[garyj]

Sorry if this is in the wrong section but I know many carpet cleaners have their phones diverted to a mobile while they are out.

I have just set up my business line to transfer all calls directly to my mobile, I've just tried it using my home phone and it sounds just like the normal landline, my customers won't even know they have called a mobie!
 
My question is who foots the bill for the transfer? Is the customer inadvertently paying for a mobile call, which might cheese them off a bit or do they carry on paying as if its a landline call and I get the charge for the diversion to the mobile.

hope that makes sense, cheers all.

[Doug Holloway]

Hi Gary,

You do , so worth registering with tps to reduce number of sales calls.

Cheers

Doug

[garyj]

That was quick, cheers Doug.

I thought I would be    that makes most sense I suppose.
Good idea about TPS, think its time I re-registered after changing banks recently the sales calls have really started coming thick and fast again and most presume I'm a new business  Bad show Barclays

[craigp]

how much is it to register to tps?  can you register 0800 numbers?

[garyj]

Its free, its not 100% but it gets rid of unwanted callers very quickly once you tell them you are a member.

[ValueValeting]

how much is it to register to tps?  can you register 0800 numbers?

Free to register with TPS

[Michel Roberts]

I have been divirting my calls into my mobile since they first came out(my first was the size of a small suitcase and cost something like£2,700.00 which was a hell of a lot of money back then) Any way the point is that one of the problems I have encountered is the lengh of time it sometimes takes to connect the call.

Sometimes when you dial a mobile no the call goes straight through which is obviously no problem.

Other times there can be a very long delay of compleate silience of 6/7 secounds while the network hunts for your phone. When this happens I am sure that many people expecting a normall connection(after all they dialed a normall landline no) hang up 

I have tested this with various phones/networks ect over the years with all types of signel strengh at busy not so busy times and in different areas country/urban ect.

If anyone has more recently checked this out and come up with a solution(steady Nick!) Please let me know. My last two networks were orangeand vodaphone and I am based in central london.

Many, Many times I have been out and about with my phone on divert and it has been very quiet, only to come home turn the divert off and find the the phone strarts rining straight away.

Regards Michel

[Neil Grainger]

Michel

Being based in London you may have the network busy problem, if this happens you wont get the calls and you would'nt know anything about it.

My friend is a Operations manager at Vodafone and he tells me that this is a problem in larger towns and cities where the networks are full on a regular basis.

There is not really a solution but this is why it take so long sometimes to connect.

Cheers

Neil

[craigp]

i ve always had my landline diverted to mobile, and i often get the calls come through and cut off before i answer, they normally phone back, also ive had customers say they could not get through, sometimes i get answer phone messages when my phones been on and with reception but strangling its not rang and just put callers to answer phone

it is a problamatic set up, and im sure i ve lost work

[Spot On cleaning]

Craig

Another thing with divert is that you have two options. Either your home phone rings so many times, and if not answered the customer gets a message to please wait while call is diverted. Hopefully this does not put them off.

The other option is straight through to mobile, which is what i do all the time. If the customer is not ex directory, if you miss their call, their number is displayed on your phone so you can call them straight back if you don't answer in time. The customer does then not know they are talking to a mobile anyway.

On another note, i saw a good advertising strategy yesterday. It was a wedding invitation in the style of a 1960s black and white newspaper featuring the rolling stones and they had submitted a photo of the groom and an invite to people incorporated into the paper.Also featured was a London Routemaster bus which would be taking the guests to the reception. It was A3 in size and caught my eye. I wonder how much attention this would get from our customers. Any thoughts?


Dave

[AquaMagic]

Another solution (although expensive) is to pay for an answering service, you divert you line to a call centre who answer the phone with your company name and work to  script pre-difined by you.  They are however expensive and charge around 75p - £1 per message so may not realy be an ideal option, but if you goto http://www.moneypenny.biz/ you can have a free weeks trial, which may be good just to see howmany calls you are missing.

Dene

[Shaun_Ashmore]

I usually pay beween £300 and £400 a quarter for my divert, I hate having an answer phone message to ring customers back later as when I come in I like to switch off a bit.

Shaun

[craigp]

dave,

i do have mine straight through to mobley, still get problems,

shaun,


£300 to £400  !!! a quarter!

how many calls you getting? !!


my bills £70 quarter mobile,  £40 landline calls  £30 landline line rental

£140 total, all in per quarter.
 

[Shaun_Ashmore]

I like a lot of traffic!

Shaun

[craigp]

shaun if you get a lot of calls have you tried caudwell, your line rental stays with whoever your with, and your calls are taking on by them, most casing halfing call charges, save me alot.

[Ian Gourlay]

Would it not be cheaper to have a  O800 number direct to your mobile.

[Steve Chapman]

I tried call divert for a long time but it was really ringing up the charges, so i figured if my mobile number is in the advertising surely to customer will ring that if theres no answer at home? :
After about two years i don't think i've lost out on any work, just saved myself the expense of the divert

I  think if people want to contact you they will put in the extra effort to ring your mobile, after all thats probably what we do if we're after a builder or plumber etc :
regards
steve

[Andrew P]

Hi Guys

I have had an 0800 number transfered to my mobile for about two years now. The cost is anything from £25 to £40 per month depending on workload.

If i was to move to an office with a land line they will transfer the calls over, so no changing of leaflets

I use www.clear-connect.com

Regards
Andrew P

[garyj]

I registered with TPS over a year ago and just tried to re-register. I had a message come up telling me the number is already on there database so no need to put the number in again.

How many sales calls would I have received if I wasn't already a member 

Just goes to show its far from 100% 

[stains-away]

Ive got an 0800 with these people http://www.smartnumbersuk.com/ they do them to mobile as well, think they cost about 3.75p per minute, Ive got mine to a landline with a thousand free minutes per year for £10 a month plus vat,im just starting to get the advertising out with the new number on so I'm waiting to see if it shows a marked increase/decrease in response rates compared to the local area code number, the first trial is 5,000 leaflets with each number on and the mobile put into a neighbouring town with a different std code, not exactly scientific i know but i cant think of another way of testing them in order to get a fair comparison, Andy