A phone number can feel like a prized position for your business. Mostly because it's how your customers recognize your business.
That's why choosing a new phone provider is stressful - it forces you to ask the tough question of:
"Do they work with my existing phone number?"
Luckily, MessageDesk works with all Landline and VoIP phone lines. You can migrate an existing phone number into MessageDesk by going to your Account and Phone Settings in MessageDesk.
Okay great! MessageDesk works with my phone line!
Now what?
Once you start a migration process there are some important factors you should consider:
Are you already using a different phone number in MessageDesk to reach customers?
Are you currently using a different provider to send/receive texts from your business's phone number?
How long does a number migration take?
Is migrating a phone number permanent?
I already use MessageDesk to reach my customers. Now I want to move my existing phone number into my account
Great! We can definitely replace your current MessageDesk phone number with your existing business phone line.
Before getting started, you'll probably have the following questions:
To start this process, navigate to your Account and Phone Settings.
Once you fill out this form, our team will submit a number hosting request with your current provider. This will move all texting abilities for that number into MessageDesk
What happens to my old phone number that's currently in MessageDesk?
Once we migrate your existing phone line into MessageDesk, we'll drop your old phone number.
This means that you will no longer see any messages sent to this number.
If you'd like to maintain both phone numbers to make sure you don't miss any text messages, please reach out to our support team (support@messagedesk.com) and notify them PRIOR to starting the number hosting process.
What should I do once my existing business phone is in MessageDesk
Once your new phone number is ready, we suggest sending a Broadcast out to your current customer group.
In this Broadcast, you can notify them that your existing office line can now receive text messages.
This is also a great way to notify people that you've dropped your existing MessageDesk phone number
I currently use a different text messaging provider and want to migrate my phone number over
Fantastic! The MessageDesk team is happy to help you migrate your phone number, contacts, and conversations over from your existing provider.
To do so, it's best to reach out to sales@messagedesk.com directly. They'll outline the next steps based on your current provider.
In general, to move over from an existing provider you'll need to do the following steps:
Setup a Free MessageDesk account
Migrate your phone number into MessageDesk (Please fill out this form here to start this process)
Export your contacts from the old provider and import them into MessageDesk
Export your conversation history from the old provider and email them to support@messagedesk.com (our support team will outline next steps for uploading these into your account)
That's all well and good but I have a few questions...
What happens once I migrate the phone number over to MessageDesk?
At this point, you should stop using your old provider altogether. You'll also want to make sure your team is trained on MessageDesk. That's because the phone number hosting process may be Immediate - effectively turning off your old provider as soon as you fill out this form here to migrate your phone number
Can 1 phone number be shared across multiple providers?
That depends, are you trying to send/receive text messages from the same phone number across 2 providers at once?
Using 2 providers to send/receive text messages from the same phone number is NOT Possible.
Using one provider for texting (MessageDesk) and another provider for calling from the same phone number is possible.
By default, our number migration process only migrates the SMS abilities for your phone number. Leaving the calling/voice setup unaffected. To start this process, please navigate to your Account and Phone Settings.