Wintercorn Internet Consulting - http://www.wintercorn.com/ switches to 0800. Another business catching on to what customers want!

06/12/07

"Well, we've finally got an 0800 freefone number. After listening to client requests, and the imminent demise of 0870 numbers in 2008, we've got the first of a series of free contact numbers.

We plan to have them for sales, support and other departments so watch this space."

That's good news - another company for our Hall of Fame (if we had one...)

Hi, it's Wintercorn here.

I just thought I'd add a few comments after browsing our traffic logs and seeing a lot of referrers come from this site.  :)

Yes we've finally got an 0800 number and not without some hassle. We use BT Broadband Voice for our phone system and it seems to be a problem finding an 0800 provider who will route to 056x numbers. BT say it's exactly the same as a landline number both technically and billing wise, but many don't know this and only want to route to established landlines.

Also, the choice of good easy to remember 0800 numbers is quite small, unless you want to buy a premium number.

We finally went with a firm who had a good selection, no contract, good rates and near instant set up. They're called www.08direct.co.uk if anyone's interested.

We plan to have more for different departments and then migrate entirely over to an Asterix PBX where we can manage our whole telephone system.

The 0870 number will be kept on as long as people keep calling it and then left to wither away, but it's not promoted anymore.

Cheers  8-)

www.wintercorn.com
Wintercorn Internet Consulting
Call free on : 0800 228 9933

Hello :). It is interesting to hear about the problems you actually had getting your 08x number to route to your 056x number. I was going to suggest that maybe you could advertising your 056 number as an alternative to the 0800 number (for mobile users) but it appears they are the same costs as 0800 numbers (on O2 anyway).

The only point I'd like to make would be relating to your 070 fax number - I'm not entirely sure why you have chosen that over a normal fax number, but that might be the next thing you might like to change :). Would it also be possible for you to set up an announcement on the 0870 number alerting people to the fact you have an 0870 number, and it would be (probably) cheaper for them to call that?

The fax number has only been used about twice. I might even remove it. It's a fax to email service and when the Asterix PBX comes online we'll have more flexibility about numbering.

I didn't want to promote the 056x number as very few people know what it is and also it might change over time whereas the 0870 / 0800 numbers won't and can be diverted should the need arise.

I'll look into the announcement on the 0870 line. I'm not sure it's possible as it was a free service and is now discontinued, except for ours.  :)

www.wintercorn.com
Wintercorn Internet Consulting
Call free on : 0800 228 9933

I think it is worth showing your geo number as well even ifi you don't publicise it much. It could be cheaper than the 0800 for mobile callers or from abroad. Also (and I don't know if this is the case) but I assume it costs you more to answer an 0800 rather than if your a geo numer is called and on that basis when I call from my all inclusive package I will always call the geo number in appreciation so that it costs you less.

wintercorn wrote on Jan 2^nd, 2008 at 7:03pm:

The fax number has only been used about twice. I might even remove it. It's a fax to email service and when the Asterix PBX comes online we'll have more flexibility about numbering.

That sounds like a good idea to me :). I know that seeing the 070 number put me back a bit...


wintercorn wrote on Jan 2^nd, 2008 at 7:03pm:

I didn't want to promote the 056x number as very few people know what it is and also it might change over time whereas the 0870 / 0800 numbers won't and can be diverted should the need arise.

As Keith mentioned, adding it as an alternative might be an incentive (even if it comes with a disclaimer saying it may change in future) and it won't cost you anything if people call that in preference to your 0800 number (which will say you a few bob!)


wintercorn wrote on Jan 2^nd, 2008 at 7:03pm:

I'll look into the announcement on the 0870 line. I'm not sure it's possible as it was a free service and is now discontinued, except for ours.  :)

That was only a suggestion if it was feasible. If it isn't, it might be something worth mentioning when you contact clients (or if they contact you) - something to say in passing in case they have old literature with the 0870 number.

Hi Wintercorn.

Great to see your taking people's feedback on board like this, just wanted to point out to you that your 0870 number is still on the http://www.wintercorn.info/ website. Maybe you just haven't got round to updating it yet?

OK, the .info site is now updated. Thanks for that I forgot about it.

I'm going to leave the numbers as they are for the moment. There's not much cost in the 0800 number and I'd rather people called on that than the 056 one. Most calls will be business anyway so it'll pay for itself quite quickly.