Telephone

[dkcrooby]

Hi,

I'm starting up a business on the web and am not up to date on all the telecommunications side and what's on offer nowadays with regard to getting a business phone. I want to separate the business and home telephone.
Is there any other way of cheaply going about getting calls separately other than another land line?

Hope this makes sense!

Thanks,
Shianne

[consultant]

VOIP! there are plenty of posts on this and other forums about this, however, do not think Skype or Vonage.

[dkcrooby]

Great, thank you! I would never have thought of this.

:-)

[creative4u]

I use this switchboardfree (sorry i cant post url link check your pm) but you will need to use an 0844 number and this get diverted to the landline of your choice (up to 3 ) for free. You can create options and select greeting messages for customers. When you answer a call related to your business, you will get a message informing you of this along with the option the customer selected, you can either accept the call or divert to your voicemail. The voicemail will be sent as an mp3 to your email add.

You have the option of various custom features. If you prefer a free number like 0800 or 020 there are other providers that supply this service for a monthly fee.

I hope this helps.

[dkcrooby]

That sounds good too. I'll research them both.

Thank you. :-)

[Indizine]

0844 is as off-putting to callers as an 0845 or the dreaded 0870. As easy as they are to set up, and free or cheap, they won't do you any favours. Although it's local rate from a landline, people dont often realise this, they think it costs the same as 0870, and they also cost more from a mobile.

If you are a BT landline customer, you can pay a couple of pounds a month extra and get a second number that rings to your same home phone, but it has a slightly different ringtone, enough to distinguish it from your normal home phone number. This has to be the best cheapest landline option. However, it's not a good idea if other people are answering the phone who wont listen for the difference in the ring tones, such as the kids! But it does mean you have a separate number you can use for business purposes.

I use a 0800 number with BT Ring Central, if you check out this page there is a banner ad you can click through for details. It's £15 a month and has £10 calling credit included, so you pay for the cost of the incoming call, not the customer. You can divert this to your home landline or your mobile phone when you are out, so you dont miss any calls. You have a web-based control panel to manage the options, set up greetings, etc. You will pay more to divert the calls to a mobile but if you keep that to a minimum it's not so bad, but then it is still a convenient method.