08 or 03 numbers: Which is best for your business?

April 4, 2012 - PRLog -- Non Geographic Numbers (NGNs) give you a national presence and are particularly useful for offices who use home workers, anyone who travels as part of their job, sole traders and small businesses who want to appear larger than they are.

You may be familiar with 08 NGNs like 0800 and 0845, but do you know about the 03 range? 03 numbers were introduced in 2007 to increase consumer confidence in the cost of their calls. 03 numbers are commonly called ‘freephone for mobile’ because they are charged at the same rate as a local call and can be included in the caller’s ‘free minutes’ mobile minute bundle.

If you want to increase enquiries…
Research shows that advertising a freephone number can boost your inbound calls by 300%! Choose between the widely recognized freephone 0800 which is free to call from UK landlines (of course, you pay the cost of the call) or 03xx which can be included in the caller’s ‘free minutes’ when they phone you from their mobile.

If you are an individual or business you can use the 0333 number. If you are a charity, public body or non-profit organisation the 0300 and 0303 range have dedicated mobile rates and if you already have an 084x or 087x number you can migrate it to the equivalent 034x or 037x number. For example: 0845 migrates to 0345, 0844 migrates to 0344, 0870 migrates to 0370 and 0871 migrates to 0371.

If you look to achieve a national presence but don’t want to pay for inbound calls…
You can use an 0845 number. Callers from a landline pay local rate when they call you, no matter where they are in the UK.

If you want a national presence and want to earn a rebate…
You can use 0844 (earning you up to 4p per minute on incoming calls) or 0871 (earning you up to 6p per minute on incoming calls).

These numbers are ideal for call centres or technical helplines, and could really help boost your bottom-line profits. Note that revenue share is not available with the freephone 03 numbers.

This article was submitted by Neil Barrall - Managing Director at Telecoms World PLC. Neil is an 0800 numbers, 0845 numbers and 0844 numbers expert. For more information visit our website for additional solutions.

www.telecomsworldplc.co.uk