Business Telephone Number

[glen82]

Hello,

Wondering if anyone has any advice to share or recommendations or where to go to get a business telephone number?

Currently using a Skype Number so customers have a standard landline number to call, which is answered on a laptop at present - but I want something more flexible. We receive few calls now and not looking to make outbound calls really so it's simply a need to have a number as an option for customers to contact us if they want to.

Ideally I want a number where I can easily answer it or have it re-direct to my mobile or landline, voicemail.

Is VOIP a good solution or is a proper landline more reliable?

Would an 0345 local rate number be a good idea so that if the business moves premises the number can come with us (and so we're not tied to a local area code)?

Any thoughts, recommendations greatly appreciated : )

Glen

 

[Vincent79]

Hello,

Wondering if anyone has any advice to share or recommendations or where to go to get a business telephone number?

Currently using a Skype Number so customers have a standard landline number to call, which is answered on a laptop at present - but I want something more flexible. We receive few calls now and not looking to make outbound calls really so it's simply a need to have a number as an option for customers to contact us if they want to.

Ideally I want a number where I can easily answer it or have it re-direct to my mobile or landline, voicemail.

Is VOIP a good solution or is a proper landline more reliable?

Would an 0345 local rate number be a good idea so that if the business moves premises the number can come with us (and so we're not tied to a local area code)?

Any thoughts, recommendations greatly appreciated : )

Glen

I use a company called Phoenix Communications fr my business. I have a virtual line and have all my calls redirected to a call answering service, this works well and never miss a call. Hope this helps.

 

[Novevan]

We use google voice. As far as now, it is really good.
It can re-direct to our mobile phone and Email us the voicemail.

 

[cjd]

Ideally I want a number where I can easily answer it or have it re-direct to my mobile or landline, voicemail.

Is VOIP a good solution or is a proper landline more reliable?

Yes VoIP is a good solution and it's very reliable Very cheap too - we do a standard 01 or 02 geographic number for £2 per month with no contract. It can be answered in the normal way or redirected to another phone.

Would an 0345 local rate number be a good idea so that if the business moves premises the number can come with us (and so we're not tied to a local area code)?

Not really a good idea as a lot of people won't recognise what an 0345 number is and may think that it's expensive to call. It's also unecessary as a VoIP number can be used anywhere, they're not tied to local exchange. You can buy a Birmingham number and use it in Bagdad if you like.

<removed>

See also
http://www.voipfone.co.uk/Call_Forwarding_And_Divert.php

 

[glen82]

Thanks for all the pointers so far everyone, appreciated. Knew I'd get some advice here.... such a supportive community : )

 

[glen82]

Just thought I'd update here how I got my business phone number and the setup I am using, in case that is helpful for any fellow users of this forum now or in the future . . .

I decided to use VOIP as getting a dedicated phone line for my home based business worked out ridiculously expensive. I went with a company called Yay.com and I got a business number there for a few quid a month (far cheaper than good old BT!) and I can get a good value unlimited calls package for outbound calls if I need it, and it's also easy to add more numbers in the future as my business grows.

I highly recommend Yay - their customer service is brilliant, both on the phone and on live webchat. It could not have been easier to setup my business number with them - their website is by far the clearest and easiest to use of all the VOIP providers I looked at and their team were more than happy to chat and answer my questions. They were patient and interested in helping. Their website and service makes (what is a quite a tech and jargon laden option) for a phone line really very simple and easy.

As for using the line, the call quality is very clear and all is working great. The service comes with tonnes of inclusive options from call routing, voicemail (accessible online or on a VOIP handset), recorded greetings and all that 'press 1 for sales' kind of options.

I bought a VOIP handset from this company too and it arrived next day and pre-setup with all the passwords/options already programmed into it! Could not have been easier to get going.

I hope this helps some users here - I don't bother recommending companies unless I am very impressed. This is a contact worth sharing! : )

Glen

 

[MikeJ]

Anyone heard of Yay?

Nice website, but the owner seems to have a lot of failed companies behind him, and the last accounts show them to have a pretty significant lack of funds.

 

[SarahR65]

Hi MikeJ / Glen82

I use Yay too and totally agree with your comments. Love them.

Re owners, my search seems to show lots of directorships for their director, rather than failures. Most seem Host Europe Group related who sold to Go Daddy for £1.8bn recently, so think wires might be confused here. I found his linkedin too and seems he was a board member there, so maybe why he held so many director roles.

Re funds; they are clearly well backed if this guy is behind them, so my guess is shortfall in balance sheet will be directors loan accounts driving growth. They are certainly everywhere I look at the minute.

Anyway, hope that helps.

 

[Matt M]

Hi All

I am that founder! I don't hide; in fact when you sign up at Yay I give you my real email address to write to in that welcome email! Been alerted to this and wanted to invite any of you to ask any direct questions you wish openly or via PM!

As an opener, a number of businesses built and sold out to multi million ££ exits, so yes very successful - thank you SarahR65. One "failure", unrelated to tech (Property) back in 2008. SarahR65 is probably right re misunderstanding. I'll show up against all the HEG companies and many others I'm sure for all of the above. Also correct re the sale to GD.

Re 2015 Yay.com balance sheet. Pretty much. We didn't aim to make money at this stage, but can ensure you are extremely well invested. We don't have a negative balance sheet because we suck at business, we have it because we spent money building a product with no customers and only launched in 2015 - the year of the public accounts you are reading. All intentional. We are of course now profitable.

All this said, sign up for a trial and and look around the product. Then go try Voipfone, Vonage, Sipgate, Ringcentral - happy to name all our "competitors". Then make your own judgement. I suspect you will post much like Glen82 kindly did - without any prompt at all - thank you Glen82 and I'm sorry your thread is now overshadowed. We do prompt for reviews like most businesses nowdays, but not on here.

For disclosure, I don't know Glen82, nor SarahR65, nor am in the business of spamming forums for a customer or two. Thank you to both once again and for alerting us to this.

I'll let marketing now give you the "official" reply if they haven't already while I've been responding.

Thanks all, Matt

 

[Yay.com]

Firstly hi @glen82! Thanks very much for the shout-out and kind words! We're really happy to hear about the positive experience you're having with us! Please do give us a shout if we can help you further!

Secondly, I hope any confusion has been cleared up. We're always happy to help and happy to have been alerted to this thread! If anyone else has any VoIP-related enquiries, we're always happy to assist!

Adrian @Yay

 

[kulture]

I have removed a number of flaming posts. Please can everyone remain professional, polite, and on topic. Also, Matt M and Yay.com, duplicate accounts are not permitted, pick one and I will remove the other. Its fine in this thread, so the posts will remain, as it is clear you are from the same organisation, but if you posted elsewhere it could get confusing.

 

[glen82]

Totally agree with the business owner Matt who commented yesterday (which has since been deleted by UKBF) asking why you have removed rebuttals of MikeJ's defamatory comments below, but you are allowing this member to post unsubstantiated slurs on a person and a company like this. Why have you not deleted his clearly unfair/unsubstantiated original comment?

Surely it is unprofessional and wrong of you to facilitate this kind of behaviour on your forums? That doesn't seem like a good moderation policy to me . . .

Anyone heard of Yay?

Nice website, but the owner seems to have a lot of failed companies behind him, and the last accounts show them to have a pretty significant lack of funds.

 

[Kat Haylock]

Hi,

If anyone should have an issue with a post, please report it and let the moderation team deal with it privately. Since Matt already replied to Mike's post (rather than reporting it, as you should have done if you felt it broke the rules), we see no reason to remove the initial post.

I'll be closing this thread as there's clearly no more positive discussion to come from this - if you'd like to discuss the original topic more, please start a new thread.