Stu @ M Developments

iTrader: (12)

Interested in feedback as they seem too good to be true.

Example:
http://www.phonepresence.co.uk/

L33 BYT

Stu,

We look after some. (I install business telecoms systems for a living.)

The ones we look after are full of youngsters/students who are rude and have no clue what they are talking about.
If they are just there to take calls then fair enough. If they are to provide some sort of information to your callers this is where sometimes it can go wrong.

We also route our out of hours calls to one of these who cause us more issues than they resolve.

I would say that if you choose to go with one try to find one which is recommended by a company using the service.

Chip

iTrader: (3)

If the birds are all that fit, I think you should just employ them direct
(and one on the left for dancossie)

Stu.H

I'm guessing stu that people calling you will want an answer to something fairly quickly, or to book a car in/cancel a sesh etc.

Then it would mean you calling them back etc.

Might be more time comsuming and hassle in the long run?

L33 BYT

Been thinking a little more here Stu.
Sorry to jump on again, To be fair from my point of view, your service is a professional/technical service.

Now the issue is. I Mr "A" ring up and would like some information on a particular service you offer, so I can book in a car for this so called service.
The very first person I speak to who is as such a representative of your company basically says something inappropriate as that first point of contact, which makes your customer re-consider the services you offer. Whilst I cannot see it as many people mentioning your company always sing its praises its always has that chance.

Out of interest. Do you have any type of telephone system in your business at the moment?

Stu @ M Developments

iTrader: (12)

Sorry chaps, you maybe dont know what these systems do.

Basically, i choose an 0844 number. Say, 0844 55 66 77 and then when you call it, it gives you some options.

Press 1 for Motorsport Developments sales. (You will get through to me.)
Press 2 for Evolution Chips sales. (You will get through to me.)
Press 3 for workshop bookings. (You will get through to Will.)
Press 4 for Evolution network technical enquiries. (You will get through to kenny.)

The above are examples, but basically, these companies give you a call diversion system from one global number, allowing you to run various departments from one single phone number. 0845/0844 usually. 5pmin national rate.

They offer all the usual switchboard features such as:

• Music on hold.
• Voicemail.
• call Quing system.
• E-mail you a list of any numbers that called, as well as numbers that hung up so you can call back.
• E-Mail you numbers of people who called out of hours so you can call them back.
• They automatically route calls to answer messages/voicemail after hours or during lunch with a user compiled message

The main reason we want the system, is to be able to answer the correct calls with the correct greeting, as kenny and I are effectively running 2 seperate businesses from the same building and phone number. The system above can even "whisper to you" the option the caller chose in the case of a busy redirect to another free line, so you know how to answer "hello, Motorsport Developments" Or "hello, Evolution Chips". Also, if we have 2 lines ringing at once, we could prioritise our choice of which to answer based on knowing what it was likely to be.

The cost of all this? varies from FREE to around £15Pm.

Too good to be true? Seems it on face value, but i cant find a catch so far...

Stu @ M Developments

iTrader: (12)

Hopefully my post above has cancelled out most replies on here so far, sorry for wasting your time by not being clear.


No, just 1 main number with 2 lines. (01253 508400)

And 1 number with fax/internet/CC terminals installed. (508402)

508401 is reserved for us by BT, but i recall its utilised by line 2.

Madbradz

One thing...

When I'm Looking for a local service I dont call 0845 numbers, because they could be anywhere and not usually a local company.

But apart from that, Sounds good, Will make sure people are directed in the right direction.

Adam

L33 BYT

Sorry for my mis-understanding.

Stu, probably no catch to be honest. As you may be aware, it costs slightly more to call one of these numbers. Now basically the people providing this service to you will get a claw back on the profits made (all be it small)

We offer NGN's ie 0844/0845's and we usually offer the claw back earnings back to the customer. So you make a tiny bit of money on calls people who call you.

My only bit of advise to you Stu is your current setup. The point of these different numbers is so that you can direct the call to the appropriate person. I assume that you are having another number or 2 freed up so you can distinguish which line is being rung, otherwise it seems all over complicated for your needs. I fail to see how they can distinguish one call from another if they are only offering the service on your one number. Perhaps some sort of announcement when you first pick up the phone.

I retract my previous "Stay Away" comment. These services are usually pretty high tech. For example I have a local number which forwards to my mobile when I am out and about but as soon as my mobile gets near my wireless access point it logins into a SIP provider and gives free calls.

Apologies for the boring stuff. Bit of a geek where this is concerned.

Stu @ M Developments

iTrader: (12)

No appologies lee, i love talking to people who know what teh hell they are doing mate, makes a nice change. I love it.

I would free up 508401, allowing me the use of 3 numbers for 3 switchboard options and three people, so ideal. Also, if teh corerct line is busy, will give me the option to route to another number and "Whisper" to them before connection what company/service the caller required.

Does that make sense, and more importantly, is there a better option available taht you know of? hardware to do this seems prohibitively expensive compared with how simple and cheap this all seems to be!

Only issue is, i have the same problem with national rate numbers in that i tend to avoid them too, but then, we do very little local work and our advertising is national, so i guess it shouldnt really count as a negative for my company?

L33 BYT

Agreed. Its one trade I know of with huge profits to be made. We get at least 50% discount on the equipment we purchase. So your point of expensive is defiantly true But some of the stuff it can do now a days is truly awesome.

For 3 phones also it seems a huge over kill. The only plus side of the hardware option is the ability to keep rolling out your Blackpool numbers to your client base.

foreigneRS

from your post stu, it seems like a good solution. it would seem to be paid for by the customer ringing, which is not a problem i would say

Stu @ M Developments

iTrader: (12)

Approx cost to do the above with a hardware box in order to keep my own number? (noty happy about teh 0844 still as my number has been traded for 8 years so far, and its a shame to change it, even though it will still ring if you dial it of course.)

pa_sjo

You could set yourself up with a nice little VOIP switch using 'Asterisk' on an old computer and configure as much as you'd like! And it won't/shouldn't cost you anything!

L33 BYT

Stu, leave with me for an hour or so.

Stu @ M Developments

iTrader: (12)

Any chance of some further info mate as bar the VOIP, teh rest was pretty much japanese to me.

Stu @ M Developments

iTrader: (12)

Thanks for your time pal, really appreciated. Im off to watch Jumpers with teh wife now, so will be back in a couple of hours.

pa_sjo

Asterisk is an open-source/freeware phone switch system.. It's not super straightforward to configure but it can be made to do pretty much anything you want.. and it's also designed for VoIP so it's expandable in the future if you want to add any phone numbers (you can easily get cool numbers for next to nothing and route them via the internet)..

I'm not an expert on Asterisk but I know enough people who are!

L33 BYT

But with Ananlogue lines, Stu will still need to obtain some hardware. For Line termination.

pa_sjo

That's true - pci linecards arent expensive

Ginge !

stu my company uses this sort of system but its a little more complicated than that

our one has a range of numbers who then are transfered to the same set of phones, based on where your calling depends on what depot you get through to aswell

though we have one general number per depot that aint 0845 or 0870 ( costs more on 0870 but we have to keep them as there old lines ) that when you call gets rushed through the que for bigger costomers,,,,, but thats cause we have on average 15 calls on hold all the time from 8am to 6pm

our system useds 2 seperate computers we call "miranda" and then there the lines we use but we have ALOT of lines,,,, ive got 3 phones and 9 seperate lines on my desk and there 15 of us just in my office

not sure if its what our thinking of but i can get my IT guy to explain it to me and i can try to relay info

i think a basic version of this is called " quecall" but not 100 percent

but as said my place individuall numbers per line, 1 main 0208 number for extensions to be connected to a line aswell 9 numbers that come in on seperate lines but still divert to the next available phone and a " hotline" que jump number for bigger customers

my phone has a load of buttons on the side and one of em flashes and the screen reads out the type customer that is calling,,,,, we have a few company names based on the type of client so the screen tells us how to answer the phone based on the name on the screen

hope that might help alittle
ps: we also have a voicemail system per desk extention should the person wanna leave a message with a set person

vikingboy

look at voipfone.co.uk

I setthis kind of system up in about an hour - no hardware needed and about £7 per month inc calls....(ish).

seemed easy enough......

Iain Mac

My phone contract with BT includes all my calls at any time of day to any UK landlines EXCEPT non-geographic 0845/0870 numbers.

I never know how much I'm going to be charged per minute with these - fair enough, yours are 5p/minute but others can be a lot more expensive and there is no way to know, so I won't dial any of these.

There are whole websites devoted to publicising "normal" numbers for businesses that have put the non-geographic numbers in place, so I'm not alone. http://www.saynoto0870.com/search.php

Turbocabbie

http://www.asterisk.org/

Its a really good system, well under rated with great flexibility

Turbocabbie

Agreed, I will not call these numbers at all personally, as such you could loose my business because of this.

Stu @ M Developments

iTrader: (12)

Thanks for all your help peeps, it really is very kind of you to take the time to try and help me.

I have looked at this in some depth now and have decided i really dont wabnt to change a number which ive been using to trade from succesfully for over 8 years, so i am now looking at systems that are hardwierd into the telephoen system onsite instead.

I am hoping to utilise my extensive gigabit network as i have a gigabit 8 port switch in every office and reception area that woudl need a phone. This SHOULD hopefully be usefull. research is ongoing... it seems to be a minefild as ive seen potential solutions ranging from £400 to £5000!

CDF Racing

iTrader: (9)

Stu ,

I have had one of these on my site for the last two years without any problems.

You can change your opening and closed times really easy, and any missed calls come through as a media player on your email


Also you can use this number .... 0844 and divert it to a landline