Showing posts with label Numbers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Numbers. Show all posts

Sunday, February 20, 2011

0800 Numbers Can Make Sure You Never Miss A Call

0800 numbers help you to not miss any calls from your customers.


This can be done by the way you route the number but also by additional features you can add, which for the most part cannot be done on a standard landline.


You want to be available to your customers as much as possible, there to answer any questions or queries that they have, an 0800 number can help you do this.


You could route your 0800 number straight to your mobile, you could have multiple diverts on the line, you could have a voicemail with missed call alerts, and the number can be transferred to a new number at any time.


Let's look at each of the above advantages in turn.


You can route the calls straight to your mobile:
? If you are out of the office a lot, or travelling from place to place having the calls going straight through to your mobile allows the customer to be able to get hold of you wherever you are
? Being there for your customers will give them a sense of security and will also help to build up relations
? Customer service is paramount in any industry and having an available port of call at all times will impress your customer and also help them to recommend you to their friends and family
? It also means that out of hours if your customer has an emergency that calls will still be answered and dealt with quickly and effectively


You can have multiple diverts on the line:
? You can set your 0800 number up so that it can route to multiple numbers
? You could route to your office number and then to your mobile and then to a colleague if you are unavailable for example
? It will also transfer the calls if the line is busy ensuring the customer waits no longer than necessary to reach you
? This will also keep down charges for you as you could answer it at a landline while in the office and only use the mobile for when you have left
? This can also be set up for different times of the day and days of the week allowing you to have complete control over your number and the calls being made to it


You could have a voicemail with missed call alerts:
? A professionally recorded voicemail will always sound better than being passed to a generic mobile or landline voicemail
? It will also hide from the customer that the call may have routed through to a mobile
? The voicemails can then be emailed to you for you to listen to, with most people having smart phones now it means you can get these while on the go and respond as quickly as you can
? No waiting to get back to the office to retrieve messages
? You can also set up missed call alerts which will tell you the caller's number even if they decide not to leave you a message, this means as a courtesy you can call them back and hopefully generate a lead
? You will have a record of all calls made to you, which will let you know how many calls you are receiving and allow you to use this for monitoring your advertising and also help you to make sure your 0800 number is working to the best of its ability for you and your company


In short, 0800 numbers can make sure you get all your calls.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Justifying tele-density in India ? Are the numbers reported by Indian Telcos inflated?

In some of my older posts, I have shown my concern on the numbers reported for users of mobile service in India. For example with entry of DoCoMo on Indian scene, the numbers Tata reported to have added last month was more than 3 million. Bharti & Vodafone continue to claim the same number of addition that they were claiming in new month. Strangely it means that with entry of new operators the existing will not loose market share. Somewhere fundamentals of economics have been defied. In other words the teledensity in India can reach 100% in ayear or so, if 10 more new operators join, as they will each add 2 to 3 million connection without decrease in the number of additions by existing operators. WoW! It seems the tele density figures in India need to be justified some how.

Recently in one of the articles published in ET,findings of a survey by online market research company JuxtConsult were reported. It says - One out of every three (57 million) urban mobile users in India now own two or more mobile connections. Believe it or not. After all this is a survey. JustConsult claims that it's the first time an estimation on the size of this segment has been attempted, as none of the industry associations––Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) and Association of Unified Service Providers of India (AUSPI)––or sector regulator Telcom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) have any estimation of the number of multiple connections per user.

Understanding the size, composition and motivations of this huge segment of mobile users is critical. It is needed by mobile operators in designing their marketing plans. It is also needed by handset makers and department of telecom (DoT), which is in a fix as to estimating the true teledensity of India. JuxtConsult's estimation of mobile connections in the country (till July) at 343-million is lower than TRAI's estimates of 441.6-million (August). JuxtConsult attributes the difference between its estimate and TRAI numbers to many inactive connections. Says Sanjay Tiwari of JuxtConsult: "The discrepancy is also because about 15% of reported additions by mobile operators and their associations are inflated." There are credible reasons behind operators inflating subscriber numbers. Market cap, valuation and spectrum allocation based on number of subscribers are key reasons along with the pressure to cut tariffs. It also helps attract subscribers to one's own network. A new user is likely to join a large operator as network calls come cheap.

ET also reported that the government suspected that all operators were inflating their customer figures by about 15-20% and that the DoT is planning to monitor the user base of all telecom operators to ensure that operators do not inflate subscriber numbers to grab additional spectrum. Well all this will be sorted out shortly - I hope! For the time being Justconsult deserves appreciation for trying to help in profiling the multiple user customer, whose average age largely falls between 25-35 years. According to the survey, Delhi and the national capital region account for over one in ten of all 57-million MCMU’s at 12% of the total base followed by Mumbai (8%), Bangalore (7%) and Chennai (6%). Most are actual genuine connections.

The survey, also for the first time, makes a distinction between a user and a connection, hitherto taken as one in reporting India’s teledensity and average revenue per user. As reported by ET - According to Rajat Mukherjee, chief corporate affair officer at Idea Cellular, about 20% of all telcos’ customers carry more than one SIM. The carried / thrown in dustbin SIMs remains to be distinguished

JuxtConsult’s India Mobile 2009 estimates are based on a very large sample data of around 285,000 urban and rural Indians, covering all states and union territories––574 districts, 3,175 towns and over 2,800 villages. With at least 30 plus sample each from 323 districts and 419 towns, and 100 plus sample each from 184 districts and 155 towns, the study is one of the most representative, independent enumeration of mobile phone usage in India.

With over two mobile connections per user (2.4) amongst multiple connection mobile users (MCMU), this segment account for a majority (59%) of all 235-million odd urban mobile connections. JuxtConsult’s survey did not estimate MCMU numbers for rural India. TOO MUCH TOO SOON !!

With increased urbanisation and migration from distant parts of the country to the cities, long distance calling has been on the rise across the country. ET reports that Airtel will also soon be launching a family plan where in three members of a family can buy Airtel postpaid connection but pay rental for only one. This plan is justified by the survey which shows that joint families have the highest ownership of mobile phones, with about 65% of their members owning more than one connection.

The socio economic class (SEC) A & C mobile users show higher tendency to have multiple connections, says the survey. Migrant workers and youth form a large part of the target audience. This push is also having an impact on more Mobile phone sales and launch of newer models. Sunil Dutt, country head, Samsung Mobile says he is seeing a rise in sales of Samsung’s dual mode GSM/GSM and GSM/CDMA handsets. While Nokia and Sony Ericsson don’t have such phones in the market, Spice Mobiles, has 50% of its portfolio as dual SIM phones. Such phones contribute a good 80% of the company’s revenues, says Kunal Ahooja, CEO, Spice Mobiles. The survey says that about 41% MCMUs need another spare handset for ease of use. But switching between GSM and CDMA handsets is cited as a reason by 30% buyers.


0800 Numbers And Auto Attendant (Press 1 For Sales)

In recent years the Telecoms industry has seen a vast growth in the use of 0800 freephone numbers.


They have emerged to be the phone number of choice for many businesses due to the vast advantages and added features available.


The biggest selling point of 0800 numbers derives from promotion of customer service. If you are running a business an 0800 number can work as a positive solution for both yourself and your customer. 0800 freephone numbers enable a customer to contact a company without charge meaning they do not need to incur high call charges if they have any questions or are faced with any issues. This can be an enormous reassurance to the customer in the reliability of a company.


The numbers are known as non-geographical telephone numbers which can be directed to both landlines numbers and mobile phones depending on your particular requirements. An 0800 number provider can re-direct your freephone number when necessary to fit in with your individual circumstances. Depending on provider the charges can vary to change the destination number either by paying a fee for each change to free unlimited redirection of your 0800 number.


An additional exceptional advantage to 0800 numbers is that they can make your business seem larger and more successful giving the impression of stability and consistency, conveying a higher level of trust to your customers. One of the most advanced added features available to give this impression is known as an auto attendant feature which can be added onto your 0800 number by your freephone provider.


What is an Auto Attendant Feature?


The Auto Attendant feature allows a call to be routed through to a menu system listing various options for the customer. This systems works when a customer calls the 0800 number which is answered by the auto attendant system. An optional welcome message can then be played followed by a choice of options, for example, Press 1 for Sales, Press 2 for Accounts, Press 3 for Customer Services etc.


This ensures that customer's calls are routed through to the most relevant department by pressing the appropriate keys on their telephone. When a customer identifies which department they wish to speak to calls can be routed to various numbers, or if the idea of the feature is to make you look like a larger company, calls can be put through to one number.


The routing system can be extremely beneficial by enabling you to answer important calls when you are out of the office by simply transferring the call to a mobile phone or home telephone number. This can eliminate the chance of missing calls even out of business hours.


Any calls that cannot be answered can be automatically routed to a voicemail system which can be customized for each department with specialised voicemail recordings added on to each extension giving the opportunity for a customer to leave messages relating to their specific queries. This voicemail can then be emailed to you as an audio file to ensure that the query is dealt with promptly.


In summary the main advantages to an Auto Attendant are that they can;


1. Make a small business seem larger;
2. More professional
3. Reduce the levels of missed or unanswered calls;
4. Personalise your relationship with the customers
5. Save money on additional telephone lines
6. Lower a customer's call queuing time.
7. Offer more flexibility to employees of the business by enabling calls to be answered even when out of the office.


Freephone 0800 numbers have emerged to be the most memorable and identifiable number to use to endorse a business. The auto attendant feature acts as an innovative partner to the 0800 number which can work as a powerful tool to develop the business by creating a higher standard of customer care.

Friday, February 18, 2011

Cellular Phone Numbers Search - Reverse Phone Lookup

In the past few years, we have been relying on our service provider to get the information about the phone number that we don't know because this is the only way to get it. Sometimes even if we call our service provider to lookup a phone number, we end up not getting any information since phone operators were often not updated. But now, we can get the information of our caller by just hitting the internet. Here comes the reverse cell phones lookup service. Here are some information on how this service works.


Cell phone popularity is growing globally. And because of that, landline phones seem to be hardly used as of today. With the reverse cell phone lookup service via internet, we can track down the owners of unknown numbers because these service websites keeps up to date information in their database. You can track down about 98% of mobile phone subscribers in U.S. and Canada with the use of this reverse phone detective. All you need to do is enter the phone number.


You may ask how these reverse phone look up service websites know much about the identity of the owner of the phone number. This is because these service websites collaborates with the telephone operators and companies. Telecommunication companies provide their information database to the service websites so that they will have a copy of all the information about the cell phone subscribers. However, even if the telecommunication companies give a grant to the reverse phone lookup service website to access all the information about the user, they still need to agree to definite terms and conditions to secure the subscriber's privacy. Some websites that offers reverse cell phones lookup often say they are free of charge. However, these kinds of services have limitations. Reverse cell lookup services that are free will only give you the location of the phone. Not the exact location, but the location where it is registered. If you really need the complete information that you want, they will charge you for their certain services.


Because these service websites agreed for subscriber's privacy policy, they can't grant you all the information you want to know about your unknown caller for free. And if you pay for the information you want, your credit card information will also be stored in their database. As a whole, you will get the information you want in return of paying them their service charge plus a permission to have your information. So if you use the reverse phone lookup service in any unlawful purposes, your information will be retrieved easily.


The advantage of using an online reverse phone detective a.k.a reverse cell phone lookup is to track down your unknown caller. Whether it is a prank caller or your stalker, you will know all the information without revealing your identity unless you will be involved in such criminal activity. You can recover your lost contacts easily. You just have to register and pay their annual charge. Some service websites charge quarterly for lower fees. And if you received a threat/prank via phone call, you can track down the caller by using reverse cell phone lookup and have him arrested for what he/she have done or might have done.


As mention earlier, there are some service websites that offer backwards phone number search and you may ask why pay when there are free services. The answer to that question is that free reverse phone lookup service will not provide you with detailed information, not to mention that it is not always up to date and therefore not reliable.


Authenticity of information is very important when it comes to tracing a cell phone number. Do not get attracted so easily by free service because the information that they will give to you will be limited and may not be reliable. Besides, there will be no telecommunications company that will give their information database to any reverse phone lookup services for free.

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Reverse Look Up Phone Numbers - A Solution To Anonymous Calls And Unnecessary Headaches!

Reverse look up phone numbers may not be the best in locating owner of the anonymous phone calls in your girlfriend or spouse's cell phone which can lead to unnecessary strife and heartache for both people. But Reverse phone number searches can help ease the suspicion and lead to a solution. Reverse search by numbers is a different way to search for numbers.

Reverse look up services have also been an alternative in the daunting task of tracking terrorism by the police in the state even as cell phones not listed in phone directories have evaded the eyes of investigators. Reverse phone number searches are however just one of the many tools for getting to the person.

Reverse phone number searches have been developed in the US to trace numbers which acts as a mechanism to help telephonic investigation of unknown numbers. Such sites on the net are a step in providing authentic support to telephonic investigation. Reverse look up phones can be available in these sites in which information for a cell phone can be easily located. Thus Reverse look up services can help locate who is calling your girlfriend or spouse which can be done in total privacy.

Reverse lookups are accumulated from search engines like Google and Yahoo from sites which ask for telephones from the user. This telephone database is then accrued in and is available in the name of reverse phone look up. Caller IDs are now passe at least in the USA as reverse search by phone also provides the address of the caller.

To protect hacking of these numbers, legal agreements between cell phone connection providers and Reverse phone look up are binding in the US. This ensures that privacy of cell number is maintained by the reverse look up phone service providers. Hence these service providers may ask for upfront payment for their services which can be done by credit card for registration.

End-users may also subscribe to the reverse look up phones and enhance their telephonic investigation. The process for a reverse phone search in locating owner of innocuous phone calls is just a Google search away. It is a very easy and cost effective technique and reverse and reverse search by cell numbers needs no prior preparation.

On the downside of it, most of the reverse search are unreliable source of information as information gathered is highly volatile. Reverse phone searches are developed by individual companies who may not have access to large amount of data. To get hold of comprehensive data for a good reverse search by phone numbers a personal research on the reverse look up phone number service provider is advisable. So one has to be very careful while choose the right services.


Saturday, February 5, 2011

Is It Possible To Find Authentic Information Using Phone Numbers?

While using the internet, you would have often felt frustrated by the vagueness of it all. We tend to use the internet for almost everything these days. Right from being able to chat with people who are living very far away, we use the internet to pay our bills, to read up interesting stuff, download music, get live scores of our favourite games, and so on.

Thus, we have actually becoming conditioned into believing that the internet, search engines in particular, is invincible. So if you have been trying to use the internet to get some cell phone data for a call which you got on your mobile from an unidentifiable number, you cannot be blamed. But what you may discover while you search is that not all the sources of data can be trusted. Hence, you may find that reverse phone search websites are quite beneficial here.

The actual grounds for the development of reverse phone search websites was to provide people a way to know the source of strange calls. Initially, they all provided just a single basic service called the revere cell phone lookup. Since the existing directories gave information only about landline phones which are available through a public directory, people were not able to identify callers from cell phone, VoIP or private numbers.

This gave some a very easy tool to make the lives of other innocent people miserable. But when reverse phone search websites came into being, this changed. The cell phone lookup function helped to prevent the prank callers from engaging in their pervert activities to quite an extent. Modern websites still give lookup options and with better modifications.

Reverse phone search websites are like digital detectives of today. If you are a fan of any of the thriller shows, then you would find that using these advanced search sites make you feel exactly like your favourite super cop on TV. In fact, until the government allowed the commercial use of reverse phone search services, this kind of information was only used for internal purposes by government agencies.

So, if you are in need for bona fide information, the reputed reverse phone search websites of today are your best options. The main effect of this is that now there is greater transparency in the society, thanks to reverse phone search websites. You can now rest assured that no one would ever be able to make blank calls to you, and get away with it.