Setting up numbers per brand

Each brand needs its own number, its own greeting and its own hours. Sharing one number defeats the point of brands.

Each brand needs its own number, its own greeting and its own hours. Sharing one number defeats the point of brands.

Assign a number to a brand

1. Open Admin Center, then Channels, then Talk and email, then Talk.
2. On the Lines tab, open the number.
3. On the Settings tab, give it a nickname and select its Brand. Put the brand in the nickname while you are there: the numbers list shows nicknames and not brands, so without it you cannot tell from that list which number belongs to which brand.
4. Still on Settings, choose its greetings: the wait greeting, the available agents greeting, and the hold greeting.
5. On the Routing tab, set the group or groups calls go to. With more than one, name a default group as well.
6. On that same tab, choose the schedule the number follows.
7. On the Voicemail tab set the voicemail greeting, and on Callback the callback greeting if you offer callbacks.
8. Call the number and check the ticket carries the right brand.

Four tabs, not one. The brand is chosen in one place and nearly everything that makes the brand recognisable is chosen in others, which is how numbers end up correctly branded and sounding identical.

The greeting is the giveaway

A caller to Brand B hearing Brand A's name has learned something you did not intend to tell them. Each brand needs its own recording, and that is the step most often skipped because the number works without it.

Note that there is not one greeting per number but several, each attached separately: the wait greeting, an available agents greeting for voicemail on and another for voicemail off, the hold greeting, the voicemail greeting and the callback greeting. Recording one and stopping there leaves the rest speaking in the wrong name.

Hours can differ

Where brands operate in different countries or markets, their hours differ, and each number should reflect its own. That means a schedule per brand rather than one shared one.

The schedule field on the Routing tab picks from the schedules defined in Support, so the work happens there first. You cannot build a set of hours inside the line itself; you choose one that already exists.

Agents can serve several

One agent can take calls for two brands, which is usually what you want in a small team. The ticket's brand comes from the number dialled, so reporting stays correct even when the person is shared.

What agents need is a way to see which brand a call is for before they answer, which the incoming call shows.

See also

• What multiple brands solve and when to use them
• Adding a phone number
• Using multiple schedules