1 What are Non Geographic Numbers?
Standard UK telephone numbers not only enable
your customers to contact you but also let them know where you are based. The
first few digits give away your Geographic Location. i.e. 0207 Central London,
0161 Manchester, 0121 Birmingham etc.
As the name suggests, Non Geographic
Numbers are telephone numbers that can terminate anywhere so are not tied to one
Geographical Location.
2 Why Do Organisations Have Non Geographic Numbers?
Non-geographic numbers allow customers to contact a business easily and
economically. They can help an organisation to maximize each call to the benefit
of their business.
They also give a business a ‘National Presence’ and therefore
can make a smaller company appear more established and larger than it really is.
Every organisation wants to maximise the effectiveness of their advertising and
marketing campaigns but don’t want to be tied to one ‘geographic’ number which
may change over time as their business expands or they move their offices.
3 Intelligent Networks and Non Geographic Numbers
Non Geographic numbers are run on IN (Intelligent Network) Platforms. So called because IN platforms have built in, almost intelligent, features that can be used to change the way a call is handled depending on many variables
- Time Of Day
- Day Of Week
- Day Of Year
- Number Of Offices – Distribute Inbound Calls to Multiple Locations
- Location Of Offices
- Location Of Caller
- Should The Calls Be Recorded
- Should The Calls Be Queued at Busy Times
- Should The Caller Be Asked For More Details Before The Call Is Routed
These features are explained in more detail in section 8 of this document.