Intelligent Networks

Intelligent Networks

A Number of Ways to Win New Business

The telephone is a tried and tested way for customers to enquire about your products or services, but there are ways to encourage people to call your business first and give you that vital competitive edge.

Whether it is a number that is easy to remember, a free phone call or simply a number that doesn't give away your location, you can minimise the barriers to getting that person to pick up the phone.

In technical terms, the way to do this is through Intelligent Network (IN) services. However, before you stop reading, lets dispel the myth that such services are only cost-effective or suitable for large businesses. Intelligent Network numbers offer flexibility that can benefit individual businesses, or multi-site organisations.

Profit Opportunity

Choices can be made as to whether customers are provided with a free service - 0800, or a low cost service e.g. 0845 where calls are charged at the local rate, regardless of where they come from. Alternatively, a business may wish to use a number where customers pay a higher rate e.g. 0870 numbers where all calls are charged at the national rate, so there is no cost to the business, or the aforementioned "premium" numbers where the business actually makes a profit on the call.

The benefits to a business of using an IN number can be huge. Customers enjoy the ease of having an apparently single contact point; the business only needs to use one number on its advertising and promotional materials; new sites can be added to the business with no effect on customer identity. The business can be more responsive to the customer as calls are handled with the optimum efficiency, in direct alignment with the resources available at any one time.

So for example, a company based in Milton Keynes may wish to attract customers in High Wycombe, Oxford and Northampton but knows that the 01908 STD code will deter potential customers in the other towns.

An 0800 number is not only non-geographic, so you can advertise freely in the other areas whilst potential customers remain unaware of your location, but it has the added advantage that the call is free to the caller, which is likely to encourage these prospects to enquire about your services.

Regardless of the size of a business, IN services have to be an intelligent consideration and may well produce some surprising cost savings.