Hi. I have seen a few posts regarding telephone numbers but would like advice.
We are thinking about getting a telephone number (Local Rate Number 0845) for sales enquiries.
Please can any one who has experience in adding a sales number to their hosting company let me know if this improved the amount of signups.
Advice appreciated
James

hello,

YES it did.

we began w/o the phone number and resisted posting one due to fear of answering support by phone.

many people call just to hear a voice- think how significant that may be for you at times.

overall it doesnt sell the deal but sure helps close a good % of the deals.

dos centavos

Absolutely it does.

I reckon sales phone calls to signups is roughly 90% if they call and you answer and you answer their questions to their satisfaction they nearly always signup.

My poor toll free # gets tore up some days (over 1800 minutes last month). But I can think of at least 3 resellers and 6 hosting and 2 internet access accounts that for sure signed up after talking on the phone with me. Would they have signed up anyway? Who knows.

That is what I wanted to here. We have been thinking about this for a while. We have now ordered our telephone number and it should be online tomorrow.

Right now I'm using a local number. I thought if I got an 800,888 number my minutes were going to be eaten up with support.

The decision I came down to (Still have to act on it) would be to advertise the 800,888 number as sales ONLY ! and the local # for support requests. Does anyone else use this philosophy?

I've seen this philosophy used a lot. But for us smaller guys, it's usually not cost effective to have a separate line for the 800 number. So you really don't know whether someone is calling on the 800 number or the local number. I just assume that everyone is calling on the 800 number and therefore I try very hard not to put people on hold!

Regards,

Keith

The problem with saying saying SALES ONLY is people think that if they call it they might have to place an order or its just an order processor. The best thing to do is to have good online support. If someone has a simple question answer it on the phone if its long like....Can you setup my DNS? Then say sure can I will email you when its complete.

We feared a 1800 number and one problem was that people think our 1877 Number wasn't toll-free and that it was like a 1900

You don't need to list your toll free number as sales only, but you can list your non-toll free number for support, and use that number at the top of your monthly billing statements.

You'll find that most customers will adhere to calling the non-toll free number for support.