In recent years an increasing number of small and owner-operated businesses have started to adopt 1300 numbers as their main telephonic point of contact.
Taking the form of a 10-digit number that connects callers straight to a landline or mobile, they have accounted for more than 50% of all auctioned numbers in Australia since 2004.
There are several reasons why 1300 numbers can have a big impact on small businesses. Not least because they can seriously improve the effectiveness of your marketing and branding strategy.
With that in mind, you should consider getting one for your business. If you are, here are some of the main benefits of doing so.
1. Conveys a professional image
Adopting a 1300 number can not only boost your business presence. But it also can convey a professional image to potential customers.
Primarily, it does this by making your company appear more established, distinguished and reliable. This, in turn, instils greater confidence within those who call you that you will be able to supply them with the product or service they need.
Some larger organisations can invest significant resources towards marketing and advertising campaigns that garner trust within small-scale businesses. However, for those not in a position to do this, a 1300 number is a relatively cost-effective way of enhancing your business’s credibility.
It can also alleviate any concerns potential customers might have about calling a mobile phone or a landline number.
2. You can manage calls professionally
When you run a small business, your time is very limited. So it is important to be as efficient with your workload as possible.
As a lot of your time can be wasted dealing with irrelevant phone enquiries, 1300 numbers can be a godsend.
Equipped with multiple call-handling functions and features, they come with a range of set-up options that can qualify the nature of the call.
These include a prompter greeting, which offers callers several choices they can select by pressing a number on the keypad. For instance, press one for sales, two for finance department etc. Calls can then be diverted to a pre-determined individual who can provide specialist assistance.
In this respect, 1300 numbers are very versatile and can thus prove to be an excellent investment for a business of any size.
If you conduct your business activities from your mobile phone or home landline, you can even set incoming calls to display a specific number on your device. This will help you quickly determine whether the incoming call is a business call and therefore enable you to answer it appropriately – as opposed to just saying ‘hello!’.
3. Much easier to remember
The beauty of having a 1300 number is that they are much easier for people to recall.
Whereas mobile phones or landlines have ten digits you need to remember 1300 numbers only have six.
In addition, these six numbers can be customised to reflect a particular numerical pattern e.g. 1300 123456.
They can even feature a word that relates to your business i.e. 1300 Laptop or 1300 Surf Up.
This, in turn, can assist with your brand recognition and make it appeal more to potential customers.
4. Relocating is much easier
Many small businesses often need to relocate. This could be to fit into larger, more central or cheaper outlets.
For businesses that do need to move, just relying on a regular landline number can cause big problems and huge costs.
This typically involves reprinting all your signage and marketing materials. You may also need to update certain pages of your website and any directory listings you might feature in.
Thankfully having a 1300 number makes your business much easier to relocate. All it requires is for you to modify your point of answer.
By doing this, you eradicate the chance of a customer phoning an old out-of-service number, which could lead them to think you ceased trading.
5. They work nationwide
If your customers are based throughout Australia. Or you want to set up your business for future growth within the country. Setting up a 1300 number is very beneficial.
As it is a national number, 1300 numbers can be used to call you from anywhere in the country. You do not have to set up separate numbers for New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia etc.
Also having a national number as your main point of phone contact implies that you service any area of Australia, as opposed to the state that relates to your specific country code. This can lead to an increase in sales enquiries from beyond your local region.
6. They are flexible
If you spend a lot of time out of the office, 1300 numbers provide a terrific way for people to contact you at all times.
It can often be easy to miss calls when you are out of the office. Particularly if people phone your landline and not your mobile.
However, if you have a 1300 number, you will be able to reroute calls to fit your daily schedule. For instance, if you are an electrician who is out doing the rounds before 3 pm, you can have the call diverted to SMS or an answering machine.
When you return to the office at 3 pm, you can then have it redirected to a landline, your mobile phone or an employee who can answer it on your behalf.
7. Cheaper for customers
Some potential customers may be put off calling your business on a mobile phone number because their phone plan provider makes it quite expensive to do so.
Generally, 1300 numbers are quite cheap to call from a landline phone as it usually costs a flat rate, regardless of the length of the call.
Often this can be as little as 30 cents, which equates to a similar price to that of a local call.
8. Gives you a competitive advantage
Having a 1300 number as your central phone point of contact gives you a distinct advantage over your competitors.
Indeed, some providers of these numbers state that they are up to five times more memorable for customers than a regular landline number.
This results in a higher number of recalls amongst your customers. It also means you stay on top of their mental shopping list whenever they do require your service or products.
9. Increase response rates for advertising campaigns
For the reason outlined above, having a 1300 number also leads to an increase in responses from any advertising campaigns you run. Simply because people can much more easily remember the number.
Advertising campaigns and materials can be very expensive. Especially if they take the form of video advertising. So you will want to ensure yours is set up to receive a maximum ROI.
If you have a 1300 number, it will not only do this but also make it easier for customers to call you.
Final Thought
We hope you have found our guide to how having 1300 numbers can have big impacts on small businesses very helpful.
At the end of the day, there are several reputable providers of affordable 1300 numbers out there who can help you improve your customer communication.
So it is worth giving them a trial run, at the very least, to see how they might benefit your business.