New business phone line

A new business phone line is always a dilemma particularly now with so many choices available. Peter Hanley discusses the best options for your business and why you should use them.

Local number

The first consideration is how many numbers you will need based on both expected call traffic and staff availability.

More than one in-bound line requirement will most likely lead to a phone system of a kind or a hosted network where
the numbers and equipment are cloud-based.

Don’t just buy numbers or lines because it looks good, they do cost money and there are better ways to achieve this.

Mobile phone number

Many small business and home-based businesses have adapted to use the mobile phone. Now in itself, this can work
to deliver calls to you at all times.
However, there are several problems or downsides to this;

1) Using a mobile number states you are a small one-man business and may be hard to get. I know I shy away from these numbers when seeking a tradesperson of service.

2) It interrupts your workflow and costs you valuable on the job time.

3) Clients often get snarky when you are taking calls in their time, they are paying you an hourly rate for you to chat on the mobile.

Generally, I would actively dissuade you from this approach.

Free call number 0800, 1300

A free call number is a number and not a line. You need to point it to a line either local or mobile.

These numbers are great if you are operating interstate. You could be a corporation as the number does not place you in a location. An ideal opportunity in this circumstance.

Furthermore, my recommendation is do not consider this if you are plying a local trade. Customers want a local business to deal with and not an unknown identity.

Name numbers

This is for the advanced style business. 0800 mobile or something like that.

You generally have 6 numbers to play with and these are shown clearly on your handset.

If you use more than the six number/ words the others don’t count and the system ignores them.
Certainly, you get an increased number retention rate and thus more calls but at a cost.

Recommended where appropriate.

Virtual Phone number

These days you can get a Virtual number that is cloud-based but in a local number range.
The number can point to your mobile phone, home phone or even a message service.
The cost is minimal to set up but you do pay more on heavy use.

As the Internet grows you will see more and more of this type of service.

Back up answering service

Always have a back up answering service. Phone calls are important and missed calls could be missed dollars.
If you are using your mobile it will have a message bank service within the package.

The Author runs a Service in Australia called Verdi that backs up all telephone calls with a great message service