Communication is important between customers and the business. Your business may have provided your customers with just one website address, but it must be able to take incoming calls with an inbound number, receive calls to the answering point, be able to run a live answering service, and so much more.
You might ask, “How can I or our business be able to improve communications with our customers with these requirements?” Actually, your business doesn’t have to do all the work. There are providers of communications services you can partner with that can offer you 1300, 1800, 0800, and 13 numbers with call recording, smart routing call manager, and inbound call reporting.
But before hiring these services, you must understand the basic concepts. In this piece, we’re going to tackle inbound services, their differences from other related services, choosing the inbound service, routing, and its benefits.
What Are Inbound Services?
13, 1300, and 1800 refer to your Australian inbound phone numbers that are present, so your customers will find it a whole lot easier to do business with you. It provides customers and staff with a single number to remember when doing business with you, no matter where in Australia you’re located or where your caller is.
These transportable inbound numbers offer your business an important and professional identity, helping simplify and enhance the phone experience of your customers.
There are various inbound numbers with their features, benefits, and costs. The service you prefer for your business will depend on your particular communication needs, budget, and business goals.
Difference From Other Services
Apart from the number of digits in the numbers — 13 has six digits, and 1300 and 1800 have 10 — the difference between 13, 1300, and 1800 numbers are the costs the caller incurs.
1800 numbers are pertained to as toll-free or free-call numbers as calls from a landline to your 1800 number are free of charge for the caller, no matter which location in Australia they’re calling from. Calls from a landline to a 13 or 1300 number incurs costs of local calls or local call, regardless of the location of the caller or the caller’s location in Australia.
Calls to inbound numbers coming from mobile phones usually incur costs to the caller from their mobile provider.
Also, it’s important to note that six-digit 13 numbers are categorised as premium service (there
are only 10,000 in total). Being a finite resource, they attract a larger government surcharge per number compared to longer 1300 and 1800 numbers.
Take note, though, that 13, 1300, and 1800 numbers don’t work when called from overseas. However, some services provide international toll free numbers, such as 0800 number, and locally transfer them based on your routing rules. This is helpful if you got international clients and want them to contact you via phone.
Choosing Your Inbound Service
Your decision about the inbound service will depend on the objectives of your business.
With just six digits, 13 numbers are easy to recall, also making them a powerful tool for marketing. These are ideal for businesses with larger call volumes, such as in retail and customer service. However, they aren’t for profit sectors.
On the other hand, 1300 numbers are best for any business wanting to acquire national coverage cost-effectively. They broaden the company’s scope while offering customers a single point of contact.
Lastly, 1800 numbers offer customers free calls from landlines no matter what their locations in Australia are, making them great for businesses seeking to encourage contact from customers and prospects. As a true free call, 1800 numbers are also touted as a powerful sales tool that can provide your business with a competitive advantage in interstate and local markets.
Understanding Routing
Simply put, call routing refers to a set of policy rules your provider puts in place to dictate where calls to inbound numbers go.
Most organisations have these go to a single number, such as directing after-hours calls to a distinctive number. More complex routes can use not just time of day to dictate how calls are managed but add blocking rules, call origin, day of the week, distribution splits, and workloads to ensure they’re able to maximise call accessibility.
The Benefits
Inbound services offer a higher degree of control over your calls and the experience of your customers. With this being said, you can customise your greeting message, intelligently route calls based on preferred call flows, and reduce wait times through the even distribution of workloads.
Moreover, they are totally portable in Australia. Inbound services are carrier, network agnostic, and phone system, letting you keep the same number for the life of your business, regardless of how many times you move.
Inbound services can also offer a wealth of information, from call reports to usage data. All of which can be utilised to streamline the process of call handling and enhance customer service.
A single nationwide point of contact goes to show 13, 1300, and 1800 numbers increase the likelihood a customer will call you while making it easier for your business to monitor the performance of your marketing campaigns.
Finally, inbound services can enhance your brand’s image, thereby instilling confidence among customers.
In Conclusion
Upgrade the way your business communicates with its partners and customers starting today. These communication services will also provide a clearer understanding of concepts that include incoming call flows, answer point, based routing, direct contact, annual government surcharge, phone lines, and many other things you need to know about Australian communications. We are hoping you learned a lot from our discussion.
