Call Whisper is great for businesses

Call Whisper can be used with UK & International Virtual Numbers

Call Whisper is a feature that offers the users of a particular virtual geographic or non-geographic number(s), the opportunity to answer the call with a particular salutation.
There is no requirement for any additional hardware or software or equipment to connect to your company telephone switch, the message is handled in-side the intelligent network platform of the carrier concerned.

To offer an example of how this would work in a call handling / contact centre environment is a great example of how this would work in practice.

Take for instance, calls emanating from your company web-site on 0845 XXX XXXX. This would route into the call answering centre, irrespective of geographic location and call handlers would be greeted with a pre-recorded announcement of “This call is for company X from their web-site....” or “This call is for company X from the flyer campaign....”. The benefit of this is that you know it to be a new enquiry but the flyer campaign might be a warmer lead than a web-site enquiry so ultimately the person that you assign to handle the lead may be different.

If for instance you have a particular skill in selling Call Whisper services for instance, you can point your telephone number at a particular DDI or set of DDIs and that way Call Whisper will allow you to deal more professionally with the call. If you have modern telephone system with digital display handsets, you can visually see and well as hear where the call is emanating from and handle the call appropriately. Call Whisper is great if you are attempting to manage multiple non-geographic and geographic telephone numbers.

This is great for companies who may wish to take overflow calls or calls that a large company may syndicate on particular campaign. Perhaps for large insurance companies and banks who are less concerned about non-core elements of their services such as Will Writing or Inheritance Tax Planning (IHT), but still want to offer the services under the brand as part of a complete solution. They may wish to have their name to the campaign but in actual fact the call is handled elsewhere by an external third party.

Call Whisper is free to set up and can accompany any type of 08 number or indeed 03 or virtual areacall number of which there are over 4000 codes.

The overall benefit of call whisper is the fact that calls can be handled for more professionally than would otherwise be the case if you were not aware of the callers origination.
To summarise call whisper offer the following specific benefits:-
1. Creates the impression that the user has multiple or local offices.
2. There is no minimum term for the service however you must notify us if you wish to cancel.
3. Numbers will be created for you within 5 days.
4. You can have as many Virtual Numbers pointing to the same UK landline.
5. This is a low cost option compared to BT Remote forwarding which is £106 per number, per quarter (saving you over £90 every quarter).

0870 could cost small businesses dearly

0870 legislation could cost small businesses in recession

It has recently been estimated that small businesses could see price hikes of up to 200% on their 0870 as Ofcom’s legislation came into force on August 1st, 2009 and some have not managed to change towards 0844 / 03 numbers. Furthermore, it is estimated that it could affect up to a third of UK businesses.

Businesses have now been automatically changed over to the new telecoms tariff with effect from August 1st where they will be charged for all calls to their 0870 Numbers for the very first time. Some companies have moved back to their old 01/02 number and will not suffer the consequences of telephone bills, but for some this may not be the case.
The costs of changing various advertising medias and letterheads, etc. will naturally be prohibitive for some businesses and it could cost some as much as £5,000.00

Through no particularly faul of their own businesses could be faced with significantly rising costs if they have a lot of inbound call traffic on 0870. Clearly, this is going to have a big impact on companies in the current recession.

Despite telecoms companies investing heavily in letting companies know about the changes, most have either ignored this or have not seen the impact that this change is likely to have on its business in cost terms.

The change is incredible easy to make and many telecoms companies have drawn up options that allow companies to understand their options such as moving to an 0844 Numberor an 0845 Numberwhich are cost neutral.

Of course there is often a lot of goodwill wrapped up in existing 0870 Numbersand therefore customers may feel that to change would equally cost their businesses dearly.

A change to a memorable 0844 Number would obviously allow a company to continue with its revenue share if it was receiving one before the cut over date of August 1st, 2009. If volumes permit the 0845 Numberrange would also allow companies to receive a small rebate on their 0845 Numbers.

A couple of other options are Virtual Geographic numbers that can be used in yellow pages for driving additional business in out of area geographic regions or 03 Numberswhich are free to dial from inclusive land line minutes mobile packages.

All of the abovementioned number ranges come with intelligent network features such as free call recording/ free call whisper , and other great features such as Virtual Receptionist, virtual Home worker and mid call transfer, an option for clients who may wish to transfer the call on engaged tone from one agent to another.

Clearly, if no changes are effected this could have a knock on effect to the already tight liquidity problems facing UK businesses and small businesses in particular are urged to move their numbering ranges to the revenue bearing 0844 and 0845 options as soon as possible.
It is now possible to move your existing geographic based telephone numbers so that they become out-of-area using broadband and IP technology, but this has implications for other areas of technology and so it would be wise to speak to a specialist in this area.