0870 numbers & PO Boxes - Opinions please

[Dan Morris]

Hi,

This is my first post, so hello everybody.

I am planning to start a business soon, and will begin by working from home. Firstly, I want to disguise my home number, and secondly, I may move premises in the near/mid future. I was thinking about using an 0845 or non-geographic number to solve both these problems.

Has anyone got any opinions of these? If you were a prospective client of mine, what would you think about this?

I am also considering using a PO Box, in a similar way to allow movement of premises in the near future. What are your opinions of these. What would you think if you saw a PO Box on a busines card?

Many thanks,
Dan Morris

[peterjhale]

Hi Dan and welcome

0845 numbers are probably better as they cost much less for your customers to call you - they can be directed directly to your existing phone line and cost nothing to install or pay afterwards

PO Box numbers says something is fishy

[MikeH]

People have no worries using 0845 numbers. We use them and 0800 numbers. This was useful as we recently moved offices and there was no disruption in service to our clients or loss of business.

PO Box. Depends on who your clients are and what you sell/provide. We provide our clients with mail forwarding from several genuine business locations. This means that they can move without problem and provides some protection for their home address from Junk Mail etc.

Mike.

[Joyous]

Hi Dan

I would have no problem at all dialling an 0845 number and would be happy to dial an 0800 number as it's not going to cost me anything.

Regarding PO Boxes - how they're conceived depends on your line of business. I'm an accountant working from home and for privacy reasons all my business stationery has a PO Box address on it. I would be wary, however, of a business that said "send £xxx to PO Box number blah blah blah and wait 28 days for delivery".

Regards

Joy

[Dan Morris]

Thanks for all the useful info.

I will be using either an 0845 or 0870 number, (not sure which yet), but by the sound of things the PO Box would not do a lot for my company image !!


Had a quick look at mail forwarding and it costs roughly £200/annum which compared to a PO Box (£108) isn't bad considering the bed press associated with PO Box's.

Another alternative I discovered is a service some formation companies offers which allows you to hire a registered address from them.

I guess my main concerns are targeted junk mail, so, perhaps by using my discretion in divulging the soon-to-be registered address, I can avoid this as much as possible. I gather that you have to have the address on all correspondence, but would this include Business cards?

Thanks again
Dan

[BIZAL]

One of the BIZAL team has research data on the PO BOX issue and it was not good reading. You can always call your own address something like Edward House to give that more corperate feel instead.

if you need to hide your address remember people will always be thinking WHY have they done this.

The best option which would solve all you issues is visit www.kbvo.co.uk and if you call ask fro Chris Munroe and say that BIZAL sent you. Oh and take the free trial!!!

[peterjhale]

Hi Bizal

How is this new service going?

Are you just promoting through the forums at the moment or have you undertaken a proper campaign at all ?

[MikeH]

Hi Bizal,

Perhaps I was looking in the wrong place. I could not see mail forwarding as a seperate service. Do you provide such a thing? If so where are the prices?

Our service starts from £130 + VAT for small mail usage.

Perhaps you could PM some details if you do not want to put them on the forum. I may be interested in working with you on some of the addresses.

Mike.

[BIZAL]

Sorry it has been a few days. Clients hay , who needs them !!!

Anyway

www.kbvo.co.uk is great. We have 3 companies that they provide this service for.

BIZAL Sales Development & marketing Service ( see Sig)
NDS8 Novell's number 1 UK partner
Contact Foundry: Outbound Telesales service based on quality rather than quantity ( new to the group and v glad to have them)

Every day we get all call report, texts are send to the mobiles and if they feel there is other important information i.e. tone of voice sounded urgent, they call and / or send an email depending on your request.

Even if you just use them for your sales line i.e. the number on your website and other promo's, the difference they will make is amazing i.e. no more missed new enquiries!!!

MikeH

You would need to speak to them directly about this. We don’t own them but just rave about the fact they provide the Dogs B*****ks service. Mind you I wish they had a referral program.

[InterACT]

I can provide an 0845 number you with no costs. It is a forum offer I run.

There is nothing to do or pay, just email me with the number you want the call to go to and I will set it up.

adam@youcangetit.co.uk