0800, 03 or local number: which suits a trade business?

Why the number on your van matters

Your phone number is one of the first things a customer sees, on the van, on a flyer, on your Business Profile and at the top of your website. It sends signals about where you are, how big you are and whether the call will cost them anything. Most trade businesses never make a deliberate choice; they use the mobile number they had when they started. That works, but it is worth knowing the alternatives and what each one says to a caller.

Many firms are run by one person. An estimated 74% of UK private sector businesses have no employees besides the owners^[1]. For those firms, the right number is one that looks established, rings wherever the owner is and costs callers as little as possible. The number is one trust signal among several; customers also look for registrations, and in a large NICEIC survey 83% of respondents said it was important that their electrician was registered with a competent person scheme^[2].

The number ranges compared

The call costs are approximate ranges published on GOV.UK, which advises callers to check with their own provider for actual charges^[3]. Freephone 0800 and 0808 numbers are free from both landlines and mobiles^[3].

Local numbers and local search

For a business that relies on customers searching for a heating engineer or electrician near me, the number on your Business Profile matters. Google’s guidelines for representing a business say to use a local phone number instead of a central call centre helpline number whenever possible, and that the number must be under the direct control of the business^[4]. Premium rate numbers are not acceptable^[4].

A local 01 or 02 number also helps customers. Someone in a town will often recognise the local code and assume, rightly, that you are nearby and likely to turn up quickly. If you work across two or three towns with different codes, some firms use a number for each and show the right one on local leaflets and web pages, all ringing the same phones.

When an 03 number makes sense

• You cover a large region where no single local code fits, such as several counties.
• You work for housing associations, councils or national letting agents who expect a non-geographic number.
• You plan to move premises or expand and do not want to change your number.
• You want callers to know the call costs no more than a normal one.

Running costs for 03 and geographic virtual numbers are often similar, so compare providers on features rather than the number range. The trade-off is that it looks less local, so it is a better fit for firms that sell on coverage and reliability than for one-van businesses selling on being nearby.

When freephone pays off

Freephone numbers are free for the caller, which removes one reason not to ring. The cost moves to you: you pay for incoming calls, usually at a rate per minute set by your provider, and calls from mobiles can cost you more than calls from landlines. That can be worthwhile for firms running paid advertising across a wide area, for emergency lines where you want no barrier to calling, or for landlord and housing clients who expect it.

For most small trade firms, though, a freephone number adds cost without adding much trust. Homeowners rarely hesitate to ring a local number, and most mobile tariffs include 01, 02 and 03 calls in their bundles.

Should you just use your mobile?

A mobile number on the van is simple and costs nothing extra. Its weaknesses show up as the business grows: you cannot easily share it with an office or a colleague, it ties the business to one handset, and it can look like a one-person operation to commercial customers. Many firms keep the mobile as the engineer’s direct line and add a separate business number that rings the mobile, an office or a cover service as needed. Our guide to getting a local landline number on a mobile explains how.

How to choose, step by step

1. 01

   Decide where you want to look based

   One town, a few towns or a wide region? That points to a local code, several local codes or an 03 number.

2. 02

   Check who your customers are

   Homeowners usually prefer a local number; housing and commercial clients often accept 03 or 0800.

3. 03

   Decide where calls should ring

   Your mobile, an office, a ring group or a cover service. A virtual number can route to any of them.

4. 04

   Register the number in your business name

   Never let a web designer, marketing agency or lead site hold the number you print on your van.

5. 05

   Use it everywhere

   Van, website, Business Profile, quotes, invoices and email signatures should all show the same main number.

Changing number without losing calls

If you already have a number customers know, think carefully before replacing it. Most numbers can be moved, or ported, between providers; ask the new provider to confirm before you cancel anything. Keep the old number running alongside any new one for as long as you can afford to, and divert it to the new line. Our guides to porting your business number and the landline switch-off cover the practical steps.

Questions to ask before you sign with a provider

Choosing the number range is only half the job. The provider behind it decides how calls reach you, what you pay to keep the number and how easily you can leave. Ask these questions in writing before you commit, and keep the answers with the contract.

• Who holds the number, and how does porting it to another provider work if you leave? Is there a charge to port out?
• What is the minimum contract term, and what notice do you need to give to end it?
• Can calls ring several phones at once or in turn, and can you change the routing yourself from a phone or browser?
• What happens out of hours or when nobody answers: voicemail, a message-taking service or forwarding to another number?
• Are calls recorded? If so, how are callers told, where are recordings stored, and for how long?
• Which call reports are included, such as missed calls, call times and the source of each call?
• How is the number shown when you call customers back, so they recognise you and pick up?

A provider that answers clearly and quickly before you sign is usually the one that answers quickly when something goes wrong on a busy Monday morning.

Example: choosing a number for a growing firm

Example. A fictional heating firm started with the owner’s mobile. Five years on it has three engineers, covers two towns and is starting to win housing association work. It takes a local 01 number for each town, both ringing a ring group of the office and the on-call engineer, and keeps the owner’s mobile for existing customers who already have it. The housing association contract is given the same local number, so the firm only has one set of phones to manage. Callers in both towns see a local code, and nobody has to remember a new mobile when an engineer changes.

If you are also thinking about who answers those calls, see our comparison of call answering services.