You might find a lot of service providers in the UK numbers that start with 08x - like 0800, 0808, 0870 and 0845.  You see these numbers everywhere these days. These are non geographic numbers.  In other words you can offer your service all over the UK and be perceived as a national player, even though you might be based in a single town.  These number also tend to be memorable.

0800 and 0808 are Freephone numbers.  That is - they are free to call in the UK from any landline.

A new crop of numbers were introduced - called 084x and 087x numbers.  These numbers are revenue-share numbers.  To the business procuring them, they are told that end users prefer a memorable 084x or 087x number.  And because these are revenue share numbers, they can make money when you call them.  Keeping customers on hold for just 15 minutes for a 10ppm call can really add up.  Many providers are now using these 0870 and 0845 numbers.  Banks and tech support lines are particularly fond of them.  (You might notice a true 0800 or 0808 Freephone for sales inquiries and and 0870/0845 number for support.) And to an increasing extent, we’re also seeing them make their way into small businesses and the sole means of contact.  This is wrong.

This is a key point - you need the 08x number to route to geographic phone number.  Many UK organisations which previously could be reached by a geographical number now only publish an 0845 number.  Now you know why!

The original idea was that if you are a large organization with many shops, you can have a single memorable number that is routed to the location nearest the caller and still be charged a local rate.  Those rules changed in 2004: it is now cheaper to call a normal an 01/02 number direct.  Most people with a basic phone package even have unlimited calls to 01/02 numbers.

There are several sites which provide more information on the subject:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/0845_number
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/0870_number
• http://www.saynoto0870.com

Charges paid by the caller for 084x/087x calls are set by each phone company individually. Charges can vary greatly, especially when the call originates from a UK mobile or a non-UK number

Not all numbers are created equal.  0800 and 0808 are Freephone numbers.  These numbers mean you pay for your customers to call you.  But while they are completely free within the UK, if they are called by mobiles or VoIP providers (like Skype or Vonage), they too may be much more expensive.

For this reason, we want to be accessible to all our customers.  Within the UK you can call us on Freephone 0808-1-VORARI (0808-1-86.72.74) - which we hope is memorable.  But from your mobile or abroad - you can call us on +44 203 002 3761.  Ideally we hope you’ll use our landline number - as it is cheaper for us, but we will never try to extort money from you.

We refuse to do business with companies that only have an 084x/087x numbers - we value our customers.

We’re a small company - so growth is a big priority for us.  So while many people are offering some valuable solutions about how to analyse your data and to use a strategic selling approach - My priority is different: Get traffic to our site and convert users through as many channels as possible.  So I’m using CRM with several keyword search schemes, like google along with dedicated campaign pages.  But I’m advertising the old fashioned way too: magazine adverts, trade publications and of course exhibitions.

I’m most excited about being able to use saleforce to track my leads - where they’re coming from, what there responding to.  Should be a fun 2 days.  Will post an update after the event.

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