(Source: Back to the Future - Full Report; Back to basics to get to the future Key findings for the future of UK Teleservice; The Henley Centre, January 2004)
(Source: Back to the Future - Full Report; Back to basics to get to the future Key findings for the future of UK Teleservice; The Henley Centre, January 2004)
No need to ever change your business phone number again. Your 0800 freephone number is yours for life. When BT run out of 01/02 numbers again and introduce new dialing codes you won’t have the hassle of re-printing stationary and marketing material. Simply re-route your 0800 number if you move business premises.
Give yourself a national presence - don't give the impression you are only interested in customers in your immediate area or generate the feeling that you only operate on a small, local basis.
Keep track of your advertising response rates. By using separate 0800 numbers on each of your advertisements, you can monitor the effectiveness simply by looking at your real time call statistics provided by elite telecom. Thus, you can save money by choosing the adverts that produce effective results based on your call statistics.
Save money - in almost all cases it is cheaper to have a customer call you on your 0800 number than it is for you to call them on their number (especially if they give you a mobile phone contact number). It is also far more likely to result in an incoming enquiry for your business.
Inspire Confidence - the most important thing you can do for a prospective customer is inspire confidence in them enough to contact you - nothing does that better than 0800 numbers.
Many companies have a free phone number which means that customers do not have to pay anything at all when they call the free phone number. Any number that begins with '0800' is a free phone number, and it is universally recognised as such. It makes no difference where the customer calls the free phone number from, however some mobiles charge customers for calling a free phone number.
Offering a free phone number has a wide array of business benefits. For example, people are more likely to call if it's a free phone number, so the business will receive a better response with a free phone number than they would have had with a paid number. Having a free phone number also helps give a positive image of the company, and people will think because you have a free phone number, that you care about your customers. Offering a free phone number obviously means that the company has to absorb the cost of the free phone number, and customers have a warmer attitude to these more caring companies. Companies that offer a service, or most charities, have a free phone number. They appreciate that many people need a free phone number because they may otherwise not be able to afford to call. Offering a free phone number allows the company to give something back to the customer, and the free phone number means they can ring from a pay phone or a house phone, and it is still a free phone number.
If a company has a special promotion then a free phone number is a good way to encourage people to call. Some phone calls take a long time and with a free phone number then customers do not get as frustrated, because the free phone number means there is no financial cost. A free phone number can also have memorable numbers to further support a marketing campaign.
Telephone helplines association latest ofcom proposal and response as regards to 080 numbers
If you have an international toll free 0800 freephone number, you generally only pay a small charge per call while the caller pays nothing. This is why more and more businesses are finding their way towards international toll free numbers.
Businesses use international toll free numbers in order to have a global presence for their business, please customers and offer good customer care. If a customer is to choose a service, one with a number that is free to call will always be more attractive.
Many charities and helplines also use international toll free numbers so they can allow more people to reach them. If you have a business, then an international toll free number is definitely the way forward!
Ofcom, the UK telecoms regulator, has published a consultation determined to settle an argument between BT and mobile operators T-Mobile, O2, Orange and Vodafone in regards to BT’s new 080 termination charges. The termination charges apply to 0800 and 0808 numbers on the BT network. Cutting a long story short, BT believes the termination charges for 080 numbers are fair whereas the mobile providers believe they should be paid for originating the 080 calls to the BT network. End result? Ofcom has concluded that all businesses revert to how they were before BT introduced the termination charges. Easy.
Speculation is rife following a report by Ofcom stating that in 2010 more calls will be made from mobiles than landlines. The figures stand at 44.5% calling from mobiles at the minute and are due to rise past 50% next year. If this occurs, then 03 numbers could become the new 0800 freephone numbers.
While 0800 freephone numbers are free to call from landlines, the majority of mobile phone networks will charge users for ringing them from a mobile. 03 phone numbers however, after being introduced by Ofcom, are generally included in free minutes making them the obvious choice for consumers calling from a mobile.
Yet Another Job Centre Fiasco
The job centre has sparked fury recently after it was discovered that jobseekers are being charged 40ppm to call official jobs helplines from a mobile – those notorious 0800 phone numbers.
Now in my opinion, the job centre is a system that’s just about as far from perfect as you can possibly get. They seem to give and take money willy-nilly and you often get the feeling that the people who shouldn’t get money are getting it while the people who should, aren’t.
This new scandal though is particularly infuriating. 0800 numbers are all well and good. Generally free except for mobiles, you have to wonder why people haven’t wised up and stopped ringing 0800 numbers off mobile handsets if all they're going to do is complain about the charges. And then there’s the job centre itself. Is a warning too much to ask? Does it not register that these people are unemployed and skint as it is? Sometimes, I despair.