Reaching one named person
Direct numbers and extensions that follow somebody who is travelling, without publishing a personal mobile.
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Richmond, VA
Business VoIP in Richmond, VA
Two codes now cover Richmond, 804 and 686 over the same ground. The more useful thing to understand is what your code signals against the one at the other end of the state, because a customer comparing quotes reads northern Virginia and central Virginia as two different price lists.
Disclosure: AldoMedia is a paid affiliate of Unitel Voice. If you sign up through a link on this page we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. We only recommend what we would set up for our own clients, and we say plainly below who should not buy this.
804, and the second code that arrived over it
804 has covered this part of Virginia since 1973, when it was split out of the original state code. In 2024 a second code, 686, was laid over exactly the same ground. No number changed and none will: an overlay adds a code to a territory rather than cutting it in half.
The practical effect is ten digit dialling for every local call, so anything of yours still printed with seven digits is now incomplete. If you have not walked that list yet, it is an afternoon: vehicles, signs, forms, invoice templates, the site footer, a greeting that reads the number out, and any record a supplier still holds.
Beyond that the two codes are interchangeable. 804 has had fifty years to sound like central Virginia and 686 has had one, which is the entire difference. Port an 804 number if you hold one, because it is printed on things you have paid for, and take 686 without hesitation if that is what is offered. Porting is on business phone numbers.
Two Virginias, and what your code implies about your rates
This is the part that actually moves money and almost nobody writes it down. Virginia contains two quite different cost bases. The northern end, on 703 and 571, sits in a federal contracting economy with the salaries and the overheads that go with it. Central Virginia does not.
Customers know this, at least roughly, and they read area codes accordingly. A buyer in the north comparing two quotes sees one from a 703 number and one from an 804 number and brings an assumption to each before reading a figure. That assumption usually helps you here and occasionally does not.
Where it helps: on price, against a northern competitor, for work that does not require somebody on site. Where it does not: when the same buyer quietly wonders whether a central Virginia firm can handle the scale, or whether you will actually drive up there, neither of which the number can address.
So the useful move is to answer the second question before it is asked. Say plainly how far north you work and what you do remotely, in the greeting and on the page somebody reads before dialling. A business that leaves that to the area code has let three digits make an argument on its behalf, and three digits are not very good at nuance.
None of which makes the service local
There is no Virginia phone product. The software is the same one a business in Oregon is sold, it runs a long way from here, and the only thing your address decides is the three digits at the front of the number.
How the technology works and what it asks of your connection are on the main business VoIP guide. The rest of the state, including the northern end and the coast, is on business VoIP in Virginia.
Who gains here
The working economy here runs on state administration, finance and insurance, law and professional services, logistics along the corridor, healthcare, and a manufacturing and distribution base spread around the metro. Most of it is appointment work with known counterparts rather than walk-in trade.
That rewards a short list of things. A direct number per person, because the caller usually wants one named individual. A greeting brief enough that a known caller is not made to work for it. And a real answer when that person is unavailable, meaning a named colleague rather than a voicemail box. Virtual phone system and auto attendant and extensions cover both.
If a meaningful share of your work is up the corridor, one more thing is worth setting up: make it easy for somebody to take a call while travelling, on the business number rather than a personal mobile. A firm that wins northern work and then becomes unreachable on the days it is doing that work has solved the wrong half of the problem.
Who should not bother: one person, one phone, customers who already reach you. That is a monthly cost against a problem you do not have. And if the connection into your building is unreliable, fix that before the phones. VoIP vs landline is the honest case for keeping copper.
The decisions behind the number
None of these are about Richmond. They settle the questions a code cannot, including the one a northern buyer is quietly asking.
Keeping the front short
Menus and greetings, and why a known caller should not work through options to reach one person.
Read about auto attendantThe number on the print run
Ten digits everywhere now that a second code shares the map, and what porting a number involves.
Read about business numbersWhether to switch at all
The honest case for keeping a copper line, which still applies to some buildings and connections.
Read VoIP vs landline
Common questions
Richmond VoIP questions
Did our 804 number change when 686 arrived?
No. 686 was laid over 804 rather than split out of it, so no existing number changed and none will. What changed is that local calls now take all ten digits, which makes anything of yours printed with seven incomplete. That is a reprinting job rather than a renumbering one, and it is worth walking the whole list rather than fixing only the obvious places.
Should we get a 703 number to compete for northern Virginia work?
Only if you actually work up there, and even then think about what you are buying. A northern number can remove a little hesitation, but it also invites the assumption that you carry northern overheads, which is usually the opposite of the advantage a central Virginia firm has. Saying plainly how far north you work does more, and it does not have to be undone later.
Is 686 a worse number than 804?
No. The two cover identical ground and will from now on, so the only thing 686 says is that the line was ordered after 2024. Port an 804 number if you already hold one, because it is printed on things you have paid for. If you are starting fresh, take what is available.
Say how far up the corridor you work
Tell us where your customers actually sit and what happens to a call when your people are travelling. If your current setup already handles both, we will say so.