Owners of small and medium-sized companies will often be making use of their mobile phones for business calls.
This is absolutely fine, of course, if you are fielding calls from your employees or clients who already know that you may be out and about when they call. It isn’t always so helpful when you are trying to generate more sales calls, however. This is because many people simply won’t call a mobile telephone number since they won’t necessarily know how much it will cost them and whether or not the call will be handled professionally. For tradesmen and start-ups, mobile phones being printed on business cards almost always give the wrong impression. For most firms, mobile phone numbers as the main contact number for the business is a no go.
However, mobile phones are still extremely useful for SMEs. For example, they can be used to field calls when the office is shut, perhaps at weekends or evenings or even when every available member of staff is out and about working. There again, having inbound calls come to your mobile phone means you can operate much more flexibly and won’t have to be tied to the office in case an important call comes in. You can get on with fieldwork, pick kids up from school or even work from home without needing to give out another number.
To strike the right balance between using your mobile phone to answer calls and also having a business telephone number that will encourage people to call, you should opt for an 0800 number. According to Cleartone Communications – a firm that supplies all sorts of business telephone numbers to SMEs, including 0800 ones – freephone numbers have the greatest effect in promoting more sales enquiries.
Simply put, if a business or an individual is seeking a product or service and they find more than one potential supplier, they’ll call the one with the 0800 number first. This is because an 0800 number is widely understood to be free in the UK. What’s more, it is a sign that the business is established, wants to talk to new customers and is geared up to deliver.
Crucially, you can now have an 0800 number for your business that doesn’t need to be associated with its own fixed-line. Instead, you can opt for a service that will divert calls to it to any number you like, mobile phones included. Some of the best service providers will even allow up to four mobile phones to ring when an inbound call to the 0800 number occurs.
As such, you can ensure that one of your sales team or customer service department is always on hand to deal with enquiries no matter where they might be. Most firms that buy an 0800 telephone number for their sales hotline will see a huge upturn in the number of calls they receive – some by as much as 300 per cent. As such, an 0800 number is an incredibly useful tool for SME owners who want to promote more sales and business growth while still using their mobile phones.
