Your business phone number is your connection to the outside world. It is the first thing that people look for when they want to contact you. It’s not always possible to choose your business number, but if you can, there are some simple tricks to keep in mind. Here is a guide explaining how to choose the right business phone number from the start.
If you run a local business, like a window cleaning company, you need to have a local number. This tells people that you live and work in their community, and it makes it easier for them to remember your number. Having a local number will also protect your customers from paying long distance charges on their phones, where applicable.
If you work in multiple communities, get a local number for each community and transfer all of he calls to your cell phone. You could track your leads this way and determine where you should focus your marketing efforts. If multiple areas have the same area codes for their phone numbers, then you should be fine with just one comprehensive number.
If you plan to run a business on a national or global scale, you will need a 1-800 number instead. This will show that you work in a wide area, not just your city or state. A toll free business line will cost a little more to run, but it is a necessary part of a big operation.
You cannot change the area code where you operate, but you may be able to change the rest of your business phone number. In most cases, you will be given the prefix to your phone number, and then you can enter whatever you want for the last four digits. Example: (AREA CODE) 555-XXXX. There may be several configurations available for the prefix, so you can choose the one that is easiest to remember. Then you can fill in the rest with a pattern of numbers that flow well.
Another way to create easy-to-remember phone numbers is to convert the numbers to letters. For instance, you may want a number like (555) 55C-LEAN. What you can spell will be limited by which prefixes are available for your phone number, but you can play around with different options to see if something works. For quick reference, you can type a phone number into PhoneSpell to see what words you can spell with those letters.
Take the time to come up with a great phone number for your business, and your customers will be more willing to get in touch with you.