The benefits of a 0800 freephone number far out weigh the costs involved. As with most business's you will always get customers wanting to speak to you that may not be profitable to you but hey that's business! We ourselves use a 0800 number for callers to call us on, whilst it does cost us to provide the service it's a very small cost to pay to attract new customers. Whilst you may receive free calls within your calling plan you mentioned not everyone does, in fact I speak to many people each day that don't have such calling packages. If you are worried about the costs involved you should really shop around as you can get 0800 numbers very cheap these days, in fact it would be cheaper for them to call you on a 0800 number than it would be for you to call them back (free call bundles aside!). If you found that the 0800 number was costing you too much you could stop using it within your marketing and simply pay the call costs of those who do still have the 0800 number. I'm sure you will hear many comments on here about people's ideas of 0800 numbers and 0845 numbers etc. The truth is there's no set rule for the numbers. If you look at the Direct Line adverts they use both 0845 and 0800 numbers. At the emd of the day it's down to the individual's perception of the different numbers. Oftel changed the area codes a few years ago and the public are mainly confused and don't realise how much the calls cost to the various number types. From my own point of view we have really benefitted from using a 0800 number for our sales line and hope you will too.
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Jamie
www.TamarTelecommunications.co.uk">href="http://www.TamarTelecommunications.co.uk">www.TamarTelecommunications.co.uk

I would agree with Jamie on this one - if you get a lot of non-profit calls then maybe you need to target your advertising at a particular market or be more specific with your service and costs. Tha attraction of an 0800 number is normally to find new business, many people I have spoken to do not understand that 0870 is national rate or 0845 is local rate or even that 0808 is free. So what they look for is an 0800 number "because it costs nothing to call" or a local std code to their area because "your local to them" and they know the call will cost very little - with the 0800 number from some suppliers you can get stats to review the number of calls etc - this allows you to review advertising perfomance in different places by the number of calls received on that number. Regards Simon
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I agree with the others. Go for 0800 and target your marketing carefully. Putting my consumer hat on, if all else appears equal between competing suppliers, I will uusually call 0800 numbers first, geographic numbers (those starting 01 or 02) second, and non-geo (0845, 0870) last. As you point out, people who get free calls (with BT Together plans or similar) still have to pay full BT rate for 0845/0870, but so do those who use ISPs such as OneTel over BT lines. I use Tiscali and pay 2p/minute to call 01xx and 02xx numbers, 3p to call the USA, and the full BT rate of 8p to call 0870! BT effectively has a monopoly on non-geographic numbers, so ISPs cannot discount them, is the way I understand it. It's a rip-off.

Richard I can only echo what the others have already said. There are many figures quoted as to how much an 0800 number increases business response (anywhere between 180 and 300%) but it is very hard to track down the exact source quoted (unless anyone knows differently. We both supply and use 0800 numbers. From my users hat on then yes we do get a few people that ring up to ask us if their SIM card will fit in such and such model of mobile phone. They have no intention of buying from us and we are paying for the call. But as Jamie has already said, that is business the world over. I like to think that the caller would remember the service that we have supplied to him and would remember us when he next need a telecoms service (am I living in dream-world?) If it helps we can can supply you with an 0800 number totally free of charge. We do not charge any monthly line rentals so if you do not receive calls then you pay nothing. The cost to receive calls is just 4.95p per minute peak rate. If I can be of any further assistance please do not hesitate to contact me on 0800 698 48 58 (I will even pay for the call). Best Regards Dave
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Regards

Dave

For innovative telecommunication solutions come to www.davria.co.uk

As all of the above respondents - with the exception of Dave - are actually selling 0800 numbers I thought I would say in the interests of balance, that I don’t think the type of client you are targeting - i.e. too busy to look for their new house - would be bothered about the phone call cost on two counts: 1. They are probably phoning from work or they would probably have the time to look for a house themselves - i.e. not paying the bill 2. If they are so tight as to be worried about a half hour daytime call, they aren’t going to want to part with any money paying you to find them a house in any case. Not that I have anything against 0845 and 0800 numbers in general, but they are costly ( 5-6p/minute + standing charges?) and like all expenses you have to think if it will actually deliver value for your business. That said if you got one more client a year by having an 0800 number it would probably have paid for itself.. James Smith Chartered Accountant www.uktaxshop.co.uk 01284 764436
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James Smith
Chartered Accountant
www.jamesesmith.co.uk

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Your indispensable guide to Small Business Bookkeeping, Self-Assessment & VAT

I had a call from a phone company yesterday (remind me to cancel my Yellow Pages ads next year - I get more sales people calling than customers!). They were offering a free 0800/0845/0870/090 number. 0800 is 4.9p per min with them, and with the others you actually get paid a proportion of the customers' cost of calling. I don't know if this is good value... Dan Woodruff Independent Financial Adviser http://www.woodruff-fp.co.uk 01206 851112
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Dan Woodruff
Independent Financial Adviser
http://www.woodruff-fp.co.uk">href="http://www.woodruff-fp.co.uk">http://www.woodruff-fp.co.uk

Actually James - We do not currently sell 0800 or non-geo numbers, my advice was impartial, we may do in the future if we find a reputable carrier to deal with. I have recommended people before and services - impartially, all advice I give on this forum will always be that - impartial. I would recommend anyone considering or confused to conduct their own survey to see if an 08 number would encourage their particular type of customer to be more likely to call them than their competitors. I and the guys who work for me are hands-on engineers - not salesman ! [:p] Regards Simon
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[url]www.operatelecom.com [/url] We offer all non geographic numbers, 0800 freephone numbers, 0870 national rate numbers, 0845 local rate numbers, 070 personal numbers and 090 premium numbers. Please contact us about the key marketing benefits of having non geographic numbers. Please see our website for further details or email [url]michelle.hughes@operatelecom.com[/url]

Hi Richard, I don't (yet) sell 0800 numbers, but from experience I can tell you that an 0800 does generate more enquiries. Ofcourse it is then down to how the call is handled to convert that enquiry to an order. From what you say though, it seems your type of trade may generate more wasted calls so perhaps rewording your advertising and/or website to make it clear your service is fee based before the caller calls? However, we will always get time waster calls, you'll never get rid of them forever. What I hate most is people phoning my freephone number to sell me something ... now that is just plain cheek!
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Richard Osborne
Quick Formations Limited
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