When starting a business it’s easy to overlook the smaller details like choosing a telephone number and line. However, this choice can have a huge effect on your business so in this article we will discuss some of the things you will want to take into consideration when purchasing a telephone line and number for your business.
At the end of the article, you should be able to make a more informed choice on your business telephone number and the line it runs on.
Local Numbers
If your business only services your local community and you have no plans of expanding your business out of your local area then a local number is going to be a logical choice for your business.
A local number will give your visitors confidence in your product/service because they know you are local to them and most people like to do business with local companies.
An added benefit of using a local number is that the person calling will be charged at the local rate when using a mobile phone.
Local numbers are also great for landing pages on your website because people in a certain area are expecting to find a local number. For example, if you have a plumbing business that serves all around the country but you have a landing page that targets Ottawa Canada then a local Ottawa number on that page is going to be more trustworthy than a national number.
National numbers
If you have plans for your business to expand into other territories and you are not limited to one location a national number could be for you.
National numbers are usually charged at a local rate too so your customers don’t end up paying any extra. Use a national number if you are a bigger company that services many locations or if you want to give off the appearance of being a bigger company.
A company that can service an entire company such as a marketing agency, for example, could go down this route to make them more attractive to larger clients.
Free Phone
If you provide a service or a product that can be faulty or could need to be returned you may want to set up a free phone number as a gesture of goodwill to your customers.
In the past customers would be directed to phone numbers that would charge them a higher rate, but these days this is illegal and can not be done. By having a free phone number your customers will be more patient with you because they are not being charged while waiting to air their frustrations with you.
Less hostile customers will result in happier staff and higher morale, therefore it’s worth investing in a free phone number for support and customer service enquiries.
Other options – VoIP
Voice over internet protocol or VoIP for short can use any phone number but the technology behind it means that you are not tied down to a traditional phone line.
But what is VoIP?
Tyle the owner of www.firewalltechnical.com explains that “with VoIP, your voice is compressed into a digital signal and sent across the internet to the receiver where this data is then uncompressed so you can hear the sound on your computer or handset.”
The reason why people use VoIP is that it can be a lot cheaper than a traditional telephone system as long-distance call rates are a thing of the past.
If you are considering VoIP as a business phone line option you will need to make sure your internet service provides you with enough bandwidth to make the number of calls you will need to make. Your business bandwidth usually can be increased if need be.
If your network can support it VoIP is a good choice for your business telephone system.
Make it memorable
Your business number is going to be used in all of your marketing materials so you will want to make sure that the number is memorable.
When it comes to online marketing there is a lot of noise out there so if your number only shows up on a screen for a few seconds you will want your potential customers to be able to memorise it. If you find it difficult to choose a phone number for your company, you can contact the professionals. You will find more information on callgear, as well as explore the possibilities of call tracking software.
When choosing a number for your business look for easy to memorise patterns such as 0800-123-123 or 0800-456-789 breaking a number down like this is also going to make it easier for your staff to remember and repeat it back to potential customers.
Conclusion
The above tips are more than enough to get you started when it comes to considering your telephone number and the line that it sits on. Hopefully, you have now considered some of these points and although it will make choosing a business number more difficult for your business, it will benefit you in the long run by having a number that builds trust, is easy to remember and gets your clients to call you.