Call Whisper – 30 day free trial available on all numbers

Many people don’t realise the huge benefits of having a call whisper feature on their non-geographic or virtual numbers until they have actually tried it. That is why DBS Chess offer a free 30 day trial on call whisper to customers.

If you have an 0800, 0844, 0845 or local phone number pointing to your mobile phone or landline, chances are it is for business purposes, whereas your mobile or landline number is probably for personal use. However, when your phone rings, you don’t know if it is going to be a call to your business number or a call to your personal number. Therefore, you don’t know how to answer the phone.

If you have more than one business, and have numbers for those businesses pointing to your phone, then again you won’t know what business the person calling is expecting to be at the end of the phone, and so won’t know how to answer the call.

A call whisper solves all of these problems – a short recorded message plays you a message of your choice with each call, so you know exactly what number people are calling in on.

Call Recording feature for accurate records of your phone calls

Continuing our look at our extra features, one of our most exciting features is our call recording feature. With this feature, we record your inbound phone calls for you, and then forward the recording to your chosen email address as soon as the call is finished.

We can record a selection of your calls (for example, if you just want samples to use for training purposes), all of your calls (the most popular choice of people who use this feature), or you can choose during the call when you want to start recording – so for example if you think the call doesn’t need to be recorded, but half way through you start going into detail, you might change your mind and start recording it.

You listen to the call through your computer, where you can store it and refer back to it when needed, in computer files with other related documents. It costs £5 + VAT to set up this feature, and then a monthly rental of £5 + VAT.  This feature is available on all DBS Chess Telecoms 0800 numbers, 0845 numbers, 0844 numbers, virtual local numbers and virtual London numbers.

Never miss a phone call with DBS Chess Voicemail Feature

This week we are carrying on our series about the different extra features available on our numbers by looking at our voicemail feature.

We can add a personalised voicemail box to your 0800 numbers, 0845 numbers, 0844 numbers, or virtual 0203 numbers so that people phoning those numbers can leave messages when you are busy, on other calls or when your office is closed.

We can add your own personalised message to your voicemail greeting with a range of different voices. These can say exactly what you want them to say, and we have a range of different voices available to suit your corporate image.

The best part of this extra feature is that the messages left by people on your voicemail will be emailed to you as a recording as soon as they are left, and if someone chooses not to leave a message their phone number will be emailed to you as a missed call alert, so you really won’t miss any calls.

DBS Chess charge a one off set up fee of £5 + VAT for the voicemail feature, and then a further monthly rental of £5 + VAT.

OFCOM plans 0800 numbers to be free from mobile phones

OFCOM has today announced that calls to 0800 numbers could become free from mobile phones as part of its proposals to simplify call charges to help consumers.

Announcing the plans, OFCOM said: “This major step is part of detailed plans to tackle consumer confusion about how much it costs to call businesses, public services and other organisations on 03, 08, 09 and 118 numbers. Currently, the vast majority of 0800 phone numbers incur a charge for mobile callers of up to 21p a minute. Under today’s proposals, calls to 0800 numbers from a mobile would be free for consumers, in line with landlines”.

Both consumers and providers of 0800 numbers have long been campaigning for 0800 numbers to be free from mobiles. 0800 numbers are meant to be freephone numbers, but with more and more people using mobile phones to make calls on, it has made that description increasingly harder to use without listing the exceptions.

The proposals aim to clarify and simplify exactly what the different 08, 09 and 118 numbers are and how much you are charged to use them, as well as restore trust and confidence in freephone numbers. Freephone numbers actually being free for the person making the call, whether it’s from a landline or mobile phone would go a long way towards clearing up confusion, restoring faith, and encouraging more people to phone businesses thus increasing trade for them.

To read the full OFCOM press release, click here.

Press 1 to make your business sound more professional

Following our previous post about extra features, we decided to look at some in a little more depth. The IVR or “Press 1 For Sales” feature is the feature where you phone a company and get told to press 1 for sales, press 2 for accounts, press 3 for customer service etc.

This is a fantastic feature if used properly. If you’re a small company, for example a one man band or only have a few staff, it makes you sound bigger than you actually are. This is because you can point each option to go to the same phone if you wish. So, sales, accounts and customer service could all be the same person, but it sounds more impressive to the potential customer when they’re being put through to departments.

If you’re a large company, it helps to channel the customer through to the right team to save time for both you and the customer. The trick is to not have lots of options and sub options otherwise you can confuse, anger and frustrate your customers. Keep it simple and keep it helpful.

DBS Chess offer the feature for a £25 + VAT set up fee, and then £10 + VAT monthly rental. The service is available for all of DBS Chess’s numbers, including 0800 numbers, 0845 numbers, 0844 numbers, local numbers and London numbers such as virtual 0203 numbers.

DBS Chess offers range of extra features for 0203 numbers

We are constantly stressing the merits of having virtual 0203 numbers to businesses who want the prestige of being a London company, but cannot afford to have offices or rent premises in London because it costs too much. By having a virtual 0203 number, you can be based outside of London, but still appear to be London based by having a virtual local number pointed to your existing landline or mobile. This option can save businesses a fortune, especially small businesses just starting up.

However, the benefits can be greatly magnified by adding some of our extra features to your virtual London phone number. A greeting meesage for example, recorded by us to say whatever you would like it to say, makes your business appear friendly and professional, giving your clients and potential customers a good first impression. The “press 1 for sales” service allows you to channel your customers through to the correct department if you’re a large organisation, saving you and them time, or makes you look bigger if you’re only a small company.  And call recording, whereby we record all or a selection of your calls for you for accurate records or training and then email them to you, means you never forget important conversations. Take a look at the 10 different extra features available.

OFCOM announces proposals to make switching telecoms providers easier

The UK communications regulator OFCOM has announced a set of proposals aimed at making it easier for people to change their telephone landline and broadband providers. Under the heading “making it easier to change telecoms provider”, OFCOM also announced plans to protect telecoms consumers from being “switched” without their knowledge or consent.

OFCOM explained that the reason behind their proposals is that it is important to make sure that consumers have a choice of telecoms providers, and that more importantly, they feel that they are able to easily make their choice. Although telecoms users should be able to switch telecoms providers easily to ensure that have a telephone or broadband provider that best suits their needs, research has shown that consumers face such a large number of problems whilst switching that it puts people off trying to do so. In fact, OFCOM’s research shows that 23% of people who switched telecoms bundles in the last year found the experience difficult, compared to just 4% who switched car insurance or gas suppliers. Meanwhile, research carried out by the watchdog in September 2010 showed that 45% of people thought that switching would be too much hassle.

Examples of the problems often encountered by telecoms customers choosing to switch their suppliers included around 130,000 households in 12 months having the wrong telephone line taken over during the switching process or when moving house, and that when switching broadband around 1/5 consumers lost their service altogether for about a week. Regarding the other problem of having their landline or broadband switched without their consent (known as “slammed), an estimated 520,000 households had this problem over the last year.

OFCOM has therefore proposed some changes which it says would help consumers with the process of changing telecoms providers. Their preferred solution to the problems consumers face is that the new provider would be in charge of managing the switching process. This would mean they would be in charge of transferring the services from the old provider to themselves. However, to guard against the problem of “slamming”, the process would also be checked and verified by an independent third party. This is similar to the method used in the USA and Ireland.

OFCOM’s proposals also aim to simplify the whole process of switching so that it is less confusing and easier for customers, make sure that all telecoms providers are able to compete so that consumers get a real choice with good value for money, make sure that technical problems do not happen, and ensure that customers have accurate information.

Commenting on the proposals, OFCOM CEO Ed Richards said: “Smooth switching processes are essential to ensure that consumers can change providers with confidence. Many people think that the current systems are too difficult and unreliable which is why we have made it one of our priorities to tackle this problem ... it is also essential that people are able to switch easily to exercise their choice. Today’s proposals are designed to make the process easier, more reliable and safe from slamming. We believe that the proposals would improve consumers’ experience of switching and ensure that they continue to benefit from competition.”

To ensure that people do have a choice and access to competiton, OFCOM has accredited a number of online price comparison calculators by independently auditing them and awarding their website the OFCOM price accreditation scheme logo if it passes their tests. They only receive this award if the information they provide is considered to be accessible, transparent, comprehensive, accurate and up to date. Sites that have received the award are Homephone Choices for landline services, SimplifyDigital and Cable.co.uk for landline and broadband services, and Broadband Choices and Broadband.co.uk for just broadband services.

DBS Chess has always believed in making it easy for customers to switch if they wish to, which is why you only have to give us 30 days written notice if you would like to cancel your 0800, 0845, local or 0203 numbers. Customers should have the freedom to choose which provider and service they have, and not be tied in to long contracts which they don’t want or need when circumstances change.