Businesses should have as many contact options as possible to appease prospective customers. This means you require a phone number – but will any old number do? 

No! Business phone numbers must hold three key qualities to elicit the most amount of benefits. As tempting as it is to use your normal mobile number, this decision can quickly come back to bite you. Make sure your business number has all three of these features: 

Easy To Distinguish As Professional

Setting your home phone number as your business number is a surefire way to damage a reputation. Customers will notice that it’s a normal telephone number, which can make them question your credibility. You take many cautions when starting a business to ensure you maintain the strongest and most professional reputation possible. The wrong type of phone number can ruin this and prevent you from generating leads or calls. 

Therefore, your business number must be easy for people to distinguish as professional. This means avoiding the normal “home” phone extensions and picking a number that people look at and immediately associate with businesses. 

Eye-Catching & Easy To Memorise

The previous point bleeds into this one, as the best business numbers are unique. You can purchase VIP numbers with specific extensions at the start and number patterns that you won’t get on “normal” phone numbers. As well as setting this number apart from all others and proving that it’s professional, a VIP number will make your phone easier for people to memorise. 

Pick one with a pattern or lots of the same number. It sticks in people’s heads, and this makes them more likely to keep calling back. Or, if they have to recommend a business to someone, they’ll have your number in their mind and will easily be able to write it down. 

Completely Separate From Your Personal Number

At this stage, you’re ticking two out of three boxes. Your number looks professional and is extremely eye-catching. However, you need to be certain this number is separate from your personal one. 

Why? Because you can’t mix business with your personal life. It causes disruptions and makes it much harder to manage your company. Imagine having a number that clients and friends/family can contact. You could easily miss important calls because you’re using your phone to message a friend or talk to a family member. And let’s not forget spam calls – your personal number gets them all the time, so you can’t waste valuable time answering them and hanging up. 

If you have a separate business number, then you know that every call to this phone is important. You can afford to ignore calls from your personal phone and focus on the business one during working hours. It makes life a lot easier and helps you manage your business. 

To recap: every business should have a phone number for better customer service. It can increase the possibility of generating leads and opening sales opportunities. However, your business phone number must look professional, be very memorable and sit apart from your personal one.