What is a business inbound number?

What is a business inbound number?

An inbound number is a virtual business number that is used exclusively to receive and manage your incoming calls.

Calls made to your inbound number can be redirected to your preferred answerpoint, such as your mobile, office phone or even a professional answering service.

The most common inbound numbers are 1300 numbers, 1800 numbers and 13 numbers.

Smartnumbers or Phone Words are also inbound numbers that gives you flexibility and control over your incoming business calls.

Why choose an inbound number

Inbound numbers such as 1300 or 1800 numbers can serve as a great business tool. Not only do they make your business look more professional to prospective customers, they offer far more flexibility and portability over a standard business phone number because they are not tied to a fixed landline or location.

What is the difference?

1300 NUMBER

1300 numbers are the most popular form of national business phone number, and for good reason.

Advantages

A 1300 number offers greater coverage than your local (geographic) phone number, and looks more professional than an ordinary mobile phone number.

Importantly, the ongoing costs of a 1300 number will be shared between your business and the caller. Calls are charged at untimed 'local' rates. This makes thirteen-hundred numbers the choice of many small and medium-sized businesses.

Limitations

1300 numbers are the most popular kind of national number, making branding and differentiation a great deal harder. In addition, because 1300 numbers are not free to call, some customers may not call.

13 NUMBER

13 numbers are punchy and memorable, suitable for dedicated inbound sales and support centres.

Advantages

A 13 number is just six digits long (eg. 13 13 32). With fewer digits to remember, 13 numbers help establish a distinctive, mnemonic and memorable point of contact.

As with 1300 numbers, 13 numbers share the ongoing call costs between your business and the caller. Calls are charged at untimed 'local' rates. 13 phone numbers are an attractive option if customer recall is important.

Limitations

13 numbers incur an annual operating cost of $8000+ p.a. which is specially levied by the ACMA. This additional charge may make a 13 number prohibitively expensive for small and medium-sized businesses.

1800 NUMBER

1800 numbers are free to call and eliminate any economic barrier to customer phone contact.

Advantages

A 1800 number offers greater coverage than your local (geographic) phone number, and looks more professional than an ordinary mobile phone number.

1800 phone numbers are 'freecall' (toll-free) for callers within Australia. Thereby, 1800 numbers eliminate any economic barrier to customer contact.

Limitations

All ongoing call costs of 1800 numbers are paid by your business, instead of being shared with callers. This can be an unpredictable & expensive cost for some businesses.

Smartnumber or Phone Words – what are they?

A Smartnumber is a business inbound number that is unique to your business. You can get a Smartnumber that spells a phoneword (1300 REPAIR) or follows a sequence that is memorable (1800 88 22 88).

Choosing a great phone word can help you spread your message to everyone in a blink of an eye. Securing a powerful, relevant keyword as your phone number (before a competitor does) gives you the unfair advantage.

It’s amazing to think that a business phone number can appear thousands of times in search engine results.

If you have a phone word, then it's this keyword that is linked thousands of times - not a number. This means your organisation ranks much higher in searches for this term.

An additional rental fee applies for Smartnumbers or Phone Word, depending on the sequence will determine the rental fee.

Now imagine how much free advertising that provides?

Reach out to me to ensure YOUR business has the best Inbound number solution for YOU.