GoHighLevel as a Phone and Text System for Overseas Remote Teams: A Comprehensive Overview

I get this question all the time, especially when people are considering building a virtual assistant team overseas. Most people look at Google Voice, Dialpad, RingCentral... but nobody ever talks about GoHighLevel for phone and text.

It's a genuinely good question because GoHighLevel is often overlooked in this space, and it really shouldn't be.

Most traditional phone systems only do phones. Maybe some basic texting.

However, GoHighLevel is a comprehensive CRM and marketing automation platform that includes a built-in phone and text system. I like it because it becomes your entire communication hub. No more switching between tools. All your emails, SMS, Phone, and social media are unified on one platform. The efficiency gains are enormous for your business.

Today, I am going to outline what makes this work for remote teams.

What Powers GoHighLevel's Phone System?

GoHighLevel uses what they call the LC Phone System. This is their own version, powered by Twilio, and it means you don't need to integrate a separate third-party provider just for calls and SMS. It just works right out of the box.

How does Pricing Work?

People often assume these integrated systems are expensive.

LC Phone's base pricing is generally comparable to Twilio directly.

However, you are not limited to HighLevel's phone and texting services. You can integrate with alternative providers, such as Text Grid, which can reduce your costs by 50% or more compared to using LC Phone or Twilio directly. That is the benefit of working with HighLevel. You are never bound to any one provider. The system is very open by its very nature.

For example, with Text Grid, you can verify your brand and campaign once and then use that verification across up to 49 different phone numbers or sub-accounts. That's huge for scaling without repeated verification headaches.

Core Features for Remote Teams

Where GoHighLevel truly stands out from traditional phone systems is in its communication features. Let me walk through the ones that matter most when managing an overseas team:

Interactive Voice Response (IVR Phone Trees)

This is your professional phone tree. "Press 1 for sales, press 2 for support."

You can build complete, customized IVR systems in GoHighLevel's workflow builder, and it won't cost you anything extra. You can play pre-recorded messages or use AI text-to-speech voices. You can also route calls to specific team members and external numbers.

So why does this matter for remote teams? You can set up different routing for business hours vs nights and weekends. IVR eliminates the need for manual call handling. Literally removes the VA from having to take every call, giving your business 24/7 availability.

AI to answer after-hours and overflow calls (Voice AI Agents)

This goes beyond the basic phone tree. GoHighLevel offers AI agents that can handle inbound calls, having close to natural conversations with your customers.

Here is an example… You can build an AI concierge bot if you are an Airbnb host or property manager.

A guest calls in, and the bot will answer common questions about the property, can text them Wi-Fi details, and escalate urgent issues by transferring the call to a human property manager. The bot can collect customer information, answer FAQs, and schedule appointments.

That's really cutting-edge stuff and can reduce your team's workload pretty substantially. Your VAs focus on complex issues while AI handles the routine questions.

Call Scripts Built Into the System

For your virtual assistants, GoHighLevel lets you create call scripts right within the web dialer.

This ensures your VAs have consistent messaging, improves call quality, and speeds up training time for new hires. When you're managing a team 8,000 miles away, having everything in one place matters.

Smart Missed Call Text Back

This is a lifesaver for any small business. If a call is missed, the system can automatically send a text message to the caller.

And it's not just a generic message. You can customize the workflow to send different texts based on whether it's the weekend, after hours, or if it's the caller's second or third time calling.

These "smart" missed call workflows keep customers & leads engaged when your team can't answer immediately.

Call Recording & Transcription

Very standard for any telephony system. But it's worth mentioning anyway.

You can record all your calls for quality assurance and compliance. Even better, GoHighLevel offers call transcription, providing a written record of conversations. This helps with training remote staff and resolving any disputes about what was said.

Local Presence with International Teams

The system allows you to purchase local numbers. So, when employing remote team members, you can give them phone numbers that make it seem that they are working from the local office.

For example, your Columbian-based VA can call from a New York 212 number.

Customers will never know they're talking to someone on the other side of the world.

WhatsApp Integration

If your target audience or country heavily uses WhatsApp, you can leverage WhatsApp inside of GoHighLevel.

This is far more cost-effective (Free) and helpful if you operate in WhatsApp-dominated regions. This is more popular among clients in Brazil, India, or Europe, as it is often their preferred communication method.

Ring Groups

This feature allows incoming calls to a number to be directed to multiple users in a team simultaneously, with the first person to answer taking the call. Up to 7 users can be rung in parallel.

Perfect for distributing inbound calls among all your VAs and staff to make sure somebody always picks up the phone.

Everything Lives in the CRM

When an inbound call occurs, a new lead is created in the system. All communication history, including calls, texts, and emails, show up in one timeline.

This means agents can access the contact's existing information and past communication history directly within the CRM during the call. No more asking customers to repeat themselves. Your VA sees everything while on the phone.

Will I get my 2FA codes?

You CAN use VOIP for 2FA, but the reliability of each individual provider not detecting it's a VOIP number and being willing to send that text (or call) to do the actual validation is very hit-and-miss.

It has nothing to do with GoHighLevel, the messaging platform, or even any upstream providers. It has everything to do with the sending party.

Some sending parties believe that trusting cellular or mobile providers is more secure from an identity standpoint than numbers managed by VOIP providers.

The solution is to get a virtual non-VOIP USA phone number. These numbers are backed by physical SIM cards. Check out platforms like JuicySMS, KrispCall, SMSPool, and TextVerified.

Make sure the provider uses real SIM cards from US carriers, not just virtual numbers routed via the internet. Many of these services offer numbers for as little as 15 minutes or up to 30 days.

Why This Matters for Remote Teams

So, why do businesses often overlook GoHighLevel? Many see it primarily as a marketing or CRM tool, not realizing it's also a powerful, feature-rich phone system. They stick with traditional providers because that's what they know.

But when you're managing a remote team, having everything integrated changes the game:

• Training becomes simpler - One system to learn instead of five

• Context is always available - Your VA sees the full customer history during calls

• Handoffs are seamless - Night shift can see exactly what day shift did

• Quality control improves - Everything is recorded and tracked in one place

When you factor in the ability to integrate your calls and texts directly with your CRM, your lead management, your sales pipelines, and your automation workflows, that's where GoHighLevel truly shines.

For a business expanding with remote teams, that unified power is really powerful. Your team works more efficiently, your customers get better service, and you spend less time managing multiple systems.

So, if GoHighLevel can handle your phone needs, why would you want to juggle multiple tools when this one does it all?

Contact Us

If you don't want to figure out GoHighLevel on your own, or you need a virtual assistant who already knows this stuff, I can intro you to our team. We do this every day.

Check us out: https://www.csoutsource.com/why-cs-outsource/