If you use a long established 0845 number, that was once useful as a “lo-call” rate number, this may be holding back your business.
0845 or indeed any 084xx numbers, which are mostly used by organisations for sales or enquiry lines, are quite often no longer included in call bundles and can be expensive to call from a landline, and especially a mobile.
The cost of calling 0843, 0844 and 0845 numbers is made up of two parts*:
- an access charge going to your phone company – this can range from 8p to 65p per minute!
- a service charge set by the organisation you are calling – this is between 0p and 7p per minute.
* Source: OFCOM
One of our customers was calling an 0844 number to gain access to international calls as he thought it was more cost effective than direct dialling. It was 30p a minute, whereas a large number of destinations, when dialled directly, cost between 2p and 5p.
Some of these numbers offer outpayments i.e. a payment to the number holder as the call is so expensive.
If you do have an 0845 number it may be that new potential savvy customers are put off calling as they know it will cost much more than any bundled call.
Consider switching to 03xx or even to a landline virtual number so that your callers can take advantage of their bundles and not incur any cost in calling you for that important exploratory chat.
If you want to explore the possibilities of different numbering arrangements that are far more flexible, and more user-friendly please call.
Jon Pentel
Tel: 020 8150 9300 Email: jon.pentel@pen-telecom.co.uk