How could DOBNA help your business?

Reading the question above, you would be forgiven for thinking to yourself “what is DOBNA?”

DOBNA is one of the Extra Features available on our 0800, 0845, 0844 and local numbers.

It stands for Divert Calls on Busy or No Answer.

It allows us to route calls through to alternative numbers if you are unable to answer calls.

All you do is supply us with a list of alternative numbers, and we take it from there.

So, if someone calls your 0800, 0845, virtual or 0844 number and you are on another call, then the call with be diverted to the next number on your plan, which might be a mobile, another colleagues phone, a home phone etc.

Or if you are out of the office, the call can be diverted to your mobile, so that you receive the call wherever you are.

The feature means that if you are away from the office, you can still take calls, which makes your customers feel valued as they know that you are always available to help them.

For more information, watch our video about this feature, visit our website, or call us on 0800 046 1688.

How fax to email can save time, money and the environment

We offer a wide variety of 0800, 0845, 0844 and local numbers as telephone numbers, but we also offer these numbers as fax to email numbers.

So, if you have an 0800, 0845, 0844 or local telephone number with us, you can also get a fax number with the same prefix so that your type of numbers match.

So, if you have a London phone number, you can get a London fax number to match, or an 0844 fax number to match your 0844 telephone number.

Having your fax number as fax to email can save your business time and money, and also helps the environment.

The fax gets sent straight to your email inbox, so you don’t have to leave a fax machine on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, you don’t have to print out every fax that you receive, and you don’t have to keep checking the fax machine to see if you have received a fax. You can store the fax on your computer or in your emails with other relevant documents, or you can delete it if you don’t need it.

Thus, you save paper, toner, electricity, ink, time, money and the environment – and you free up some space in the office where the fax machine and files of paper that came out of it used to be!

What are 0845 numbers?

What are 0845 numbers? To many people, numbers that start with 08 are all the same, but nothing could be further from the truth.

0800 numbers, for example, are freephone numbers when called from a landline – the caller doesn’t pay anything to make the call, and the cost is instead paid by the recipient.

0844 numbers are revenue sharing numbers – the caller pays slightly more to make the call, and the recipient doesn’t pay anything to receive the call, but instead receives a rebate.

0845 numbers are somewhere between the two.

They are “lo-call” or “low call” phone numbers – a play on words, as they cost the same to call from a landline as a local number, and the cost is low.

Callers pay between 3p and 5p per minute to call an 0845 phone number from a landline, and customers don’t pay anything to receive the call.

Like both 0800 numbers and 0844 numbers, 0845 numbers are non-geographic numbers. This means that the 0845 part of the number is not associated with any geographic area other than the UK. For this reason, they are often referred to as national numbers. 

Also like our other non-geographic numbers, 0845 numbers are pointed at your existing landline or mobile phone.

For more details about our 0845 numbers, click here to read about 0845 numbers to landlines, and here to read about 0845 numbers to mobiles.

Make sure you customers get the greeting you want them to have

When your customers or potential customers call your business, unless you are answering the phone yourself then you have very little control over exactly what the customer hears. If one of your employees is feeling grumpy or tired, then the first words the customer hears might not be the cheerful, friendly, helpful greeting that you would like them to hear.

However, if you add the Greeting Message feature to whichever number you have with us – whether it’s an 0800 number, 0845 number, 0844 number or virtual number, then you know that the first words your customer hears when they call you will be the words of your choice, said in exactly the right tone.

The Greeting Message is added to your number, so that when someone calls your number, they hear a recording such as “Thank you for calling the XYZ Company, your call is important to us and will be answered shortly”. The message can say exactly what you would like it to say, and makes your business appear professional, friendly and efficient.

The call is then answered after the message has been played. For more information on the feature, watch the video or call us on 0800 046 1688.

How do I get an 0800 number?

An 0800 number is a freephone number if called from a mobile.

Often, people think that you have to be a large company to have an 0800 number, or have a nationwide presence. They think there is some sort of criteria you have to conform to in order to have an 0800 number. And then they think you have to have some sort of extra phone line or expensive equipment involved in order to use it.

However, this is not the case, and getting an 0800 number is far easier than you probably think.

To get an 0800 number, all you have to do is visit the 0800 number page of our website, and choose either 0800 numbers to landline or 0800 numbers to mobile – depending on what type of phone you would like your 0800 number pointing to.

Then, you choose which number you would like to buy from the list of available 0800 or 0808 numbers on the page.

This gets added to your shopping basket, and when you are ready to make your purchase, you simply fill out your details, including the existing phone number that the 0800 number will point to.

Your 0800 number will be pointed to your existing landline or mobile number – you can change this number whenever you want to.

If you order an 0800 number during the week between 9am and 5pm, your number will usually be connected for you within the hour.

Visit our website for more information, or call us on 0800 046 1688.

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.