0800 phone numbers
0800 phone numbers can help encourage your potential customer to call you instead of a competitor. Having an easily recognized and memorable website domain address is important. Equally as important is having an easily recognized and memorable phone number, especially if your business relies heavily on telephone inquiries, such as practical trades like plumbers, electricians, and builders. Few would dispute that a 0800 number is one of the most recognizable, if not the most recognizable type of phone number in the UK.
Freephone 0800 phone numbers are widely considered to be the most recognizable type of telephone number in the UK.
*UK landlines only.
Frequently Ask Questions About 0800 Numbers
What is a 0800 phone number?
0800 numbers belong to a group of telephone numbers in the UK that are free to call (also known as toll-free around the world).
Are 0800 numbers free to call from a UK mobile phone?
As of July 2015, calls to 0800 numbers are free from both UK mobile phones and also UK landline or fixed line telephones.
Are 0800 numbers free to call?
0800 numbers are free to call from both landline telephone and mobile phones in the UK. The caller pays nothing to make the call.
0800 numbers are not free to call from outside of the UK. Businesses that advertise 0800 numbers, such as banks or credit card companies, will often have a geographic phone number as an alternative for callers from outside of the UK, such as 0207 123 XXXX.
How do 0800 phone numbers work? What is involved?
0800 numbers are known as virtual telephone numbers. They are not physically isolated to any one phone line and instead sit on top of another telephone number. Any calls that are made to the 0800 phone numbers are automatically diverted to the destination number, which can be to a landline telephone, a mobile phone, or even a phone number outside of the UK on the other side of the world.
What else do I get with an alphaTALK 0800 number?
We’ve included some of our most popular features with our 0800 number packages:
• IVR (departments, “Press 1 for sales” etc)
• Call Whisper
• Divert to many
• Timed diverts
• Call traffic data
Who does actually pay for the call to a 0800 number?
The business that utilizes the 0800 number (the number holder) pays for each connecting call – they pay on the caller’s behalf in other words.
Costs to the business can vary depending on the operator.
Here at Alphatalk, we’ve created a value for money package based on client feedback. Monthly line rental is just £9.97 per month, with 5,000 inclusive minutes for diversion to a landline (01, 02) telephone number of your choice. Any calls beyond the 5,000 inclusive minutes are charged at just 2p per minute.
IVR
IVR allows the creation of menus for when a caller is connected. Common with large businesses, IVR can help to quickly put callers through to the right department that can help with their query. IVR can also be of a benefit to smaller businesses that wish to appear larger than they actually are. The caller is none the wiser that calls to the sales or customer service department are actually handled by the same team!
Divert to many
Whilst most alphaTALK customers only have their 0800 numbers diverted to a single phone number, some wish to have their 0800 numbers diverted to multiple phone numbers at the same time, for example to a group of salespeople to ensure each and every call is answered.
Call Whisper
Similar in concept to Caller ID, Call Whisper allows you to identify which 0800 number was dialed. An example of this in action would be a marketing campaign across multiple magazines with unique offers, allowing the person that answers the call to better prepare for the type of enquiry they are likely to receive. Before the caller is connected, a short message is played to the person that answers the call. This message can be customised; popular examples include “Sales”, “Customer Services”, “Yellow Pages”, “Google AdWords” and so on. Call Whisper is particularly useful when paired with IVR (above), especially if a department or team is responsible for handling calls from multiple destinations.
Call Traffic Data
Our alphaTALK 0800 numbers are supplied with call traffic data each month. This data can provide valuable knowledge about the effectiveness of campaigns, for example across regional newspapers. If one particular edition is not working for you, you have an opportunity to better adjust the advertising or to renegotiate better pricing with the publication.
Timed Diverts
Well as diverting a 0800 number to multiple phone numbers, it is also possible to divert our alphaTALK 0800 numbers based on time, or rules.
It is possible to divert to one phone number for a specific length of time, and if there is no answer, divert the call to a different phone number as a back-up to better guarantee it is answered. Another possibility is to divert calls from your 0800 number based on the time of day, or day of the week. Outside of Monday to Friday, 9 am to 5 pm, you may wish to divert calls from your 0800 number to an out of hours service, with calls automatically returning to their default office destination on Monday at 9 am.