Telephone numbers are designed for different purposes. Telephone companies talk of them as products they are not all equal.
Consumers also perceive telephone numbers differently. How they feel about a number and what they think it costs them to dial it, can radically affect what they think about your company and whether they will call you or not.
In short, telephone numbers are part of your brand and image and once the number is on your stationery, your shop signage and the side of your van, its not easily changed so its important that you consider the type of number to use carefully.
Ofcom research tells us that:
Consumers know what 01 & 02 - local or geographic numbers - are and believe them to be the cheapest number to call
64% of consumers know that 0800 are free to call
Consumers think there is little difference in cost of calling 0844, 0845, 0870, 0871
Consumers always overestimate how much all types of calls cost.
Consumers are less likely to call numbers that they perceive to be more expensive to call and/or are unfamiliar to them.
Crucially, 65%-78% of consumers either wont call, or are unlikely to call, telephone numbers used in adverts if they use these types of numbers: 0845 (65%), mobile (70%), 0870 (73%), 0844 (76%), 0871 (78%).
Source:
http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/bin...etresearch.pdf
If you read no further than this; normally, its best to choose an 01 or 02 number for your business.
There are really only two other types of numbers you would normally consider:
0800 can be useful if you actively need customers to call you or are running advertising campaigns. (But note reservations below.)
03, if you really want to look as though you have a national presence.
Unless you have a specialised reason for choosing any other type dont.
01 & 02 Geographic or local number the normal, general purpose, everyday telephone number. Geographic numbers show your location; 020 is London, 01273 Brighton, 0151 Liverpool etc. Calls to these numbers from BT landlines used to be charged at either local or national rates depending on distance to the caller but now its one charge regardless.
These numbers are universally understood and should be your first choice for a normal businesses number. Their sole disadvantage used to be that they could not be taken with you if you moved outside the area of the telephone exchange they were connected to. However, this is no longer a restriction as VoIP technology allows them to be taken anywhere in world.
Importantly, 01 and 02 numbers are included as free to dial in mobile contract packages.
These are the only type of number that can be reliably dialled from anywhere in the world.
0800 Freephone numbers are used for marketing or for sales lines where the strategy is to attract customers to call you. Most people (64%) know they are free to call - so theyre a good marketing tool. They are often used for short term marketing campaigns; different numbers can be used per advert to help tracking and calculating the relative success of different campaigns.
As the call is free to the caller, the number owner gets charged for the incoming call so they can be relatively expensive to use. But this extra cost should be regarded as a marketing investment.
0800 is a fairly well understood number by the public so it is quite useful but a major downside is that they are NOT free to call from mobiles and may not be called from outside the UK.
0800 is a non-geographic number ie not tied to your local telephone exchange, so you can take it anywhere in the UK when you move. For this reason it is sometimes marketed to you as a number for life. VoIP though makes this distinction rather irrelevant these days.
If you use this number on your marketing material make a point of saying call us for free on xxxx so that the 36% of people that dont know they are free, still call you. Its also wise to display your 01 or 02 number alongside it so that mobile phone users arent put off.
