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.

Why use the Call Recording feature?

We offer a range of different extra features which can be used with our 0800 numbers, 0845 numbers, 0844 numbers and local numbers. One of the most exciting features is the Call Recording feature.

The Call Recording feature does what it says on the tin – it records your inbound telephone calls received on the numbers you have with us.

You can choose to have all of your received calls recorded, or just a selection of calls. Alternatively, you can choose to start recording a call whilst the telephone conversation is in progress. Most of our customers choose to have all of their calls recorded.

Why would you want to record your calls? There are a number of reasons. For some companies, calls are recorded for training purposes. If this is the aim, then the best option is probably to choose to have a selection of calls recorded.

However, another key reason is for records. If you are having an important business phone call, there might be a lot of detail discussed. You can take notes, but sometimes it can be hard to focus on the call and take thorough, accurate, detailed notes at the same time. And however good you are at note taking, there is always a chance that something might be missed. With call recording, you can listen back to the call as many times as you want, and if there is any future disagreement about what was agreed in a phone call, you can listen back to check.

When the call finishes, the recording is sent to your email address straight away, so you can save the call to your computer in your files if you so wish.

For more information, please see our extra features page.

What is a Call Whisper?

One of our most popular extra features is the “call whisper” feature. We believe it is such a great feature that we offer our customers a free 30 day trial when they order an 0800, 0845, 0844 or local number with us. Why do we like it so much?

Well, all of our numbers are pointed to an existing landline or mobile phone number. So, when somebody calls you, you don’t know if they are phoning your existing landline or mobile number as a personal call, or if they are phoning your local or non-geographic number as a business call. The type of call you are receiving can obviously change the way in which you answer the call.

Some people may have more than one company, and may want to point different numbers for different companies to the same phone for convenience. The problem with doing that is that they don’t know which company the person on the end of the phone is calling, and so don’t know how to answer it.

A third problem can be having multiple local numbers pointed to the same phone, and then not knowing which area you are meant to be in because you don’t know which local number has been called.

Call Whisper is the solution to all of these problems. When you receive a call to your 0800, 0844, local or 0845 number, you will hear a short recorded message when you answer the call to let you know which number is being called. The caller just hears the continuing ringing tone. You then know how to answer the phone call.

You can add a whisper for each number, and the whisper can be customised to say whatever you would like it to say.

For more information, see our extra features page. 

The importance of looking local

Depending on what type of business you have, you might want to portray yourself as a nationwide company, or as a local company. If you want to carry out work nationwide, then we advise that you have one of our non-geographic numbers for your business – either an 0800 number, 0845 number or 0844 number, depending on which one suits your business needs best.

However, if you want to appear to be a local business, even if that is to lots of different localities, then you are best having virtual local numbers. These are ideal if you are based in one area, but want to appear local to lots of different areas. So, for example, if you were based in Bristol but wanted to operate across the whole of the south west, appearing as a local business, then you could have an Exeter 01392 number, a Plymouth 01752 number, a Taunton 01823 number, a Penzance 01736 number, a Devizes 01380 number, and of course a Bristol 0117 number and Bath 01225 number. These are just examples, but they can all be pointed to the same phones in an office so all of your calls still go through to the same place, but appear to be more local than they actually are.

The reasoning behind this is that lots of people still prefer to use a local business for certain trades, and when looking for numbers will only go for area codes that they recognise, as they then know that the business is based locally. With lots of local phone numbers you can appear in lots of different local telephone directories as well. A local area code says to potential customers that you are a business that operates in their area, know the area, and are nearby if there are any problems.

Why use fax to email?

We offer fax to email numbers as all of our different numbers – including 0800 numbers, 0845 numbers, 0844 numbers and virtual local numbers.

They have to be a different number from your telephone number if you already have one of the above, but we believe if you use a fax machine, there are huge benefits to having a fax to email number.

Firstly, it means you can get rid of your fax machine. You don’t have to leave it switched on 24 hours a day 7 days a week so as not to miss a fax. This saves quite a lot of electricity.

However, it means you can still receive faxes, so if customers wish to send you a fax you are able to give them a fax number.

It also saves paper, as the fax is sent straight to your email inbox, so you only print it if you want or need to.

With the fax in your email inbox, it helps to create a more efficient filing system.

Finally, if you already have an 0800, 0845, 0844 or virtual number, it means that your fax number will match your telephone number, so you don’t end up with a non-geographic phone number, but then a fax number revealing you are in Essex.

Why small businesses should consider 0844 numbers

Many businesses choose to have an 0800 number because they are free for their customers to phone from a landline. The business, rather than the customer, pays to receive the call, which is a fantastic marketing tool if the business can afford to do it. However, not all small businesses or start up businesses can afford to pay the cost of receiving their telephone calls.

That is why 0844 is a great alternative. Your customers only pay 5p per minute to make the call to you from a landline, so not a premium rate, and you then receive 2p per minute of that charge as a rebate. This is a fantastic option for SMEs as it means they don’t have to pay for their calls, but instead get some money back which helps provide a top up to their income, especially if they receive lots of calls.

0844 still has the other benefits that 0800 numbers give small businesses. It is a non-geographic number and so makes the business appear to be a national company rather than a small local company operating only in one area and only providing services to that area. You can also add all the extra features to 0844 that you can to 0800, including call whisper, the “press 1 for sales” service, and call queuing. For small businesses and start up businesses, 0844 is worth considering.