The UK's most popular phone number for successful marketing
It's very easy to fall into the trap of believing that what
works in one country will work in another especially when both
countries share the same language.
A case in point is toll free phone numbers. In the USA nearly
every business uses a toll free number. And the reason is not
hard to fathom. In such a large country most calls are long
distance. For instance, it's nearly twice as far from New York
to San Francisco as it is from London to Moscow. So if you want
customers to call you, making it easy with a toll free number is
not just a good idea but pretty well essential.
An American setting up business in the United Kingdom might
think that a toll free phone number is just as essential as it
is at home. Yet this is not necessarily the case. For one thing,
the UK is only a small country. From the south west tip at
Land's End to the north west tip at John O'Groats is just 868
miles. That's not very big when you think that some Australians
live 200 miles from their nearest neighbour. In fact, you could
drop the UK into the Hudson Bay and lose it.
Yet one of the noticeable traits of UK inhabitants is how
parochial they are. Traditionally they avoid doing business with
companies at the other end of the country. That makes a free
phone number a good option since it hides the geographical
location of the user. But even though UK free phone numbers have
been available for decades, there are many situations when
bearing the cost of a large number of free phone calls is not
viable. In the mid-nineties, British Telecom came up with a new
solution.
BT decided to tackle this problem by introducing the 0990 number
prefix that, unlike normal phone numbers, was not related to any
particular place so callers would not know to where they were
calling. Callers were, and still are, charged at BT's National
Rate - the rate you pay for making a call outside your local
area, which is 8p/minute daytime, 4p/minute evenings and
2p/minute weekends.
To test if the public would respond to this idea, BT arranged
for Tango to use one of these new numbers for a competition
advertised on TV. Later when the regulator Oftel (whose role has
now been absorbed into Ofcom) changed phone numbers to eleven
digits and ratified prefixes, the Non-Geographic National Rate
was assigned the prefix 0870.
The popularity of using 0870 numbers quickly increased with lots
of national companies keen to use them especially because they
have the added incentive of paying the user a royalty if they
generate a high number of call minutes. Typically, royalty
rebates are available from about 1p to 3p per minute dependent
on call volumes. And the incentive to use these numbers is
further increased by the fact that 0870 numbers are generally
provided free of charge by telephone companies, although
memorable numbers attract a premium.
A glance through any newspaper will reveal just how many UK
companies use 0870 numbers and, conversely, how few rely on 0800
free phone numbers.
There have been problems with some large national companies
apparently prepared to annoy their customers by not answering
calls promptly and dealing inefficiently with enquiries. This
has prompted several Ofcom investigations into misuse.
Nevertheless, businesses both large and small have taken to 0870 numbers in a big way and,
for the foreseeable future, they seem here to stay.
About the author:
Michael Soliatis is the proprietor of Adcall.
Written By: Michael Soliatis