Submitted:
2008-08-13 00:05:49 Number of Times Read: 19
The 0845 numbers in Great Britain are a non geographical telephone number which is used all over the country. The telephone number is used by most customer service departments in businesses in the public sector. The call which is made to the customer from the caller is very complex with the charge sometimes being split between the caller and the receiver.
The other businesses that use this type of telephone number are also the low rate call and low rate special services that use the names. A good example of an 0845 business would be a large retailer that uses a 0845 number for their customer complaints department. This number would enable customers from all around the country to be able to call the retailer and any store under the retailers name will be able to pick up the phone to the customers complaints. This is very useful as it doesn't matter where the customer is in the country the retailer will be able to answer.
The charges for an 0845 number can fluctuate dramatically depending on each business that are using them. This is because each company that uses the number charges individual rates and can use the number to generate some income from all the people that phone the number. Another good example of a 0845 number business is a finance company that rings many different customers to offer the services. If the customer rings back the finance company can receive some income from the call and they can purposely finance their own service to these customers from the income and in some cases can potentially make a profit.
There are many advantages for businesses that use an 0845 number over an existing geographical number. For example, the business can publicize a single number that is very easy and convenient for the customer. This enables the business a much simpler way of being contacted, rather having to create an array of different numbers for each city, and working and non working hours numbers. This allows the business to be contacted by the customer a lot easier than with a geographical number.
Another advantage is the revenue made from the caller to the business. This is because every time the customer rings the organisation off an 0845 number a share of that call charge will go to the business meaning they can fund the whole operation. The last main advantage is the fact that the large amount of calls that can be received off the number can be routed away from the business and to one of their call centres. This will allow the business still to help the customer with problems but the caller wont have to wait a long period of time to get through due to the large amount of calls being made to the business through a single line. This is because in a call centre you can have many different phone lines set up to be able to keep up with the high caller demand.
Overall, the 0845 number has changed the way public service businesses work and has made them much more efficient helping the customers and not slowing down businesses. This has meant that geographical numbers in this sector of the market have dropped considerably to the point where nearly all businesses are using the 0845 system.
Communications expert Catherine Harvey looks at why businesses prefer to use 0845 numbers rather than local telephone numbers.
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