Taking our phone number

treecol

Thank you for your replies. I did look at some of the companies that will sell you a number & that seems to be the way forward. I just worried that they may be scams as it's not something I'd ever had to do before.
With regard to the advertising of numbers, all of our elderly customers use our landline number only. The publications we advertise in will not take adverts with mobile-only numbers as they are trying as best they can to reassure all potential customers that the companies who advertise in there are genuine, traceable & local. We'll still be local, just in the house behind our current one.
Thank you again, I will probably post the provider we go with just so I know I'm making the best choice.

AdrianC

Surely if your customers are so landline-focussed and locally-focussed, and you're on the border of two STD codes, they would be perfectly well aware of how close the other code can be, geographically?

Buying a VOIP number can make it look as if you're further away. In a lot of areas, the first few digits of the number relate to the local exchange, and VOIP numbers use different ranges.

So, f'rinstance, all the "normal" numbers around here start 82 for the main town exchange, or 831 for the village sub-exchange. VOIP provider ranges mostly start 2, 3 or 7. If people are expecting numbers to "look local", they won't. We're on the border of another STD code, and people understand that.

Owain_Moneysaver

But if you port the existing number in, you won't be using a number from the range usually allocated to new VoIP customers.

silvercar

BT used to allow you to take a number to a different exchange.

When London was split from 01xxxxxxx to 081xxxxxx and 071xxxxxxx plenty of businesses paid to go to 071xxxxxx even though they were in the area for 081xxxxxx just because they saw a value in having a central London phone number.

Doozergirl

treecol wrote: »

Thank you for your replies. I did look at some of the companies that will sell you a number & that seems to be the way forward. I just worried that they may be scams as it's not something I'd ever had to do before.
With regard to the advertising of numbers, all of our elderly customers use our landline number only. The publications we advertise in will not take adverts with mobile-only numbers as they are trying as best they can to reassure all potential customers that the companies who advertise in there are genuine, traceable & local. We'll still be local, just in the house behind our current one.
Thank you again, I will probably post the provider we go with just so I know I'm making the best choice.

It's not a scam. I have used Invoco for years now with no issues at all.

We have not had a landline for years but our company is reputable and visible with local dialling codes for two major cities as well as our home area. Our real landline is not plugged in and I don't even know the number! All formal enquiries come through to my mobile, but of course you can divert to a landline too. Even using virtual numbers on official documents is no problem, I think it's ridiculous that owning a phone attached to the wall is supposedly significant of being an upstanding citizen in this day and age, but there's no checks, they just like the land line numbers.

If you can get your existing number taken on by one of those companies - great! And you've also learned that you can advertise with different numbers in different directories too. Great for business - bonus!

Doozergirl

AdrianC wrote: »

Surely if your customers are so landline-focussed and locally-focussed, and you're on the border of two STD codes, they would be perfectly well aware of how close the other code can be, geographically?

Buying a VOIP number can make it look as if you're further away. In a lot of areas, the first few digits of the number relate to the local exchange, and VOIP numbers use different ranges.

So, f'rinstance, all the "normal" numbers around here start 82 for the main town exchange, or 831 for the village sub-exchange. VOIP provider ranges mostly start 2, 3 or 7. If people are expecting numbers to "look local", they won't. We're on the border of another STD code, and people understand that.

I think you're concentrating too much on the detail there! They'll take the main number and whoever uses those "other area" directories can't appreciate the boundary thing because the evidence is provided that they don't phone the non-local area code to them. Just changing the area code in a directory sounds like it is likely to benefit the OP. There will be fewer people making a differentiation on the next number in than the first four or five.

I only live a matter of yards from 0121 but I still associate it with Birmingham, not where I live with my 'out in the shires' number. And our last two telephone numbers from BT have had the 'wrong' 6th number anyway. If we want randoms phoning us from within a radius then a Brum number is prudent. In fact, our main company number is a Birmingham one, simply because it's a larger market and we tend to work (and want to work) in one main area of the city - the bit with the money