Would this put you off

[tomp1986]

Hi guys

As the title says would this put you off

We are a property clearance company based in sheffield

So we have a local sheffield number we also cover the rest of south and West Yorkshire so picked the other big city in our operating area leeds and got a local number for that

We also have a 0800 number for the people who like free phone they are all diverted to a mobile and I get weekly summary for all call.

Before we had new site built we had only 0800 number and thought the local numbers would help

But now I feel we are not getting work in areas like Doncaster or Wakefield and quite a few more large towns due to them seeing the 2 local numbers and thinking they are based 20 miles away and deciding on another company

Where as when we had just the 0800 they would of just presumed that when they have done a google search and we come up that we were local. All areas we cover are only a max of 45 mins away so kind of local but think the numbers may be putting some people off

Does this sound possible and would it put you off?

 

[Faevilangel]

It could well be, as people like to deal with local co's especially in regards to local work such as yours.

Could you invest in some more local #'s and just redirect them to one of the other numbers, many companies resell these numbers for around £2+vat per month, so it's a low cost way to have a few local numbers where you're in a big catchment area.

A "local" aerial installation company near me has 20+ numbers for all the local towns, but they only have one office, but I would expect each number brings them enough money in as it makes it seem they are more local than they are.

 

[superdooper500]

I would agree, get plenty of local numbers and set up optimised landing pages for each town/city. I'm convinced it's worth the relatively small investment of time and money to dominate the SERPS for huddersfield, bradford, wakefield etc etc.

Also, google would have us all believe that they love a local number, so should help you rank nice and easily for each landing page.

 

[fisicx]

Test it and see what happens. Remove the local numbers and if enquiries pick up leave it as it is. If they drop off put the local number back and remove the 0800 and see what happens.

I know that when we needed someone to do a clearance I Googled the name of the town and the words 'house clearance'. I didn't even visit their website, I just called them using the number on the local listings.

 

[noo81]

hi,

It does sound possible that your local number is putting people, further a field, off. Personally i would pick a company that is local and would probably assume a company with a different area code number would be too far. Maybe you cold make it clearer in your advertising that you cover a wide area.

 

[Ashley_Price]

I really don't think having a "local" number makes a difference.

When we did call answering, we had a client in London, who used the number we set up for them on all their advertising, stationery, etc., and it didn't seem to bother potential customers that although they were calling an online retailer based in London, they were dialling "01273" instead of 0207/8.

Also, an 0800 number could put a lot of people off as mobiles are charged (at a higher rate) for dialling 0800 numbers, and more people just call from mobiles these days.

If you're desperate to look local then you can get virtual geographic numbers, which have the dialling codes of the areas you want to cover, that get diverted to another number.

 

[tomp1986]

hi,

It does sound possible that your local number is putting people, further a field, off. Personally i would pick a company that is local and would probably assume a company with a different area code number would be too far. Maybe you cold make it clearer in your advertising that you cover a wide area.

Thank you

It says in loads of places we cover south and West Yorkshire all the places are a max of say 45 mins away so nobody is paying more for being further away
Just think some people are seeing say the Leeds number and thinking I'm 25 minutes away from there I will use someone else even though we are the better option and maybe even better on price

 

[tomp1986]

I really don't think having a "local" number makes a difference.

When we did call answering, we had a client in London, who used the number we set up for them on all their advertising, stationery, etc., and it didn't seem to bother potential customers that although they were calling an online retailer based in London, they were dialling "01273" instead of 0207/8.

Also, an 0800 number could put a lot of people off as mobiles are charged (at a higher rate) for dialling 0800 numbers, and more people just call from mobiles these days.

If you're desperate to look local then you can get virtual geographic numbers, which have the dialling codes of the areas you want to cover, that get diverted to another number.

Thank you

I think because the numbers we have are sheffield and Leeds some places we cover are 25 minutes away from both of these places 0800 annoyed people calling from mobiles and as my numbers are in the header on my site cannot have a list of 10 numbers for each location

I do no that when we had the 0800 only was doing mabe 1-2 in Doncaster a week now haven't done one in about 2 months Wakefield the same

 

[RobertLamb61]

0800 always is the best bet in my experience. People know that it's 'free' even if it's not actually through various mobile services!

 

[David White]

What rings a bell to me is that you just changed your website. Do you know where your main source of leads/customers comes from? e.g. Google searches or offline directories etc?

 

[Ashley_Price]

0800 always is the best bet in my experience. People know that it's 'free' even if it's not actually through various mobile services!

A lot of people don't mind calling 0800 from their mobile if it's a one-off call. But we used to answer calls for a printers that had an 0800 number, and many of the callers would ask if we had a direct dial - because to keep ringing the 0800 was costing them "a fortune".

So, you do need to weigh that up.

 

[tomp1986]

What rings a bell to me is that you just changed your website. Do you know where your main source of leads/customers comes from? e.g. Google searches or offline directories etc?

Main work comes from google adwords and hopefully my organic searches once site gets a bit further up the google ladder