on the business number
- Reply from the business number, not their personal mobile
- Start a new text to a customer from the business number
- Pick up a conversation on a different device, with the conversation history synced
Same number, multiple users, multiple devices
Sharing works on two levels. Multiple users can be on the same number, and each of those users can have it on multiple devices.
The app runs on Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android, so office staff can type replies on a full keyboard while staff in the field answer from their phone. Someone who starts a reply on the office computer can finish it on their mobile later, because the shared SMS inbox looks the same everywhere.
What it looks like day to day
Picture a small plumbing business. The number on the van is a virtual mobile number. The office manager and two plumbers are all on it in the Ozetel Phone app.
A customer texts at 7.40am asking if Thursday can move to Friday. The office manager sees it on the office computer and replies from the business number. One of the plumbers, already on the road, can see the same thread on their phone and knows the job has moved. When the customer texts back "thanks, see you Friday", everyone sees that too.
Nobody forwarded anything, nobody handed out a personal number, and nothing depended on one phone being in the right pocket.
The same pattern suits a clinic front desk with staff on different shifts, a sales team that wants one recognisable mobile for every rep, a support desk watching one inbound number, or a real estate office sharing a rental enquiries line.
What to look for when choosing a shared mobile number
If you are comparing options, a few questions separate a genuinely shared number from a workaround:
- Can multiple users reply from the same number? If replies come from personal mobiles, it is forwarding, not sharing.
- Does it work on computers as well as phones? Desk staff should not have to type replies on a handset.
- Is it a genuinely shared SMS inbox? Every person on the number should see the full conversation history, not just the messages they personally handled.
- Does the number belong to the business? When someone leaves, the number and its conversations should stay with you.
- Does it also take calls? A business mobile that customers text is usually one they ring as well.
Getting started
Ozetel builds the network, the platform and the Ozetel Phone app ourselves, which is why one virtual mobile number can be a shared mobile number for a whole team. Most business phone providers cannot offer this, because their mobile numbers are still tied to a single SIM or a single user.
If customers already text a mobile number that lives on one phone, have a look at Shared SMS to see how a shared SMS inbox works, or talk to us about setting one up for your team.
