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The Virtual Number Company - Latest News

  • The difference between 0207, 0208 and 0203 numbers

    17/02/2012 14:38

    One of the questions that we are frequently asked at The Virtual Number Company is: what is the difference between the three different types of London phone number – 0203 numbers, 0207 numbers and 0208 numbers?

    The short answer is that nowadays there is no difference. In fact, technically there is no such thing as an 0207 number, an 0203 number or an 0208 number, just 020 numbers. 020 is the area code for London. The next part of the number then starts with a 3, 7 or 8, but that is not part of the area code, it is just how they are referred to for convenience.  But all three are exactly the same thing – London phone numbers. Therefore, it doesn’t matter whether you buy a virtual 0207, 0203 or 0208 number from us, it is still an 020 number and therefore still a London phone number.

    Historically, 071 was inner London and 081 was outer London in the early 1990s. This became 0171 and 0181 respectively in 1995. In 2000, 0171 for inner London became 0207, and 0181 for outer London became 0208. The introduction of 0203 for the whole of London in 2004, plus more people now taking their numbers with them when they move has muddied the waters and means that as long as the number starts with 020, it doesn’t matter if it is followed by a 3, 7 or 8 – it’s a London number!

  • Everything you need to know about 0845 numbers

    11/11/2011 14:09

    “People generally know what an 0800 number is” says Jemma Fox, Marketing Director of The 0845 Number Company, “but they’re often unsure about what exactly an 0845 number is. This article is therefore designed to give people some information about what exactly an 0845 number is and to give some details on our pricing and policies so that people know what to expect from an 0845 number”.

    0345 numbers were first introduced in 1985 as BT’s version of Lo-Call numbers, and 0645 was Mercury Communication’s version. Readers may remember that Mercury Communications was formed as a consortium of Cable & Wireless, British Petroleum and Barclays Merchant Bank in 1982. These two numbers survived until 2000 and the Big Number Change of 22nd April, when they were replaced by one number: the 0845 number. These were universally charged as local numbers until 2004, but this can now vary.

    The 0845 numbers provided by The 0845 Number Company are lo-call numbers. They can also be referred to as low-call numbers, but the basic principle behind them is that if the person making the call is phoning from a landline then they pay the same cost as if they were making a local phone call. As that cost is low, the words low and local and combined to make either low-call or lo-call.  Customers may be charged by their mobile phone provider when calling an 0845 number from their mobile.

    0845 numbers are pointed to either existing landline numbers or existing mobile numbers. When pointed to either a landline or a mobile there is a one off £5 + VAT set up fee, and then a monthly number rental of £5 + VAT. Unlike 0800 numbers, you don’t pay to receive calls when the 0845 number is pointed to your landline. However, if your 0845 number is pointed to your mobile phone then you do pay 13p + VAT per minute to receive the call. If you are on the 3 Mobile network this increases to 27p + VAT per minute.

    The 0845 Number Company also offers an environmentally friendly and energy efficient fax-to-email 0845 number, which means that people send you a fax and it goes straight to your email inbox. The 0845 Number Company also offers a wide range of added value features to accompany their 0845 numbers.

    With all phone numbers from The 0845 Number Company you only have to give 30 days written notice to cancel. If you order between 9am and 5pm on a normal working weekday then The 0845 Number Company will be able to connect your new number in minutes.  The 0845 Number Company provides fully itemised bills, per second billing and discounts on multiple numbers.

    Jemma Fox said: “0845 is a fantastic compromise between freephone numbers and premium rate numbers. Your customers pay a small amount – it’s not free but then it’s not high either. Meanwhile you don’t pay to receive the call but you don’t get money from it either.  However it is still a non-geographic number so it still gives you that national presence”. 

  • The Virtual Number Company now offers free 30 day trial on call whisper

    04/11/2011 12:25

    The Virtual Number Company is now offering a 30 free day trial on its “Call Whisper” feature to allow clients with 0800 numbers, 0845 numbers, 0844 numbers and virtual phone numbers the opportunity to try before you buy. 

    Marketing Director Jemma Fox said “Many clients don’t realise what an incredibly useful feature the ‘call whisper’ is until they try it. If you find after 30 days that you don’t need it, it’s not for you, then you can cancel the feature, but we often find that clients prefer to keep it because it is absolutely invaluable to them”.

    A call whisper is a short recorded message that is played to you when you answer the phone. You can choose what you what the message to say, so it can say “business call”, “0800 number call”, “call to your London phone number”, the name of your company, or anything you would like it to say. The people making the call don’t hear the call whisper, they only hear the phone continuing ringing for the few seconds it takes for the whisper to play. If you have lots of different numbers then different call whispers can be put on them.

    What is the point? Often, customers who have a virtual local phone number have more than one number. For example, they might have a central office in one area, but have several different virtual  phone numbers for the different area codes surrounding them that they want to do business in, all pointing to the same phone system. In that scenario, the whisper could tell you what number was being called, so you knew where the person calling you was expecting you to be based.

    Another scenario is individuals who have more than one business. They might choose to have different phone numbers for their different businesses, but point them all to the same mobile phone or landline phone. In that scenario, the whisper could tell you what business the caller was calling.

    However, the most common use of the call whisper is to determine whether the incoming phone call is a personal or business call. If you only have one business, and have the virtual phone number for that business pointing to your existing mobile or landline phone, when the phone rings you won’t know if it is a business call to your virtual number or a personal call to your already existing phone number. The nature of the call determines the manner in which you answer the phone, so if you have a call whisper telling you it is a business call, you can answer in a professional manner with your business name rather than just “Hello”.

    The 30 day free trial is available to new and existing clients. New clients will be offered the option when ordering their numbers, existing clients can phone 0800 142 2166 to add the trial to their existing package. Call Whisper is one of a number of added value features offered by The Virtual Number Company, which also includes Auto Attendant, Call Recording and Fax to Email.

  • The Importance of Call Whisper for 0845 telephone numbers

    01/11/2011 18:25

    The 0845 Number Company is one of the UK’s leading providers of lo-call 0845 telephone numbers. 0845 numbers are lo-call non-geographic numbers. This means that you are charge the same cost as making a local call to phone them, and unlike phone numbers with area codes, there is no geographic area associated with 0845. Therefore, they are often referred to as national numbers, because they could be pointed to anywhere in the country.

    The truth is that they are pointed to existing landline or mobile phones, and can be for businesses of any shape of size. “People generally assume that if you have an 0845 number then you must be a large company, which is often why some companies go for them, because they make their business look larger than it actually is” says Jemma Fox, Marketing Director of The 0845 Number Company. “In reality, many businesses that have 0845 telephone numbers are large companies, but there are also plenty of smaller businesses out there that have their 0845 number pointed to their existing mobile or house landline phone, and don’t want to give that number out for privacy reasons. However, the problem comes when someone rings the number, as they don’t know if the caller is phoning their 0845 number to speak to their business, or if they are calling the personal number.

    “Call Whisper is the solution to this problem. When you get a call to your 0845 number, if you have a call whisper then a short, recorded message of your choice is played to you before the call. So, it might say ‘business call’, or the name of your company, or ‘0845 number call’. This then lets you know how to answer the phone. So, if it is a business call you can say the name of your company, and answer in a professional tone asking how you can help, whereas if it is a personal call you can answer with a hello or by saying your name. Thus you don’t look unprofessional to clients and customers, and don’t sound silly to your friends and family.

    The call whisper is only heard by the person receiving the call and not by the person making the call. They just hear the phone carry on ringing as normal. The 0845 Number Company charges £5 + VAT to set up this feature on 0845 telephone numbers, and then a monthly service charge of £5 + VAT. Visit the website of The 0845 Number Company for more details.

  • Bucking the trend – why The 0800 Number Company doesn’t tie its customers in to long term contracts

    21/10/2011 15:20

    Jemma Fox, Marketing Director of The 0800 Number Company, talks to us about why the leading freephone number provider doesn’t tie its customers into long term contracts with their 0800 numbers, unlike many other telecoms companies.

    “One of the questions most frequently asked by our customers is how long they are tied in to a contract for when they order one or more of our numbers. The answer is often a pleasant surprise, as there are no long term tie-ins with telephone numbers from The 0800 Number Company, we just request 30 days written notice to cancel the number. The written notice can be sent to us by email, post or fax”, says Jemma Fox, Marketing Director of The 0800 Number Company.

    “People ask us the question as to how long the contract is with a sense of trepidation and fear. They anticipate being tied in for at least a year. And they don’t want that. You can understand why. We live in volatile times. The economy, whilst not in the predicament of Greece or Italy is focused on clearing the deficit rather than boosting growth. Unemployment figures are at a 17 year high and inflation keeps going up. Small businesses are already having a hard time borrowing money from the banks and struggling to stay afloat. If a business decides to order some freephone 0800 numbers from us to try to boost their marketing campaign, and then four months later decides that actually they need to let some go because they’re doing well in one area but not another, then who are we to tell them that they should keep those numbers and keep paying rent on them for another year even though they don’t need them? Contracts like that are just another weight around the necks of small businesses, and if they no longer need them then it’s just one more bit of expenditure than they can do without. For many small businesses, every penny counts right now.

    “But for any size business, if they find that their circumstances have changed and that they no longer need 0800 numbers or freephone numbers, then what is the point of forcing them to retain them? They don’t need the numbers any more; it is unfair to make them keep something they don’t want. That only makes customers feel disenchanted, and whilst it makes a bit of extra money in the short term, it doesn’t give a good reputation in the long term. If customers are happy with the customer service and value for money provided by a company they will stay. Sometimes events happen which means they can’t, and they should not be penalised for that”.

    The 0800 Number Company provides UK freephone numbers which can be pointed to either landline or mobile phone numbers, as well as fax-to-email freephone numbers.

  • The Virtual Number Company launches International Toll Free Forwarding Numbers

    11/10/2011 18:31

    The Virtual Number Company is delighted to announce that it will be greatly expanding its numbers by offering international toll free forwarding numbers. International toll free forwarding numbers operate in exactly the same way as the virtual local numbers that The Virtual Number Company offers for the UK, but are the freephone numbers for different countries rather than the area codes for different UK towns and cities.

    Currently The Virtual Number Company offers virtual local numbers for nearly 500 different UK towns and cities, allowing businesses to appear to be based in an area in the UK, whereas actually their premises might be somewhere else. For example, a company might be based just outside London, but have a virtual 020 number because they want to do business in London. People are far more likely to call a number they recognise because it is familiar to them.

    With international toll free numbers the same principle applies but internationally instead of just in the UK. So, if you want to do business in a country that you don’t have offices in, you can purchase an international toll free number for that country so that callers in that country recognise it as a toll free or freephone number, and then have it pointed to your offices in whichever country they may be.

    So, if you have offices in the UK, but want to do business in France as well, then you could have a French 0805 number advertised in France but pointed to your phone lines in the UK. That would encourage French customers to call you, as they would be calling a French toll free number, although you would need to make sure the person answering the call could speak French!

    The Virtual Number Company is offering international toll free forwarding number to over 80 countries. As with the virtual local numbers, they can be pointed at any UK landline or mobile phone, but can also be pointed at any phone in the world. Most popular numbers include for the USA and Canada in North America, for France, Germany, Italy and Spain in Europe, for Australia and New Zealand in Australasia, and for China and Japan in Asia.

    Announcing the launch, Marketing Director Jemma Fox said: “This will help businesses who want to do business abroad, but who don’t want to have offices all over the world. For many companies, particularly service based companies, it is not necessary to have offices in every country, so this will save businesses a lot of money. Businesses now operate in a global market, and these numbers reflect that”.

  • Why you should get a London fax-to-email number

    11/10/2011 14:01

    If you have a virtual London 020 number and you sometimes use a fax machine then you might want to consider ordering a London 020 fax-to-email number to accompany your phone number.

    There are a number of reasons why having a fax to email number is a good idea. Firstly, because if you use fax machines quite often then fax to email will make the process or receiving a fax more efficient. Instead of having to keep checking the fax machine to see if a fax has arrived, fax to email sends faxes straight to your email inbox, thus you only have to check for faxes whilst checking for your normal emails.

    Secondly, fax to email is better for the environment, makes your company more energy efficient and therefore saves you money. With a normal fax machine you have to leave it switched on all day and all night, all year, even when out of the office, to make sure that if someone sends you a fax, it can be received. This uses a lot of electricity, as well as paper, ink and toner when it spits out lots of sheets of paper, often of pages you don’t need. By receiving the fax as a PDF in your emails, you can print it out if you wish to, only print out selected pages if you need to, or save it in your email inbox or in a folder on your PC, thus meaning you can have it filed with your other records on your computer and meaning it’s not left on a shelf gathering dust in an office separate from all your other work on your computer that is connected to it.

    If you are using a virtual London phone number it is often the case that you are wishing to appear to have a presence in London whereas you are actually based just outside of it, because offices and property are cheaper outside of London. Getting a virtual London fax-to-email number means that you won’t therefore give out a London phone number to people, and then have to give out a fax machine number with a Guildford area code for example when someone wants to send you a fax.

    Getting a London fax to email number is also a fantastic opportunity to modernise your business. We’re all the same – we have an outdated fax machine in the corner of the office, don’t see the point in buying a new one because not that many people use it anymore, but can’t possibly get rid of it because there are still a few people who fax you, and it looks bad if you say you don’t have a fax number.

    The Virtual Number Company’s Director of Marketing, Jemma Fox, said: “For small companies wanting to do business in London, the virtual London number is a great idea, because it gives them a London presence but allows them to have offices just outside of London to save on their overheads. The London fax-to-email number  is a nice little accompaniment to that, so that the phone number matches the fax number, but it is also good for the environment, good for efficiency and good for your wallet, so a great investment all round”.

  • Vodafone UK temporarily cuts costs of calls to 0800 numbers ... before increasing them

    30/09/2011 16:27

    It was announced last week that Vodafone UK is changing the prices of their out-of-bundle rates. This is of particular interest because, according to Vodafone UK, 08 numbers account for a large amount of their customers’ out-of-bundle calls and so the changes mean that calling 08 numbers from a Vodafone mobile will be reduced. When the changes come into effect on the 11th October, pay monthly and pay-as-you-go customers will both pay 7p per minute to call UK 0800 numbers from their Vodafone UK mobile, and 12p per minute to call both UK 0845 numbers and 0870 numbers from their Vodafone UK mobile. The minimum charge on all of these numbers will be a one minute charge.According to Vodafone UK this will represent a savings of between 42% and 80% for its customers, as prices can be up to 35p currently. However, this price decrease is only temporary, and Vodafone are in fact raising this price to 14p per minute from 3rd January 2012.

    It was also announced that Vodafone UK customers who joined the company before February 2011 will see the cost of their calls rounded up to the nearest 50p from 11th October. Vodafone announced that it will be “simplifying” their bills by rounding it up to make the bills easier for their customers. So, if a customers’ monthly bill is normally £28.51, it will be rounded up to £29 to make it simpler for customers. Vodafone promised that nobody’s bill will increase by more than 49p per month, but this could result in millions of pounds per month extra for Vodafone when multiplied by its millions of customers.

    Not surprisingly there has been a customer backlash, particularly on internet blogs and forums, with customers feeling this was just a way to get more money out of them and make them pay higher bills. However, customers were finding that they had little choice but to accept the changes, as the small print in Vodafone UK’s contract states that customers can only cancel their contract with them if they can prove that their monthly bill will increase by more than 10%, and that they must write to do this and cancel before the new price rise comes into effect.

    A Vodafone UK spokesman said: “Very few customers will see their overall bill increase by anything like 10% because the majority of out-of-bundle calls are made to 08 numbers (because they are never in-bundle), and the price of those calls is reducing by as much as 80%. A wide range of organisations, from utility companies and banks to supermarkets and even local councils, make use of 0800, 0845 and 0870 for their customer service helplines”.

    Commenting on the news, Jemma Fox, Marketing Director of The 0800 Number Company, said: “The news about Vodafone UK cutting the costs of calling 0800 numbers from their mobiles would be welcomed if it wasn’t for that fact that they are then going to increase them in January! Announcing that you are rounding your monthly bills up to the nearest 50p to make it easier for the customer, even if the figure after the pounds is 51p, is also backfiring, as customers understand the bills as they are, if they were rounding down as well as up then it would be more understandable, but this is just blatant price increases, so they should have just come out and said it.”

  • Added Value Features available for all virtual London 020 numbers

    16/09/2011 18:01

    Virtual London numbers are becoming increasingly popular, especially with the London Olympics coming up and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee next year. London has one area code – 020 – which is currently followed by a 3, a 7 or an 8, to make what are commonly referred to as 0203, 0207 and 0208 numbers.

    The benefits of virtual London phone numbers have been much discussed, and centre around the fact that is London is the capital of the UK, that London has around 12.5% of the UK’s population living in it, that London is the financial centre of the UK as well as the leading city of many of the UKs businesses, and that therefore London is the place to do business in the UK. Yet on the opposing side, London is the most expensive place to live in the UK. This is why a virtual London phone number is so popular – because it can make your business appear to be London based, thus giving your company an added gravitas – without actually being based in London, thus saving your company a huge amount of money in London rent, not to mention living in London and spending vast amounts of money on London transport.

    What is often forgotten is that, although a virtual London phone number is a fabulous piece of technology in its own right, it can be improved even more with a wide range of added value features, which are also available on The Virtual Number Company’s other virtual local numbers.

    These include Call Whisper. As virtual 020 numbers are pointed to existing landline or mobile phone numbers, you don’t know if the incoming phone call is calling your original phone number or your virtual London number unless you have a call whisper. This is a short recorded message that is played when you pick up the phone to tell you know which number the person is calling. The Voicemail feature offered by The Virtual Number Company is another great feature, as it not only acts like a normal voicemail, but emails all voicemail messages, including numbers of people who don’t leave messages so that you don’t miss out on any calls. Call Recording on virtual 020 numbers is a particularly popular added value feature, as you can record all your calls, have them emailed to you, and then play them back as much as you want or file them for future reference. Very useful to make sure you don’t forget or overlook any details in a phone call. The full list of features available is listed on The Virtual Number Company website.

  • Virtual Number Company increases stock of London numbers with 0203 numbers

    09/09/2011 11:42

    The Virtual Number Company constantly aims to evolve to meet the needs and demands of its customers, and so is delighted to announce that it is greatly increasing its supply of virtual London phone numbers by providing a much larger number of 0203 numbers. Previously the Virtual Number Company has specialised in 0207 and 0208 numbers, and although we will still be providing 0207 and 0208 numbers, the demand is clearly as great if not greater for 0203 numbers.

    Of course, strictly speaking there is no such thing as an 0203 area code, and we are very much aware of that. 020 is the area code for London, and then the first digit of the rest of the phone number is 3, 7 or 8. But it is a common misperception that there are three different area codes – 0203, 0207 and 0208, and that is what people are looking for when they are ordering virtual London phone numbers. So, we are aware that 020 is the area code, but it is easier to refer to them as 0203 numbers as a shorthand method of communication.

    Originally, 0207 numbers were for inner London, and 0208 numbers were for outer London. 0203 are the newest of the three numbers. It was announced in July 2004 that 0203 numbers – or 020 London numbers with the next digit being 3 – were to be introduced, and they were rolled out the following year in June 2005. 0203 numbers were for the whole of Greater London, as opposed to 0207 and 0208 numbers, although it had already become blurry as to where they were assigned. Part of the idea was that there would be no social stigma attached to having an 0203 number as it could be for anywhere in the capital.

    At the time of the announcement of 0203 numbers, OFCOM said “Our message is, there's no need to panic because nothing is really changing. The code for London is actually 020 and the seven, eight and three are simply sub-codes." This is quite right, but it is far easier to say 0203 numbers than 020 numbers followed by 3. The spokesman also said at the time that the 020 code will give London new numbers "for several decades to come", which is quite right, as there are still 0200, 0201, 0202, 0204, 0205, 0206 and 0209 codes to use!

    Commenting on the increase in 0203 numbers, Jemma Fox of The Virtual Number Company said: “As 020 numbers followed by 3 are the newest of the London numbers then it is not surprising they have taken longer to catch on, but we are now finding that they are incredibly popular and so we are delighted to be offering a much larger range of 0203 London phone numbers”.

  • BT increases phone call charges again

    02/09/2011 15:27

    For anyone out there feeling the pinch and hoping for a little financial relief, don’t look to BT! The telecoms company announced earlier this week on 26th August that from the 3rd December they will be increasing their call charges for residential customers by 5%. This will be the second increase BT has made this year, and the third in 14 months, having increased their call charges by 9% in April, and by 10% a year ago. 

    Commenting on the news, Jemma Fox, Marketing Director of The Virtual Number Company which provides non-geographic phone number and virtual London 0203 phone numbers said: “This news is rather surprising to say the least, coming hot on the heels of the previous BT price hike. People out there are really struggling to make ends meet at the moment, you would think that BT would want to help them, but they seem to be doing quite the reverse. It would be understandable if BT were making losses and were struggling, but they announced in July that their before tax profits for the three months of April, May and June were up by 20% to £533million. I know that a 5% rise is roughly in line with inflation, but as there has already been a 9% hike this year already, you would think that BT would cut their customers some slack”.

    The price of a UK daytime call will increase from 7.6p per minute to 7.95p per minute, whilst evening calls will increase from 1p per minute to 1.05p per minute. Line Rental for customers paying by Direct Debit will increase from £13.90 to £14.60 per month, and call set up fees will increase from 12.5p per call to 13.1p per call. These are what customers are charged for calls that are outside of their plan. The most popular of these plans are the Unlimited Anytime Plan, which will increase from £4.70 to £4.90 per month. BT said that these prices will now be frozen until 2013, so effectively they are getting 2012’s rises in early. Surprisingly, they also scrapped the discount that they had in place for paperless bills, although existing customers will still be able to retain their discount. 

    However, there is some good news as calls to mobile phones will not increase. BT announced that daytime calls to T-Mobile, Vodaphone, Orange and O2 phones will remain at 11.3p in the daytime and 5.3p in the evening. But, there was no such guarantee that these prices will remain frozen until 2013, so look out for prices rises at some point in the future. Many consumer groups have expressed their disappointment at the price rises, following so soon after major energy price increases.

  • The importance of the voice at the end of the telephone

    26/08/2011 15:23

    “If you have one or more virtual local numbers from The Virtual Number Company, then you might have one of our added value features as well”, says Jemma Fox, Marketing Director of The Virtual Number Company. “If so, some of these are likely to include the voices of our specially trained receptionists, particularly the voicemail feature, where your customers will be invited to leave a message for you which is then emailed to you, the greeting message, whereby your callers are welcomed to your business and told that your call will be answered shortly, IVR (Press 1 for Sales), where customers are told to press different numbers depending on which department they want to speak to,  and call queuing, where customers are told that they are in a queue and that their call is important.”
     
     “If this is the first time that a customer has called then the first voice that they hear will be the voice of one of our receptionists through the optional feature. Therefore, even though we aren’t part of our company, it is important that the voice they hear conveys what you want it to convey, which is why we are now adding voice samples to our website, so that you can hear the voice of the person who will make the first impression on your customers”.
     
    “The same principle applies to our call answering service. Our call answering service involves our receptionists answering your calls either full time or when you are unable to answer all your calls and need an overflow service. If our receptionists are the first people that your customer speaks to, then they get their first impression of your company through us, so it is important that you are happy with the voice that they will be hearing”.
     
    It is even more important to a customer that they hear something at the end of the phone, rather than the phone just continuously ringing. For that reason, one of the optional features outlined above, or the call answering service mentioned, give your company a far more professional appearance than a phone that is never answered. 
     
    “Competitions are always held for the new voice of the speaking clock because even though it only says a few brief words, a voice can say a lot about an organisation in a very short amount of time” says Fox. “What may seem like the smallest, most insignificant fact can put a customer off, and in these uncertain times, you cannot risk losing even one customer”.

  • Call Answering Service available from The 0845 Number Company

    19/08/2011 16:24

    Not surprisingly, The 0845 Number Company is best known for its 0845 telephone numbers, 0845 fax to email numbers, and for the wide variety of additional features it provides to accompany its lo-call UK 0845 numbers.

    However, it also offers a professional virtual reception call answering service. They have a number of experienced, trained receptionists in their team at The 0845 Number Company who can answer your calls for you quickly and professionally.

    They will answer your calls in your business name in our UK based offices during the normal working week – Monday through to Friday, 9am – 5.30pm, so that it appears to people calling you that it is somebody from your company answering the phone.

    They will agree with you what you would like them to say, and will take accurate, detailed messages from your customers and then email them to you straight away.

    Commenting on the service, Jemma Fox, Marketing Director, said: “The 0845 Number Company offers a flexible service to match your needs. So, if you’re slightly overstretched and could just do with a hand to catch the overflow calls so that you aren’t missing any then we can provide that service. At the other end of the scale, if you’re never in the office, either because you’re always out on the road or working somewhere else, then we can answer all of your calls and send all of the messages back to you. The service really can be tailored to suit your needs”.

    “The huge benefits of this to you are that it makes your company look more professional, as your customers aren’t just faced with either an engaged tone or a continuous ringing phone or a voicemail – they actually get to speak to a human being.  The benefits that this alone can bring to a company’s image are hard to overstate”, said Fox.

    As with their 0845 numbers, 0800 numbers, virtual local numbers and other telecoms related services, The 0845 Number Company only requires 30 days notice to cancel this service, so you’re not tied in to a long term package if you find out that you don’t need it at a later date.

    The three different plans available from The 0845 Number Company are:
    • Call Plan 1. This is £20 per month, with The 0845 Number Company charging 65p per minute for calls received.

    • Call Plan 2. This is £50 per month, with The 0845 Number Company charging 35p per minute for calls received. This is ideal for companies receiving high volumes of calls.

    • Call Plan 3: This is for holiday or temporary cover, and costs £5 per day, with charges of 65p per minute for calls received.

  • Basic Facts about London Phone Numbers from The Virtual Number Company

    12/08/2011 16:48

    The Virtual Number Company explain some basic facts about one of the most popular phone numbers available at the moment – the virtual London 020 number. 
     
    Virtual London phone numbers are proving to be particularly popular at the moment, no doubt because of the London 2012 Olympic Games in less than a year’s time. That, coupled with Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubillee means that London will be the place to be in the summer of 2012.
     
    Why are they so popular? Well, despite the collapse in property prices, London prices have managed to stay high, so it is still incredibly expensive to rent or buy a property in London. However, London is the place to do business – with around 12.5% of the UK population based in a very small area, it is no surprise that companies want to be London based, just without the London costs.
     
    This is the key reason why people choose to use a virtual London phone number from The Virtual Number Company. It is a bit like commuting ... people want to work in London because there are more jobs, better jobs, the pay is better etc., but cannot afford to live in London so live outside of London and commute in. The same principle applies with phone numbers – companies get a virtual 020 number in order to appear to be based in London, but actually are based outside of London and just operate within the capital city.
     
    So, now seems a good time to explain a few basic details about them. The Virtual Number Company provides a range of 0203, 0207 and 0208 virtual telephone numbers. These can be ordered from The Virtual Number Company anytime between 9am and 5pm, Monday to Friday (excluding Bank Holidays). The friendly, helpful staff there will connect you within minutes. Virtual Numbers are pointed at an existing landline or mobile number, so no new equipment or phone system is needed. 
     
    There is a one off set up fee charge of £15.00 + VAT, and then a monthly rental fee of £5.00 + VAT. You then pay 3p + VAT per minute to receive the call if the number is routed to a landline, but 15p + VAT per minute if the number is routed to a mobile, but The Virtual Number Company uses per second billing, so you only pay for exactly what you use. Therefore, if you’re on the phone for 2 minutes 20 seconds and your London phone number is routed to a landline, you are charged 7p, not rounded up to 3 minutes and charged 9p. At the end of the month, this mounts up to quite a bit.

    Only 30 days notice is needed to cancel the contract, and discounts are available for multiple numbers. The Virtual Number Company also offer a range of extra features to accompany their 0207 and 0208 London numbers, and offer fax-to-email London numbers as well.
     
    Commenting on London numbers, Marketing Director Jemma Fox said “It’s no surprise that virtual London phone numbers are so popular at the moment. Everyone wants to get in on the London Olympic games, and this is a much cheaper way of doing it than actually owning or renting property in London. Are friendly team will help you set one up or tell you more about it if you’re not sure, so just give us a ring”.

  • Time of Day Routing: The Hassle Free Way of receiving all your calls

    05/08/2011 12:15

    If you work to roughly the same schedule each day, then there is an easy way of making sure that you get all of your calls in the place you’re going to be without having to make any daily changes, diverts, or anything else. Instead, you can make your phone number work for you and follow you around with an 0845 telephone number from The 0845 Number Company.

    Time of Day Routing is an additional optional feature which you can add to your 0845, 0800, 0844 or virtual local number for a one off set up fee of £5 + VAT, and then a monthly rental of £5 + VAT.

    The 0845 Number Company use it to programme your number to follow you. For example, it can be set up so that calls are routed to your office during business hours, and then to your mobile outside of business hours. Or a more customised plan can be made, for example your mobile phone whilst you are getting to and from work, your office phone whilst at work, and your home phone number for when you are at home. Or if you prefer, you can have your number routing directly to your voicemail when you know you won’t be able to answer it, such as when you’re driving.

    All you have to do is supply The 0845 Number Company with times and contact details and they do the rest for you. They are also aware that your business hours or travelling times might change, and so your plan doesn’t have to be set in stone, they can change it for you!

    Jemma Fox, Marketing Director of The 0845 Number Company, said “Time of Day Routing is a handy little feature which makes your calls come to you, wherever you are. It saves you the hassle of having to give out different numbers or set up diverts every night when leaving the office – all the work is done for you, hassle free!”

    The 0845 Number offers a range of other extra features to accompany their lo-call non-geographic features, including call whisper, voicemail, greetings message, IVR and call recording.

  • “This call may be recorded for training purposes” by The 0845 Number Company

    29/07/2011 18:09

    Having an 0845 number with a call recording feature can be incredibly useful to companies wanting to train their staff on how to handle calls, says Jemma Fox of The 0845 Number Company.

    One of the great benefits of non-geographic numbers is the array of extra features which you can get with them, such as call whisper, voicemail, greeting message, DOBNA, time of day routing, IVR, call queuing, online call statistics, or fax to email.

    One of the most popular features of an 0845 telephone number is the call recording additional extra feature, which you can add to your telephone package.

    This costs £5 + VAT to set up, and then a monthly charge of £5 + VAT. This can be for either inbound calls or for outbound calls.

    Your calls are then recorded for you – and you choose whether you have the entire call recorded or a selection of the call, or you can choose to start recording the call partway through the conversation. Most customers at The 0845 Number Company choose to record the entire call.

    So, when you call a company and you get a message saying “this call me be recorded for training purposes”, this is what is happening.

    The recording of the call is then automatically emailed to you after the call, and you can listen to it through your computer.

    “Recording phone calls is very useful for training purposes, as it gives new staff experience of listening in on selected calls before they are thrown into the lion’s den of having to answer calls themselves” says Jemma Fox of The 0845 Number Company. “Working in a call centre can be incredibly nerve wracking, because you never know who is going to be on the end of the phone. You may get a customer who is phoning up to change the address or other contact details you have for them on your system. Easy. They may be phoning to cancel something or set something up. Again, relatively easy. But there is always the customer who throws you a question you have no idea what the answer is. Or a customer who has spoken to several colleagues before and expects you to know their problem”.

    The more prepared staff who answer phones are, the better placed they are to be able to help their callers and customers. Obviously, putting them on the phones straight away to fend for themselves is of little help to either the caller or the customer. It doesn’t help the customer because they have phoned up wanting help and the person at the other end of the phone cannot provide it. It also doesn’t help the newby on the phone, because it dents and in some cases wrecks their confidence, they become a jabbering wreck, and give up their job because they can’t handle the phones.

    So, this system allows training staff to select the most useful calls for training purposes, and then lets them use it to help prepare new staff for the wide variety of calls they might receive. “We know this feature has been of huge benefit to a large number of companies, and we are pleased that it is helping to lead to a better standard of customer service across industries” says Fox.

  • How to become a London company without the London costs

    18/07/2011 10:33

    Having a virtual 020 London number can save your company a lot of money if you want to operate in London but not have London based offices says Jemma Fox of The Virtual Number Company. 

    Everyone knows about the postcode lottery, but for a business, the far more important code is actually the telephone area code, particularly the London 020 number. Jemma Fox, Marketing Director of The Virtual Number Company, explains why.

    “When people are looking at phoning businesses for making enquiries, they obviously pay attention to the number they are calling”, says Fox. “If the area code isn’t one that they recognise, then it isn’t somewhere relatively local, and they therefore often discount it before they even make the enquiry. Obviously this varies on a case by case basis – for example, if they’re looking to have a product sent in the post then it doesn’t matter so much, but if it is a company to do some sort of work for them, such as a plumber, electrician, kitchen designer, dress maker, landscape gardener, pest control service, car mechanic, cleaning service, solicitor, funeral director or computer help, then people like to know that the business is locally based.  This is because there is a certain comfort in knowing that someone is local, and therefore will understand your wants and needs. But there is also a sense of if something goes wrong, they won’t be a million miles away to put it right, that you won’t get charged so much for them having to travel to get to you, and a lot of people like to feel they are doing their bit for the local economy.”

    So, having a local phone number is important. As around 1 in 8 of the UK’s population live in London, the London area code is by far the most important area code. It is probably the most well known area code in the country, aside from non-geographic numbers such as 0800, because such a large proportion of the UK population lives in London. The official code for London is 020, but most people include the first letter of the next section of the number to 020 to make three different London codes: 0207, 0208 and 0203. With such a high population density in the capital, a large amount of business is carried out there, and therefore, for anyone wanting to do business in the London area, having a London area code is vitally important.

    However, having premises in London to operate from is incredibly expensive to say the least. A company may want to operate in London, but doesn’t necessarily need premises to carry out its work from, or may prefer to base itself outside of London in order to save on rental and other costs. But, they still need a phone number to be contacted on, and just giving a mobile number doesn’t look particularly professional. The solution is a virtual London phone number. The Virtual Number Company specialises in providing nearly 500 different virtual telephone numbers for towns and cities across the UK, including London 0207, 0208 and 0203 numbers. These are phone numbers with area codes for these different locations which are pointed to existing landlines or mobile phones. There is no need for any new telephone equipment, it is just routed to an already existing phone. So, if you are a company that doesn’t need offices to carry out your business from as you’re on the road all the time, you can still have an 020 number pointed to your mobile phone so that London customers instantaneously see that you are a business that operates in London, and you don’t have to give out a mobile phone number. Likewise, if your business is outside the M25, you can still appear to be a London company as you operate there, but can do it from cheaper premises.

  • No voicemail message left? No problem!

    01/07/2011 18:11

    If a potential customer calls you and you miss that call, and they do not leave a message, that does not mean you should miss that customer. There are lots of ways to make sure a single customer doesn’t slip through the net, says The 0845 Number Company.

    At all times, a customer is incredibly important to a business, but in hard economic times, every potential customer or customer that makes a call to a business is one that cannot be missed. “You never know who it might be on the end of that phone” says Jemma Fox of The 0845 Number Company. It might be someone just making an enquiry about something small who will never actually phone back, but at the same time it could be a customer about to place your biggest order of the year. They could be calling with a budget of thousands of pounds to spend. Therefore, you don’t want to miss it.”

    Yet sometimes, it isn’t always possible to catch every phone call that is made to your company. You can get a wide range of additional features for non-geographic 0845 numbers to try to limit the amount of potential customers that you miss. The 0845 Number Company’s voicemail feature allows you to record a personalised greeting for anyone calling you, and allows that person calling to leave a message, but it then emails you with a recording of the message, so if it is urgent, you can still hear it even if you are not near your phone or not in the office for a while.

    This is great for catching those potential customers who phone up and want to leave a message, but quite often if a potential customer calls a company and they don’t get a response, they don’t bother leaving a message. They want to speak to a human being, and when they hear a voicemail, that’s it, they can’t be bothered, and they hang up. They may try again at another point, but if they phone a competitor in the meantime who does answer their call and is able to help them, then why would they bother calling you back? This is why the voicemail feature sends you an email with the phone number of anybody who has called your 0845 number and hasn’t bothered leaving you a message. You don’t have to wait until you’re next in the office to dial a number to find out who called you last, instead you can just check your emails and call them straight away. This means that firstly you don’t miss any potential customers, even if they don’t leave a message, and secondly that you can get back to them fast, hopefully before they have had a chance to get in touch with your rivals. Another useful feature is the Online Call Statistics feature. This details the number of the person who called you, the time of the call, the duration of the call, how quickly you answered the call, as well as details of any missed calls, so this gives you another way of checking on any customers you might have missed speaking to.

    These are great options if you aren’t near your phone and unable to take a call, but the other way you might miss a call is if you have another customer on the line and so cannot take the call. Being faced with an engaged tone is just the same as being faced with a continuous ringing phone to a customer. They generally aren’t going to think, “they’re a really good company because they’re engaged they must be popular”, they’re still just going to call the next business on the list. The solution to this is DOBNA. DOBNA stands for Divert On Busy Or No Answer, and means if you cannot answer the phone because you aren’t there or because you’re talking to someone else, the call will divert to alternative contact details, which may be your home number, your mobile, or a colleagues number, to make sure that someone answers the phone.

    One final option is Time Of Day Routing, whereby you can set your 0845 number to ring through to different numbers at different times of the day, eg. to your business phone between 9am and 5pm and to your mobile at all other times to make sure you don’t miss the call.

    “We have lots of ways to ensure you don’t miss any calls”, says Jemma Fox. Just because someone doesn’t leave a message doesn’t mean they’ve got through the net!”

  • The 0845 Number Company explains what DOBNA means

    23/06/2011 17:28

    DOBNA is an extra feature which The 0845 Number Company offers for its 0845, 0800, 0844 and virtual local numbers.

    “DOBNA is not a character from Harry Potter” says Jemma Fox of The 0845 Number Company. “DOBNA stands for Divert Calls on Busy or No Answer. DOBNA ensures that you or your business never misses a call. Essentially, it does exactly what is says on the tin. If a customer calls you and the line is busy, or if you don’t answer because you are away from your desk, then The 0845 Number Company diverts the call to an alternative number. You provide The 0845 Number Company with a list of alternative contact numbers. So, for example, if your office number is engaged or if there is nobody there, then the next number that the call might divert to might be your mobile, or another office, or a different colleague. The chances of someone answering the phone are pretty high, so chances are that you will not miss any calls. Nobody wants to be missing customers whilst the economic recovery is still fragile”. 

    The 0845 Number Company has a number of other added value features which you can add to your 0845 numbers, as well as 0800, 0844 and virtual local phone numbers. These include Call Whisper, which lets you know the number the person on the end of the phone is calling if you have more than one number pointed at that phone. It also includes personalised voicemail, which also emails you any voicemail messages you receive as well as notifies of any calls you received whereby the caller didn’t leave a message. Another great option feature is IVR – or Auto Attendant – which is the “Press 1 for Customer Services” etc that you get with many large companies, and makes your business sound quite large and professional when people call it. Other optional additional features include a personalised welcome message for your callers, a feature that records all of your calls so that you have them for your records, and a call queuing system for when you have lots of people calling your business at once. 

    All of these features can accompany either 0845, 0844, 0800, or virtual local phone numbers supplied by The 0845 Number Company. 0845 Numbers are lo-call numbers, whereby if the number is pointed to a landline, the recipient does not pay to receive the call and the caller pays a lo-call rate of between 3 – 5p per minute from a landline. With an 0800 number, the caller does not pay for the call if they are calling from a landline, as it is a freephone number. Instead, the recipient pays to receive the call, around 3p per minute + VAT if the number is routed to a landline. With an 0844 number the person calling from a landline pays slightly more to make the call (around 5p + VAT per minute from a landline) with the recipient of the call receiving 1p of that per minute as a rebate and not paying anything to receive the call. Finally, local numbers give people the impression that a company is based in a specific location when in fact they might be based somewhere else. This is mainly used by companies who have one national base but want to operate in lots of different locations and cannot afford to have premises in all of those areas. The 0845 Number Company has 479 different area codes. 

  • Fax number doesn’t match your phone number? Get a Fax-to-Email number!

    08/06/2011 11:41


    0800, 0845 and 0844 numbers help to make a company look like a large, national company, but attention to detail is important, warns Jemma Fox of The 0800 Number Company.

    “One reason why companies or individuals choose to have non-geographic 0845, 0844 or 0800 numbers is because it makes them look like a national company”, says Jemma Fox, Marketing Director of The 0800 Number Company. “If a company’s target market is not just one specific geographical location then it makes sense for them to have a non-geographic number so that they are not tying themselves to one specific location”. For example, if your company is based in Birmingham, but you actually operate in a large area across the midlands that includes Stroke-on-Trent, Derby, Nottingham, Peterborough, Northampton, Worcester, Leicester, Coventry, etc., then if you put your actual Birmingham landline number with area code 0121 on the adverts, people in all of the other towns and cities listed that aren’t Birmingham may think that you only operate in Birmingham and so won’t even bother phoning you to make an enquiry. By having a phone number which starts 0800, 0845 or 0844, you instantaneously take away that problem, as there is no geographic location attached to these numbers, and they are therefore generally viewed as nationwide numbers.

    It is also the case that people tend to associate 0800, 0845 and 0844 numbers with big companies. Regardless of whether or not this is true, it is the common perception. Therefore, some smaller companies will often have one of these phone numbers in order to make themselves look bigger than they actually are. 

    However, the illusion can be easily broken if you wish to give out your fax number and it still has the original area code on it, eg. 0121.  Attention to detail is important! There is little point renting an 0800, 0845 or 0844 number to make you look like a larger, national company, only to blow that out of the water by listing a fax number with a geographic area code directly beneath it on your website, adverts, email signature, business cards, etc. 

    The solution to this is The 0800 Number Company’s fax to email service. Fax to email means that when someone sends you a fax, it gets converted to a PDF document and sent directly to your email inbox. This saves you on electricity, as you don’t have to leave a fax machine on constantly, as well as ink and paper. It also saves you on the cost of a fax machine! In fact, if you don’t have a fax machine but want to be able to receive faxes from clients and customers or from other businesses then fax to email is ideal, as you don’t have to change any previous existing adverts, you don’t have to purchase a fax machine or install any new phone lines, and if you find after a while that actually you don’t really need a fax machine then you can cancel the number with 30 days written notice. 

    An 0800, 0845 or 0844 fax to email number means not only do you help the environment a little bit, but that your fax number also matches your phone number, which is necessary for presentation purposes and for keeping with the corporate image. 

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