How to keep on top of your business with online call statistics

One of the handy extra features available for our range of 0800, 0845, 0844 and local phone numbers is Online Call Statistics.

This feature allows you to go online and look easily look up statistics for all of the 0800, 0845, 0844 and local numbers that you have with us.

You can use this feature to see lists of phone numbers that have called you, the time that they called you, how long the call was, how quickly the call was answered, if you missed any calls and if so how many, and more.

This feature is ideal for knowing if you have enough staff in place to answer calls, by seeing how long it takes you to answer calls and how many you are missing.

If you are based in different offices, have multi-branch companies or different franchises, then it is a great way to make sure that other people in your company are providing a high level of customer service.

Also, if you have multiple numbers, it is a great way to keep a close eye on which numbers are working for you and which aren’t. For example, if you use one 0800 number in one magazine advert, and a different one in a newspaper advert, and one number receives 100 calls and the other only 2, you know that one advert is worth continuing and the other one isn’t.

Click here to read more about our Online Call Statistics feature and our other great extra features.

Never miss a business call again with our handy voicemail feature

If somebody calls your business number when you are on another call, are busy, or when your office is closed, it doesn’t look very good to your customer or prospective customer if the phone just rings, or if they are faced with an engaged tone, and cannot leave a message. Chances are if they are a new customer, they are not going to keep calling back – they will just phone a competitor instead.

It is therefore a good idea to add our voicemail feature to your business numbers. It can be added to any of our 0800, 0845, 0844 or local numbers. The feature provides you with a personalised voicemail box – you can choose exactly what the message says, and we will record it for you. So, even if your customer cannot speak to you, they will at least hear the friendly, welcoming message of your choice.

One of the great benefits of this feature is that as soon as someone has left you a voicemail message, we will email that message to you as a recording, so you can listen to it straight away through your emails if you wish to. You can therefore hear their message whenever and wherever you are, so if it is urgent, you can get back to them straight away.

Another great part of the feature is that you will also be emailed the phone numbers of any calls you miss where the caller does not leave a voicemail message – so you can still call them back, thus minimising the amount of business lost through missing phone calls. 

How to make your business appear bigger than it is

There are plenty of ways to use telecoms to make your business appear to be bigger than it actually is.

A key one is the type of phone number you use. If you give out your main business number as your mobile phone number, then this suggests to clients or potential clients that you are a small business or a one man band.

If you use a local phone number as your main company number, then it suggests you are a company doing business only in a specific area – eg. you’re a London company or a Birmingham company or a Liverpool company.

However, if you use a non-geographic number such as an 0800 number or an 0845 number, then you are saying that you are a national company – these numbers are not specific to any geographic location other than the UK, so will make your company appear to be a national company. Any company can have them, and they can be pointed to your existing landline or mobile, so can make you appear to be bigger than you actually are.

You can then use a range of extra features to make your business seem even larger, for example the “Press 1 for Sales” (see video) feature inviting your callers to press a number for a different department (these can all point to the same phone), and call queuing, telling your callers they are in a queue and their call will be answered shortly. These are features callers associate with large companies, but are available to all businesses.

More calls than you can answer at any one time? Try our Call Queuing feature

What do you do if you have more calls coming in to your office than you can answer?

Do you let the phone just carry on ringing?

Do you ask the person you are already on the phone to if you can call them back?

Does the person calling just get an “engaged” tone?

If you do any of these options, then you are making your company look unprofessional, and also potentially losing a large amount of business. If customers or potential customers have trouble getting hold of you when they want to, then there is a high chance that they will just phone somebody else instead.

One of the answers to this problem is to add our “Call Queuing” feature to your 0800, 0845, local or 0844 number.

If people call you and you are unable to immediately take their call, they will be put into a queue. The feature will then play music to them, tell them their position in the queue, and play messages to them such as telling them their call is important to you and will be answered shortly.

The system can hold up to 50 calls in a queue. As soon as a phone becomes free, the call gets put through to it.

This system can be used by anyone with one of our numbers and is easy to add – no extra equipment is required. It is ideal for small, medium and large businesses. For more details, please see our extra features page.