Geographic Phone Numbers
Geographic numbers (also known as Local Area Code Numbers and STD Codes) all begin with the digits 01 or 02 and relate to a City, Town or Area in the UK. For instance, 020 is the Local Area Code for London and 0161 is the Local Area Code for Manchester.
The main benefits of using geographic numbers for your business are:
- They are the cheapest numbers to call from mobiles, some mobile networks charge up to 55p/minute to call an 08 number! With more customers using mobiles, offering a geographic number will ensure that it costs them as little as possible to call you and therefore increase response.
- People are more likely to respond to your advertisement if they feel you are in their local area. For example, if you were based in Manchester but wanted to advertise in the London, you could use a London telephone number in your advertisement. Any calls to the 020 number would then be diverted to your existing landline in Manchester. The reason for doing this is that most people are more likely to ring a business that appears local to one that appears to be miles away!
- People are more likely to think twice before dialling a premium rate number than an 01/02 number, which will only cost them the local rate or ,in many cases, is free as it’s included in their phone package. People generally know that 0800 is free but there is a lot of confusion about the cost of 0844/0845/0871, which can put customers off.
- Cheaper than advertising with an 0800 freephone number it costs you less to receive the calls.
- There's no need to change your existing landline number.
- There is absolutely no requirement for extra phone lines or any equipment whatsoever. We simply divert the incoming calls to an existing number of your choice. Your phone will continue to receive calls on its original number as well as the incoming 01/02 calls, and can be used to make outgoing calls as normal.
- Online real-time stats and reporting.
- Call recording/playback facilities
- Your new 01/02 number is quick & easy to set-up, so if you order online now it could be up and running later today!
Receive text messages from customers on your Geographic Number as well.
Most people know that you can text a landline, messages are converted into a voice message and then delivered to number as an inbound call. That’s fine for personal messaging but it’s not a great way for a business to receive text messages from customers. We can supply you with SMS enabled Geographic Numbers which allow the customer to call or text you using the same number. Calls are just routed through to you as normal and any texts are converted instantly to e-mail and delivered to an address of your choice. You can then reply to the customer via e-mail which we convert and send back as a text message.
For more information, please contact us on 0844 448 2222.
