0800 Numbers: Working to get over January’s Business Blues
January can be a slow period for the United Kingdom business community and the current economic slow down is likely to amplify this further.
Many organisations are now looking at various cost effective means that they can optimise the number of questions they receive and in turn, generate more sales.
A very popular way of businesses achieving this goal is to provide their enquirers a totally free telephone experience.
0800 numbers are free to call from a landline and many organisations that use them get a vast rise in the amount of enquiries they receive. In fact, research by the Institute of Direct Marketing has surmised that a company that provides an 0800 number can increase their number of calls by up to 185%.
This is just one benefit that lots of UK organisations are gaining by applying 0800 numbers to their business.
Here are Seven more:
1. 0800 numbers are non-geographic – which means they are not location specific like regular landline numbers. Ensuring, companies can draw in more companies beyond of their physical area as they won’t be judged on their location.
2. Given the choice, 63% of people say that they would always ring a freephone number first (Teleculture 2000).
3. The Henley Research Centre concluded that 68% of the public feel that organisations that offer 0800 numbers are thinking more about their potential customers.
4. 0800 numbers, similar to all non-geographic telephone numbers, enable organisations to instantly tidy up their telephone systems with online call management features – for example welcome messages and call divert.
5. Online call statistics systems allow business owners/managers/marketers to see the region of callers to their 0800 number, amount of unanswered calls and busy periods in order to help with marketing/customer relations and organising staff numbers more efficiently.
6. Businesses can control where they need to receive their calls (e.g. out of hours and in an emergency). Their 0800 number can be redirected to any UK landline or mobile with Call divert features
7. All calls to 0800 numbers can be queued when used with online call queuing systems. allowing companies to receive a greater number of calls and not miss out on potential business.
It seems evident that basically by using a freephone telephone number, companies can increase the amount of calls they receive, sort out their callers more efficiently, plan staffing effectively and stand out from those in the same field of enterprise – all areas that are crucial in business and vital for businesses to thrive in these times of financial uncertainty.
The most important resolution a business owner could make in this new year is to simply change there telephone number.
