Deciding which phone to point your number at

 Here at DBS Chess Telecoms we offer 0800 numbers, 0845 numbers, 0844 numbers, London phone numbers, International Toll Free numbers and local numbers for 479 different UK towns and cities.

Once you have chosen which type of number is best for you, you then have to choose whether you would like any additional features, and where you would like your new number pointed.

All of these numbers have to be pointed (or routed) to an existing phone number. You have to choose whether you want it pointed to an existing landline number or an existing mobile number.

If your business will be based in an office or in a building such as a house then you probably want your number pointed to a landline number.

However, if your business doesn’t have any fixed premises, and you are usually on the road rather than in an office, then you probably want to point the number to a mobile.

Either way, people calling you will only see the number we provide you with, and not the landline or mobile number that it is pointed to.

Our charges are different for numbers pointed to mobiles from what they are to numbers pointing to landlines, so check this out before purchasing.

The benefits of virtual London numbers

Technorati Tags: London numbers,London phone numbers,020 numbers

Virtual London phone numbers are our most popular type of virtual phone numbers. There are many reasons for this. The obvious one of course is that London is our capital city, where approximately 1/8 of the UK population live, so out of the 479 different area codes that we offer, you would expect London to be the most popular. But, it also begs the question, why virtual London numbers?
Well, the cost of living and having a business in London is huge. Rent for residential property and rent for commercial property is enormous. Transport costs, living costs are all massive. And yet, being a London business carries a huge amount of prestige. If people see that you are a London business, they think you’ve made it.
Having a virtual London number therefore makes you appear to be a London company, giving you the prestige of appearing to be a London company, but without London costs. Instead you can base your business just outside the M25, or if you don’t need premises, point your 020 number to a mobile phone.
Follow these links to read the details about our London numbers to landline and London numbers to mobile.

About our 0844 numbers

In the last of our posts about our main categories of numbers, we’re going to be looking at our 0844 numbers. 0844 numbers are non-geographic numbers, meaning 0844 does not indicate any specific geographic location in the UK. They therefore give you a national presence.

If you have one of our 0844 numbers pointed to a UK landline, you will receive 2p per minute on every call you receive, and are not charged to receive the call. If you have one of our 0844 numbers pointed to a mobile then you are charged 8p + VAT per minute to receive the call, which increases to 27p if you are on the 3 Mobile Network.

Your customers calling your 0844 number from a landline, whether it is pointing to a landline or a mobile, pay 5p per minute to make the call. However, this varies according to their provider if they call you from a mobile phone. Whether your 0844 number is pointing to a landline or mobile, you pay an initial £5 + VAT set up, and then rental of £5 + VAT per month.

As with all of our numbers you only need to give 30 days’ written notice to cancel your number. You receive a fully itemised monthly bill, and if you order from us anytime between 9am and 5pm Monday – Friday we will aim to have your number connected within minutes.

About our local numbers

Number three in our series of posts about our range of numbers is local numbers, also known as virtual numbers and ghost numbers. These are numbers which can be pointed at your existing landline or mobile phone, and that give you an area code for an area that you want to appear local for. For example, if you are based in London but want to also have a Birmingham phone number to appeal to customers in the midlands, then you get one of these pointed to your phone and you have a Birmingham number as well as your London number. They’re also great for companies wanting to appear to be based in London, but cannot afford London prices so base themselves outside.

Local numbers are ideal for companies that have one central head office but want to appeal to lots of different areas, or for companies that operate using mobile phones as they are mainly on the road but want to appeal to have local premises. Often calling a mobile will put potential customers off, so this is a good way to avoid that.We have a wide range of local numbers for 479 different UK area codes. 

About our 0845 Numbers

Continuing the theme of last week’s blogpost, we’re going to focus on our 0845 numbers this week. 0845 numbers are known as “low call numbers” – this means that the cost of the call is low, and around the same price as a local call – between 3 and 5p per minute depending on the service provider when calling from a landline, and vary according to your network when you call from a mobile phone.

Unlike 0800 numbers, the owners of 0845 numbers don’t pay to receive calls if the number is pointed to a landline. However, if it is pointed to a mobile then you pay 8p + VAT per minute, and 27p + VAT if on the 3 Mobile Network.  With our 0845 numbers you just pay a one of set up fee of £5 + VAT (£9.99 + VAT if you are pointing the 0845 number to a mobile), and then a monthly rental of £5 + VAT.

An 0845 number is a non-geographic number (NGN), meaning the code doesn’t link it to any geographical area in the UK. This means that 08 numbers are often considered to be “national” numbers, and can make a company appear to be a nationwide company rather than a local one, making a business look larger than it actually is.

About our 0800 Numbers

Having looked at the range of extra features that we offer, this week we’re going to start looking at the different numbers we offer. Firstly, we’re going to look at 0800 numbers. To clear up any confusion, 0800 numbers are free to call when you phone them from a landline. This is why they are often called freephone numbers. If you phone a number starting with 0800 from your landline phone, you will not be charged for the call. If you phone an 0800 number from your mobile phone, your mobile provider will charge you for the call, although OFCOM is looking at changing that.

You can point your 0800 number to any existing landline or mobile phone number. If it is pointing at a landline, the recipient pays 2.9p + VAT per minute to receive the call, whilst the caller doesn’t pay anything, which is a great way of encouraging calls to your business. 0800 to mobile is more expensive. We charge £5 + VAT set up (£9.99 + VAT for 0800 to mobile) and then £5 + VAT monthly rental. We only require 30 days written notice to cancel.  We use per second rather than per minute billing. Check out our website to find out more!

Your calls can follow you without you having to do anything

This week we are profiling our “Time of Day Routing” feature. This, like most of our features, does what it says on the tin. It allows you to set up your 0800, 0845, 0844 or local number so that they forward calls received on that number to different phones depending on what time of day it is.

So, for example, you can decide to have your calls routed through to the phone in your office between 9am and 5pm when you’re at your desk, and to your mobile phone or maybe your home phone when your office is closed. Or you may prefer to have calls put through to an out of hours voicemail instead.

All you have to do is supply us with your times and the numbers you want the calls routed to, and we programme your number so that your calls follow you according to the time of day.  The routing can be changed at any time if you change your opening times or are away on holiday, and it costs just £5 + VAT to set up, and £5 + VAT per month thereafter.

Monitor your calls carefully with Online Call Statistics

One of the extra features offered by DBS Chess Telecoms is Online Call Statistics. This feature is available for any 0800 number, 0845 number, 0844 number or local number that you have with us. 

It allows you to log in to your online account and see the phone numbers of people who have called you, what time they called you and how long the call lasted. It also allows you to see how quickly the call was answered, so if you’re a call centre or a business it means you check the efficiency of your call answering and whether you need to hire more staff. This also applies to companies with lots of branches, and franchisors. 

It also tells you details of calls you have missed so that you can get back to those people and not miss any potential customers.  You can check these stats every day, which is great for companies using different numbers for different adverts so that they can monitor the success of different adverts and keep track of the return on their investment. It costs a one off fee of £5 + VAT to set up, and £5 + VAT rental per month thereafter.

How to use fax to email

Fax to email is an incredibly easy to use feature that will save your business time, money, ink, paper and electricity. Quite simply, when somebody sends you a fax, instead of it being sent to your fax machine, it is converted to a PDF and sent straight to your email inbox.
 
This means that you don’t have to leave your fax machine switched on continuously, day and night, throughout the year. With a normal fax machine, if someone tries to send you a fax when the machine is switched off, you won’t receive it, so it has to be left on just in case. With fax to email, as with any other email, it will be there in your email inbox when you switch your computer or mobile device on.
 
This also means that you can delete faxes that are not needed, having read them on your screen, store ones that you do need in your computer files with other documentation, and only print faxes that you actually need printed. It also means you don’t have to keep checking the fax machine, and helps the environment.
 
Fax to email is available as an 0800, 0844, 0845 or virtual local number, but has to be a separate number from the number you use for voice calls.

What is DOBNA?

Good question! DOBNA stands for Divert calls on Busy or No Answer and effectively means that when you’re unable to answer your office phone, you can still answer your calls. It is one of the ten extra features that we offer to enhance our non-geographic and virtual local numbers.

The way that it works is that you give DBS Chess a list of alternate contact numbers which they program in to your 0800, 0845, 0844 or virtual local number. Then, when a customer calls you and you are not in the office, the call will be routed through to your alternative numbers, whether that is your mobile, home number, another business colleague – whatever you choose. All you have to do is provide us with your alternative contact details and we do the rest.

It is a simple and effective way to make sure that your customers feel that there is always someone there they can talk to, and not just a continuous ringing. It costs just £5 + VAT to set up, and then £5 + VAT per month rental. 

Welcome your callers with our greeting message

One of the extra features that you can add to your number package with DBS Chess is the Greeting Message feature. It is a relatively simple feature, but used correctly can make your business appear friendly, caring and professional.

Quite simply, it is a recording that the customer hears when they phone your number which can say whatever you want it to say. So, for example it might say “thank you calling our company, your call is important to us and will be answered shortly”, or “Welcome to our business, a member of our staff will be available to help you as soon as possible”. 

There is no end to the potential messages you could play, all of which are a great alternative to a continuously ringing phone. After a certain amount of time, callers get fed up with just a continuous ring and hang up, but if they have heard a voice, even though it is recorded, they feel they can expect someone to pick up and that something is being done about their call. The message is also the first interaction they have with your company, so the right tone can make a good first impression.

Provide better customer service with call queuing

Any business, but particularly small businesses, cannot afford to be losing customers or potential customers at the moment. But if someone goes to call you, and they get the engaged tone, or even worse keep getting the engaged tone, they are likely to go somewhere else. You might only get one chance, and if you’re phone is engaged you might lose a potentially large order. Having more calls than you can handle might sound great, but in reality it doesn’t look good and gives poor customer service. 

Call Queuing is an extra feature which provides an easy solution to this. It will “stack” up to 50 calls that are trying to get through to you, play the callers music and hold them in a queue, telling them what position they are in the queue and playing them comfort messages. The comfort messages can say exactly what you would like them to say. As soon as a phone becomes free, the call is put through. 

The extra feature is available on all of our 0800, 0844, 0845 and local phone numbers, and costs just £5 + VAT to set up, and a monthly rental of £5 + VAT.

DBS Chess Call Answering Service

As well as providing 0800, 0845, 0844, local numbers and international virtual and toll free numbers, DBS Chess Telecoms also provides a handy call answering service. Also known as Virtual Reception, we answer your calls for you in your business name from our UK offices between 9am and 5.30pm, Monday – Friday. A whisper before the call lets us know who the customer is calling, so that we always answer as a member of your staff. Our trained and experienced receptionists then answer your calls quickly and professionally, taking accurate, detailed messages which they then send to you immediately via email.

Customers use this service for a number of reasons. They may be on the road a lot, and need someone to answer calls when they’re not around without having to take on a full time member of staff. They might sometimes have busy periods and not have enough staff to answer the phone, so need help with overflow. They might never be in the office, and so want someone to answer all their calls. Or they might just be on holiday! It is a very flexible service. Whatever the reason, the outcome is that you don’t miss any calls and therefore don’t lose business.

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.