03 Phone numbers are chosen by the Midland Heart Housing Association
You may have seen in the news recently that Midland Heart Housing Association has become one of the latest UK organisations to choose an 03 phone number as its main contact line.
The housing body is one of the top 10 housing and regeneration groups in the England and joins a growing list of housing associations that are now using 03 numbers, including Walsall Housing Group, Accord Housing Association and Broadland Housing Association.
There are a variety of reasons why housing associations, like Midland Heart, are choosing 03 numbers as their main point of contact for residents. Here are 10 of them:
1) 03 numbers cost residents the same to call as regular landline (01/02 numbers) even from a mobile phone (44.5% of all UK calls are now made from mobiles - Ofcom 2009). This makes them ethical phone numbers that are not subject to any negative publicity (which is of particular importance to publically funded bodies).
2) Like all non-geographic numbers, 03 numbers enable organisations to smarten up the way they deal with calls with intelligent features like introduction messages (”Thank you for calling Midland Heart Housing Association”) and options menus (e.g. Press 1 for general enquiries, 2 for bill payment etc.)
3) Organisations can handpick a highly memorable number that their callers will recall easily.
4) Calls to 03 numbers can be easily recorded for training purposes.
5) 03 numbers simply ’sit’ on top of any landline or mobile number. No additional equipment or hardware is needed.
6) Callers can be queued, meaning that all important calls will be answered.
7) 03 numbers can easily move with an organisation if it relocates - they simply get ‘pointed’ at the new landline/mobile accordingly.
03 numbers can be inexpensive to run if you seek out the provider with the most competitive offering on the market (e.g. 30,000 free inbound minutes per month and once they have been used 0.5 pence per minute for all calls received after that).
9) It’s possible to see the geographic location of callers and the busy periods of the organisation using online call statistics packages.
10) 03 numbers and their features are fully controlled online. No additional hardware or equipment is needed and settings can be changed at any time and from anywhere with an internet connection.
