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.