0800 Numbers: Working to get over the new year’s Business Blues

January can be a slow period for the United Kingdom business community and the present economic downturn is going to amplify this to a greater degree.

Many organisations are now looking at various cost effective means that they can focus the number of questions they are sent and in turn, generate more through put.

A very well-liked way of businesses achieving this objective is to offer their enquirers a totally free telephone call.

0800 numbers are free to call from a landline and many organisations that use them experience a dramatic increase in the amount of calls they receive. In fact, studies by the Institute of Direct Marketing has concluded that a business that uses an 0800 number can increase their amount of enquiries by up to 185%.

This is just one advantage that lots of United Kingdom businesses are experiencing by using 0800 numbers.

Here are 7 more:

1. 0800 numbers are non-geographic – which means they are not location specific like normal landline numbers. Thus, businesses can attract more companies outside of their physical vicinity as they cant be restricted by their area.

2. Provided with the option, 63% of the public say that they would always ring a freephone number first (Teleculture 2000).

3. The Henley Research Centre concluded that 68% of people get the impression that businesses that offer 0800 numbers are thinking more about their potential customers.

4. 0800 numbers, like all non-geographic telephone numbers, help organisations to immediately tidy up their telephone systems with online call handling features – such as welcome messages and call divert.

 5. Online call statistics systems allow business owners/managers/marketers to evaluate the region of callers to their 0800 number, amount of missed calls and busy times in order to benefit with marketing/customer relations and organising staff numbers more efficiently.

 6. Companies can manage where they need to get their calls (e.g. out of hours and in an emergency). Their 0800 number can be redirected to any United Kingdom landline or mobile with Call divert features

7. All calls to 0800 numbers can be put in a queue when used with internet call queuing systems. allowing companies to receive more enquiries and not miss out on potential business.

It seems evident that simply by using a freephone telephone number, businesses can increase the amount of calls they receive, deal with their callers more effectively, plan staff effectively and stand out from their competitors – all factors that are crucial in business and vital for businesses to thrive in this time of economic uncertainty.

For business owners, a simple change of telephone number could be the most important resolution that they make in 2009.