What is a local number abroad?

The problem it solves

A donor in Brooklyn who wants to call a yeshiva in Israel has to dial an international prefix, Israel's country code, and then the number without the zero. He has to remember the order, pay an international rate — and sometimes discover that his plan doesn't even include calls abroad. Many people simply give up.

A local number abroad turns it into an ordinary call. The donor dials a New York number, just like he'd dial a neighbor. To him it's a local call. For you, the call arrives at the PBX in Israel and is answered like any other call.

How it works

1. A number is opened in the country and city you choose — for example New York, London or Antwerp.
2. The number is connected to the cloud PBX, exactly like an Israeli number.
3. Whoever dials it there reaches the PBX.
4. The PBX passes the call to the destination you set: a menu, a queue, an extension or a voicemail box.

You don't need an office abroad, an address there, or a physical line. It's a virtual number in every respect — it's just registered in another country.

A few details worth knowing about the numbers themselves: every country has an international prefix — the United States 1, the United Kingdom 44, Belgium 32. And within a country there are area codes: London 020, Antwerp 03, and New York has several different ones. A local number carries the area code, so it looks local to someone who lives there.

Who It's For

• Yeshivas and institutions with donors abroad — an American or British donation line that reaches the office in Israel directly.
• Businesses with customers or suppliers abroad — a local number gives a sense of presence in the country.
• Parents of students from abroad — a family in London who wants to reach their son at yeshiva, without an international bill every month.
• Communities and families — relatives abroad who call Israel regularly.
• Diamond and trade businesses — an Antwerp number for a business that works with the exchange there.

Clock, language and menu

A number abroad brings callers from another time zone. New York is usually about seven hours behind Israel, London about two, and Belgium about one. A donor who calls after his workday in New York reaches you in the middle of the night.

That's why it's worth planning this number separately:

• A greeting in English (or in Yiddish, depending on the audience) and a menu that suits callers from there.
• Time-based routing that takes the time difference into account: when someone is available to answer, and when the call goes to a voicemail box with a message saying when you'll call back.
• A queue with a representative who speaks the language, or an extension for a volunteer abroad who answers during their own hours.

Example: a yeshiva connects a New York number to a menu in English. By day, the call reaches a representative in the office. At night in Israel, it goes to the mobile of a volunteer who lives in New York — where it's evening anyway.

Example: a family in London and a son at yeshiva

A family from London sends their son to study at a yeshiva in Israel. Without a proper solution, every call from the parents is an international call, and there isn't always someone to answer on the other end.

With a London number connected to the yeshiva's PBX, the parents dial a local call. The number leads to a short menu: leave a message for the student, or speak with the office. If the student has a calling card with a personal voicemail box, the message waits for him there until he's free.

And the same number serves the community too: donors from London who call the office, alumni who want updates, parents of other students. One number abroad — all the contact with that city. And when a fundraising campaign evening comes up in the community there, the number is already familiar to everyone.

How to publish a number abroad

A local number needs to look local too. Each country writes numbers a little differently, and someone who lives there immediately recognizes a foreign format. So when publishing abroad, write the number the way it's written there — with the area code in place of the usual one, and grouped into the digit blocks that are customary there.

On the website and in emails, which are also read outside the country, it's worth adding the international format with the + sign and the country code. That way even someone who happens to be in Israel or a third country can dial. There's a separate article about prefixes and how to dial between them.

The other direction: outgoing calls abroad

A local number abroad solves incoming calls. For outgoing calls — when you call a donor or customer abroad — you need to think about the cost of international dialing. Many systems offer international calling plans for this, suited to organizations that call a particular country a lot.

Another question is what the other side will see. A customer in London who gets a call from an Israeli number won't always answer. In some cases you can show your local number there on the outgoing call, as caller ID — it's worth checking in advance what's possible.

What to check before you open one

• Which city your callers are in — a number in the right city feels more local.
• Who will answer and when — before you publish, build a route for the hours when no one is available.
• How you'll publish it — in the country's local format, so it looks familiar.
• What happens with messages — that the voicemail is sent to the email of whoever handles it, and that someone really does call back callers from abroad.

Full example: a chesed fund with donors in New York and London

A chesed fund in Jerusalem raises most of its donations from two communities: Brooklyn and London. Three people work in the Jerusalem office, Sunday to Thursday 9:00–17:00 and Friday until 12:00. In Brooklyn there is a veteran volunteer with a SIM extension, and in London a volunteer with an app on her mobile. The fund opened two numbers: one New York and one London, both connected to the same PBX in Jerusalem.

The first step was an hours table. The PBX works on Israel time, so the callers' hours are converted to its clock:

Two time groups and two routes came out of the table. The New York number opens with a greeting in English, and then: during office hours — a small queue of the three employees; between 17:00 and 02:00 Israel time — the SIM extension of the volunteer in Brooklyn, where it's afternoon and evening; the rest of the time — a voicemail box sent to the office's email, so they can call back in the morning. The London number is the same, only with a shorter window for the volunteer, because after 18:00 in London she doesn't answer.

Shabbat, daylight saving time and other small details

The table above works on an ordinary day. Two things complicate it, and both are usually discovered only after someone complains.

Shabbat begins at different times. In Jerusalem the office closes on Friday at midday. At that hour it's still morning in Brooklyn, and the volunteer there works until an hour before his own sunset — meaning until the evening hours on Israel time. The reverse: on Motzei Shabbat in Jerusalem, when the office may already be open for a campaign evening, it's still Shabbat in Brooklyn and no donor is calling. And after Shabbat ends in New York — the early morning hours of Sunday in Israel — there's no one to answer. The conclusion: the New York number's time group needs a separate row for Friday, and a row for early Sunday morning that leads to voicemail and not to an empty queue. The fund added a sentence to the voicemail message: "We will get back to you Sunday afternoon, New York time."

Daylight saving time doesn't change on the same day. Israel, the United States and the United Kingdom switch to summer time and winter time on different dates. The result: for a few weeks a year the difference from New York is six hours and not seven, and from London one hour and not two. If the volunteer in Brooklyn receives calls until 02:00 Israel time, in those weeks she'll receive them until 20:00 New York time instead of 19:00 — usually no big deal, but worth knowing, and don't set windows too tight against the sleep hours of whoever answers.

Holidays. A holiday in Israel is not a day off in London, and vice versa. Whoever manages the number needs to remember that on Chol HaMoed donors call as usual, and on civil holidays abroad — almost no one does. Add the exceptional days to the time group in advance, not on the morning of the holiday.

What differs from country to country, and what not to do

In all of these countries there are registration requirements for whoever holds a local number, and they vary from country to country and from time to time. So before promising a community abroad a number, find out what that country requires. Usually it's a form and the organization's details, not a physical office.

And what not to do:

• Publish a "local" number with no one answering during local hours. A donor who dials in his evening and reaches voicemail every time stops calling. If no one can answer there in the evening, at least have the voicemail say when you'll call back, and have someone actually call back.
• Write the number in an Israeli format. A New York number written with dashes in the wrong places looks foreign, which is exactly what you wanted to avoid.
• Treat it as a number for everything. It's for incoming calls from that country. Not for emergencies, and not necessarily for text messages.
• Forget it at the end of the campaign. If the number was published in the community, it will receive calls even a year later. Keep it active with an orderly route, or announce the closure in advance.