Category Archives: Local Number

How To Set Up A Phone Number

If you’re wondering how to set up a phone number, Smart Numbers can come to your assistance. At Smart Numbers, we can provide you with 01/02, 0800, 0845, 0844, 0871, 03, London and international numbers.

There are many benefits attached to buying landline phone numbers to replace or disguise mobile numbers. They can help you win the trust of your customers and enhance the way your business is perceived.

What’s more is that they can help you establish a connection with specific geographical locations.

A host of phone number and call solutions

We are a leading communications company offering a wide range of telephone numbers and telephone VoIP systems, call management services, equipment and more to help you improve the way that you connect with your customers.

We work with a wide range of companies and organisations, ranging from start-ups and small businesses right through to the biggest brands and charities. The solutions that we offer can drive sales, cut the cost of business connectivity and add real value to your business.

We use only the best tier 1 and VoIP IPX networks, and you don’t need to worry about contracts or hidden extras.

A simple landline number ordering process

Head to the dedicated numbers pages to view, search and order numbers. All the numbers that we offer can be built with our market-leading call management solutions.

Whether you need London numbers to create an authentic presence in the capital, freephone numbers to improve advertising response rates, 0345 numbers that cut costs for callers, non-geographic 0333 numbers or anything else, we can help.

We can also route international numbers to any landline or mobile. Why not get in touch today to find out more? You can reach us by calling us on 03450 178 179 or by completing the contact form on our website.

Business phone number

Why You Should Get a Business Phone Number

Business phone numbers are essential for every business owner, entrepreneur and start-up. Not only do they separate your personal and professional life, but they also project the appearance of a large, established company.

Business Phone Number

Thanks to the evolution of digital technology, the traditional ‘9 to 5’ office job is almost extinct, with start-ups and businesses able to set their own rules and hours of operation. However, it’s important that these companies are still able to easily and professionally communicate with customers around the world.

This is where a business phone number comes in. It’s a simple, flexible and reliable way to manage your business’s communications, while avoiding the need to use your personal number for professional needs.

Once you get a virtual phone number for your business, you can:

  1. Present a Powerful, Professional Image

Whether you’re a freelancer or entrepreneur building the foundations for a small business, you’ll want to project the same level of credibility and professionalism as other companies in your industry. If you wish to be taken seriously by customers and clients, a dedicated phone number will help massively.

  1. Manage the Hours You Receive Calls

If you don’t want to be woken up by a client ringing at 1 A.M., you have the option of using calling features that allow you to set an afterhours greeting, which forwards directly to your business voicemail. You even have the option to have the client’s voicemail sent directly to your email, so you can listen to your message anywhere you have internet access.

  1. Crystal-clear Call Quality

Mobile phones can still have unreliable signals and suddenly drop out during a call, which can be frustrating when trying to communicate with a client. By using a dedicated business phone number, you’ll experience a greater call quality and reliability.

If you’d like to buy a phone number for your business, contact Smart Numbers today to discuss the benefits of our business phone numbers.

london 020 number

3 Ways to Get Your Sales Prospects to Pick Up Their Phones

The first challenge you need to overcome when making B2B sales calls is getting them to pick up the phone in the first place.

The more time you spend having conversations with prospects in London the more successful you will be, so it makes sense that you need to work on improving your chances of getting through to someone before perfecting your sales pitch.

We’ve come up with a few simple sales calls tips to reduce the amount of time you spend dialling fruitlessly and start getting more of your calls to London customers picked up.

Get a local dial code

If you’re making a sales call, one of the best ways to get your call picked up is to avoid it looking like a sales call! If you’re calling businesses in London, they’re far more likely to pick up a call from an unknown number if it has a local dial code 020. Local 020 numbers have the potential to bring in a new client making an enquiry and have a sense of neighbourly familiarity about them so are usually perceived as being friendlier.

With Smart Numbers, it’s easy to affordably mask your existing number with a telephone number of your choice, including local London 020 numbers.  Check out our full list of business telephone number solutions here.

Call at the right times

A simple way to get more of your calls picked up when calling B2B is to bide your time and pick your moment carefully.  If you catch people at the wrong time they’re likely to be irritated and abrupt, but by calling at the right time you have a far better chance of them being receptive to you.

Of course, it’s impossible to know when your prospect is in the middle of something and when they’re taking a breather, but there are plenty of studies that give us a better idea of when people are more likely to be available to talk.

A 2017 study found that generally Wednesdays and Thursdays are the best days to make B2B sales calls, whilst calling between 11 am – 12 pm or 4 pm – 5 pm gives you the best chance of getting your calls answered.  This makes sense as these are the times when people are likely to be wrapping things up for lunch or the end of the day.

Reach out prior to calling

Another great way of getting more people to speak to you is by making yourself known to them before you make the call. Getting yourself on your prospect’s radar helps to make your call feel a little friendlier and less like a cold call.

You could do this by sending an email or connecting with them on LinkedIn. If you catch your prospect at the right time and they recognise your name or business name, even if they’re not sure where from, then they’re more likely to take the call.

Give our experts here at Smart Numbers a call on 03450 178 179 for help choosing an attractive 020 telephone number for your business.

Local Number vs. 0800 numbers

In this digital age, many people see phone numbers as being obsolete for businesses but they are still a key method of contact for many potential customers. Not every customer will be as tech savvy as you’d hope and whilst live chat and social media are great ways of interacting, they aren’t for everyone. Most customers would admit that they feel safer in the knowledge that there is a human on the other side that they can actually speak to if they have an issue. With that in mind, many start-up businesses are often left with the question of should they use a local prefix number or an 0800-toll free number. Here we walk you through the differences and advantages of local numbers and 0800 numbers to help you decide.

Local Numbers

Having a local number if you are a small business owner is key, not only does it let potential customers in your area know that you are open for business, it shows them that you are there for when they need you. If, however you also work in a number of areas nationwide you may also want to consider using a virtual landline so that you can have number local numbers. For instance, you may be located in Liverpool and whilst you are not based elsewhere you may also operate in Manchester. In this instance, you can use a virtual landline to create an 0161-prefix number so that people in that area feel safe in the knowledge they are contacting a reputable, local working business. In general, you will find that customers are much more likely to contact a business that they believe works locally, it gives them a sense of trust and familiarity that you can’t get with an 0800 number.

0800 numbers

That being said, there are a lot of advantages to using a Freephone number that you can’t get with standard local numbers. Firstly, and most obviously, an 0800 number is a freephone number which means your customers won’t be worried about incurring obscene call charges when trying to contact you. It also creates a sense of professionalism that you just can’t get with a local number. Having an 0800 gives the impression that you are a credible multinational company that works with customers across the country. It will also improve customer relations as it is a sign that you are willing to incur call costs so that they can contact you without any worries. Even if you must put them on hold, whilst it may leave them slightly disgruntled, they will have no complaints about call charges. Plus, if you are a smaller business looking to branch out in working nationwide what better way to start than with a number that does not pertain to any specific area. When customers dial an 0800 number they do not know which part of the country you are located in, they will just assume that you operate in

Both numbers can benefit your business in the long term but it is up to you to decide which will suit your needs best. If you are thinking of creating a virtual landline with one of the numbers, then the first place to start looking will be Smart Numbers Ltd. We will help you better understand your options and find a package that will help you to grow.