Goodbye 0844, 0845 and 0871, should you embrace 03 numbers?

Will the introduction of an EU Consumer Rights Directive on the 13th June 2014 signal the beginning of the end for 0844, 0845 and 0871 customer service numbers?

What you need to know?

This directive demands that businesses using 0844, 0845 and 0871 non-geographic number types for customer support or complaint purposes must switch to basic rate numbers beginning 01, 02, or 03, or free numbers. 

What should you do if this affects your business?

1. Firstly, check the directive guidance to see if your business type is affected.  Some business types and non-customer service lines are exempt.
2. Even if your business type isn’t listed in the directive today there’s a strong chance that it will be in the future or you may find customer dissatisfaction increasing and pressure mounting to make the change anyway.
3. Decide what number type you want to adopt.  See “Is 03 right for my business”.
4. Contact your telco and ask how they will support you through the transition.  Understand their solution and the associated costs – it could be an opportunity to review your inbound services and look for something more aligned to your current and future business needs. Many businesses today are looking to improve business continuity or achieve cost savings.

Should your organisation switch to 03 numbers?

Firstly, 01 and 02 prefixed numbers are very familiar to us all – referred to as local or geographic numbers.  They give a local service perception to customer service. 

03 numbers were first introduced as non-geographic numbers charged at geographic rates in 2007 and are the closest equivalent of the 08 numbers you need to replace.

Movement away from 0844, 0845 and 0871 in order to comply with the directive is a given, but what are the benefits of moving to 03?

For the consumer, calls to 03 numbers cost no more than a national rate call to 01 or 02 numbers and revenue sharing is not allowed.  Consumers will need to be informed of this and this may take a little time.

Switching to 03 may be the simplest direct replacement. However, whether you adopt 01, 02 or 03, calls to any of these number types can be delivered to a single centralised call centre or dispersed teams of agents anywhere under your control by migrating to SIP-Trunking or through the adoption of a cloud-based number management solution. Such solutions bring greater flexibility, technology choice and resilience across all number types.

Preparing for bad weather - how will you answer calls?

Of all the seasons, travelling in winter requires the most care. As a result we get a barrage of advice ranging from how to carry out checks on the car, packing additional supplies to checking how the weather may impact travel plans - if you’re able to travel at all. But far too often people find themselves in difficult situations when caught in fog, stuck at the railway station or stranded on a motorway.

Whilst it’s inconvenient to be stranded due to adverse weather, what impact does it have on organisations that rely on their workforce? In recent years the impact on the UK economy has been estimated at £470m per day when snow brings our roads, rail and air travel to a stop. Staying at home or working from another office is a good approach for staff but how can you provide customers the business as usual service that they expect. Technology such a virtual private network (VPN) allows your staff to connect to computer systems in the office, but how do they answer customer or supplier calls made to their desk number if they aren’t in the office?

Just like finding out that your old car battery cannot cope with the freezing weather the ability to divert telephone calls to any destination is something that needs to be considered before a disaster occurs. This is especially the case for fixed landline numbers that normally point directly to an office. Although they can have diverts or call forwarding applied from the internal telephone system and in some cases this is within the control of the user. In many cases such diverts need to be applied by the system administrator who may not be able to get into the office or they may be overwhelmed by the number of requests to divert calls. Therefore to maintain the service level and the valuable cash flow associated with business as usual service, one needs to build the delivery of voice services into business continuity plan.

So before you’re struck by bad weather, make sure that you are prepared for winter and check if you can divert calls to where your staff are located, no matter where they are. If you can’t there are a number of excellent services, such as smartnumbers, that give you control over of where to deliver calls to alternative locations such as home number, mobile phone or to another office.

Moving offices? Top 10 telecom considerations before you move.

Did you realise that even if you are moving offices across the road, you may not be able to keep your phone number? Furthermore, whether you’re a CIO, Telecommunications Manager or Head of IT, moving offices can be a daunting task. To help make sure that your phones keep ringing and you don’t miss those important calls, here are our top 10 telecommunication considerations before you move:

1. Plan ahead
First of all, the more notice you give to any of the suppliers you intend to use, the better off you will be. That’s absolutely true for your telecoms supplier, as it can take time to order and lay additional cable phone/data lines if required. So ideally plan at least six months ahead and leave at least 3 months to order new lines. Telecoms providers always ask to be contacted early as possible, so get them involved in the early stage of the planning process.

2. Do you want to keep you phone number?
Often businesses find out too late that they cannot retain their business phone numbers that clients and suppliers have stored in their phones. If the office you’re moving to is served by another Digital Local Exchange (DLE), you will not be able to keep your phone number. So check with your operator if you can keep your phone number. If you find you can’t keep your numbers, there are solutions such as smartnumbers that can control where calls are delivered, no matter where you move.

Even if you want to take the opportunity to acquire a new number range, it’s worth speaking with your telecoms provider to see if the DLE has enough capacity.

3. Voice and data connectivity to the new location
How many lines/channels are you currently using? What connectivity does the new office have; regular analogue line, digital lines (such as ISDN2/ISDN30) or perhaps IP (such as SIP). If you need to order new lines to be installed, make sure you leave at least 90 days to order new lines from your telecoms provider.  It might be a good opportunity to upgrade to a digital line. More information about the benefits of ISDN is available from the BT site here.

4. Move everyone in one go?
How many employees are you moving to the new office? Up to a 1,000 people can be moved in a weekend if you have already set up the IT and infrastructure. If you’re bringing IT and furniture with you, a common weekend move size is about 250 people. Many businesses go for a phased approach to minimise risk. The challenge though is how will you control where calls to each of the direct dial-in (DDIs) are delivered during the transition - to the old site or the new?

Speak to your telecoms provider they might be able to divert your main number to another location and coordinate a switch over date. If you need control of where calls to each DDI are delivered, for example if you are moving teams or departments separately, then a cloud based service like smartnumbers will give you the flexibility you require.

5. Make sure you have enough plugs
Plan where you are going to locate the PBX, printers, scanners and faxes in the new premises. The new building may require additional cabling and IT networks. Are there enough data and power points? The general rule of thumb is two per person plus an extra four per four person group for other equipment such as printers etc. Make sure that any structural alterations are completed before the move, especially if you are moving to an old building where it might not be possible to run cables or drill through walls. Make sure that all these fall under Building and Health & Safety regulations.

6. Be prepared for the unexpected, have an emergency plan
If business continuity plans are important to manage day-to-day risk, it’s even more important to get a plan in place during an office move. Make sure that it contains a contact list of all persons involved in the move, including the contact numbers of all IT and telecoms technicians. A great video guide about business continuity planning from Maris is worth a watch.

7. Consider an IT and telecommunications moving expert
Managing a substantial move can involve a complex range of variables including cabling, IT equipment, how calls are to be answered and off-site storage of data. It might be worth consulting an IT and telecommunications specialist to support your move so doesn’t affect your day to day business.

8. Disposing of old electronics - stay within the law
As well as complying with general waste legislation, you will need to consider how to recycle or dispose of your electronic equipment. This also includes how to dispose of sensitive data stored within hard discs and other computer memory.

9. Moving forwards
Whether your office relocation is driven by growth in personnel or you’re consolidating your office estate, an office move is a good opportunity to review if your telephone system is fit for purpose. Do you need a more flexible switchboard, are staff going to be working from home? If so, it’s worthwhile investigating if a new telephone system will be a better fit. If you get new technology, remember staff may need time to be trained to use the new equipment.

10. Test, test and test again
You’ve moved all the desks, bookshelves, got new ISDN lines installed and perhaps even got a new telephone system, now it’s time to test that it all works. Don’t forget to test that calls to each DDI are delivered to the right place. It’s highly recommended that you have a plan B if the unexpected goes wrong, so prepare a business continuity plan.