The risk of using your personal phone number for business

Using your personal phone number for business may seem like an excellent idea for many reasons. This is especially true for people who are just starting their business and thinking about how to convert more customers. You already have a phone that you use every day, so just giving it to your business partners, customers, or clients seems a simple and hassle-free option. You probably have it on you most of the time, so there’s no danger of missing important calls or being unavailable at a crucial moment. Additionally, there’s no need to carry two phones, pay for additional services and set-ups. Plus it makes your business appear friendly and personal. Although it sounds convenient, making your private phone number public for business can cause a lot of problems later on. Here, we set out to explore all the risks of using your personal phone number for business.

Both your private and business information will be exposed and vulnerable

Of course, marketing is a crucial aspect of every business. Making services you offer easily available to customers is the key to growing your customer base and growing your business. When it comes to spreading the word, both a well-optimized website and phone contact are important. However, while improving your website with the ConvertMore callback widget is simple, handling phone info is much more sensitive.

In today’s world, private information is invaluable. Gathering and analyzing data is a must for every company and service provider. As a result, we often use a personal phone number to register for different services and subscriptions. Not to mention managing online bank accounts and payments.

Unfortunately, if you start using your personal phone number for business, it puts all your private information at considerable risk. There are many hackers, scammers, and pranksters who can use your personal number to assess your private life. It can lead not only to exposing your personal pictures and videos or hacking your social media profiles but also to getting your credit card info or even identity theft. For all these reasons, having a second phone number for conducting business is a much safer route!

Avoiding robocalls and telemarketers is another advantage

In today’s hyper-connected world, robocalls and telemarketers are becoming more and more tiresome. With new technologies, they can call hundreds of people simultaneously! And the fact that you are on Do Not Call lists won’t help you much. Authorities in charge are too busy to deal with each and every spammer.

Unfortunately, advertising your personal phone number publicly will likely lead to a significant increase in the number of robocalls you get. Although it might seem like a minor nuisance, it’s far from it. The last thing you want is to be inundated with irrelevant calls both in your private life and your business.

Controlling employee-customer interaction becomes more difficult

Using your personal phone number for business while it’s still small can be tempting. However, as your business expands and the number of employees grows, it will present you with more and more difficulties. Especially if your employees use their personal phone numbers, too. With time it will become increasingly difficult for you to keep track of all the activities such as logistics, customer service, sales, etc.

As you well know, building customer relationships is crucial. But when your employees use private numbers, you can never be sure how often and how well they handle this important aspect of your business. No matter how much you trust them, private phone numbers open the way to negligence, ineffectiveness, or even deceit. Instead, it’s better to be aware of all business-related communication and interactions.

Using your personal phone number for business can limit your company’s growth

Choosing to use a personal phone number is a tempting option for many new entrepreneurs. After all, there’s a lot of time to change it once the business picks up, right? Often, the goal is to avoid additional expenses until the business grows and develops.

However, there are many features specially designed for conducting business. While you might not need them when you start, as soon as your business develops, they’ll become necessary. And the last thing you want to do then is to burden your private number with all of these extra options. Here are some of the business features you might want later on:

• auto attendants – automated features enable customers to get valuable information without you answering personally each and every call
• free voicemail – it will enable you to balance your work schedule
• mobile conference calling – setting up or joining a conference meeting will be more manageable

Changing contact information later can cause some business downtime

As we’ve mentioned before, changing your phone number when your business is on the rise isn’t a good idea. Firstly, you’ve probably invested a considerable sum of money in marketing. And advertizing the contact information (including your personal number) was part of that campaign. Changing your contact information then will render that marketing campaign almost useless.

You’ll have to start over with new contact info and advertise it to your customers and clients. You’ll also need to reach to all your business partners, suppliers, and service providers and notify them about the change. Not to mention you’ll need to update all your promotional inventory as well as contact information in online directories and resources.

In a way, it’s similar to having a poorly designed website. Customers won’t linger long to see what you have to offer – therefore, it’s important to know how to lower website bounce rate. The same applies to your phone number. If a customer calls and gets an old and inactive number, how likely are they to hunt for a new one? Instead, they’re more likely to be annoyed or confused and look for other businesses.

Using your personal phone number for business will disrupt your work-life balance

Last but not least, regardless of how important your business is to you, every entrepreneur needs some well-deserved rest and relaxation time. Once you start using your personal phone number for business, separating your free hours from work hours will be next to impossible. And while being available to your clients and providers is of great importance, having some precious time to dedicate to your family and private life is even more so.