How do I format a phone number in Sales?

Question

What are the acceptable phone number formats to use with Sales Voice? How do I add a phone number to a lead or contact?

Answer

The formatting rules described in this article apply when you add a phone number to a record in Sales or add your own number to your Voice and Text settings.

• Follow the standard writing format of a plus sign +, country code, area code when applicable, and phone number for all numbers you add to your account
• US phone numbers include a +1 country code and a three-digit area code, such as 222, in front of the other seven digits, such as 3333333. For example, [phone].
• Format non-US numbers with a plus sign +, the country code, and the rest of the digits in the phone number. For more information, follow the internationally standardized E.164 format.
• Don't include parentheses or other characters such as brackets, hyphens, or spaces in the phone number field, except the plus sign +
• Don't add a zero in front of the country code or the number itself because Sales doesn't accept "0" as the first digit of a number, and any call made with such a number fails
• Add extensions to a phone number in a separate custom field to reference when you dial the phone number

When you activate Voice in your account, select a Default country code that Sales tries to use when you place outbound calls without a specified country code.

Tip: Sales Voice runs through Twilio, and the system uses Twilio's guidelines to format numbers. Twilio's documentation states that phone numbers format with the internationally standardized E.164 format. E.164 numbers have a maximum of 15 digits and usually follow the + country code subscriber number and area code format.