1300 Numbers or 1800 Numbers are more than just phone numbers; they provide organisations with an Australia-wide, inbound single point of contact; and as a result, they can contribute to the overall performance of businesses throughout Australia. Go National with a 1300 or 1800 Number.
Albeit 1300 Numbers and 1800 Numbers share more or less the same characteristics; the fees and charges often differ; as do the call charges to the consumer. For instance, landline calls to 1300 Numbers are charged to the consumer at a local call rate, whilst 1800 Numbers do not charge consumers for calls in this regard. Whereas 1300 and 1800 Numbers providers in Australia typically charge nominal monthly fees in additional to call rates, six digit 13 Numbers incur a significant government surcharge, and hence 13 numbers are typically used by corporate organisations, Qantas, NRMA and the like. see 1300 Number Call Plans
1300 Numbers are widely used across Australia to provide a professional image, in addition to a national presence. 1800 Numbers on the other hand tend to used by organisations wanting to reduce the barriers for people to make calls ie; Customer Service, Fundraising & Charities, or Life & Death situations. see 1300 Number Call Plans
In summary, whether it’s 13 Numbers, 1300 Numbers or 1800 Numbers, all three number types provide businesses with the ability to receive inbound calls on a national basis. Putting 13 Numbers aside, the choice between numbers really comes down to whether or not you want your callers to be charged for making a landline call or not. see 1300 Number Call Plans
SmartTrak adds potency to your 1300 Numbers or 1800 Numbers. Moreover, businesses are able to gain access to market intelligence in both a BAU and Marketing sense; as SmartTrak incorporates a digital footprint to 1300 Numbers or 1800 Numbers; and as a result, have the ability to track and analyse performance – no differently from any ‘click’ in the digital space ie;
Optimise the performance of your 1300 Numbers or 1800 Numbers with a Hosted PBX business phone system and/or cloud call centre application. In doing so, you will have not only improved the inbound call management functions, such as; an Auto Attendant / IVR, you can also get the full benefit of functions such as SmartTrak 1300 Numbers; with tracking of call routes based on geographical location for both landline and mobile calls. see 1300 or 1800 Number Call Plans
Industry directories are often a good place to review 1300 Number options. For instance, industry body CX Central, has Smartcom 1300 Numbers as its first listing in the CX Directory.
Its apparent that throughout the COVID 19 epidemic, that many technology companies with offshore support resources were severely hamstrung as a result of closures to operations in the Philippines and India.
On the other hand, its also evident that Australian tech companies that have developed, and indeed supported their Hosted PBX office business phone services for small business, have more or less been able operate in a business as usual capacity during COVID 19.
What small businesses should take from the above, is that in selecting a cloud business phone system, high value should be placed on vendors that have skilled support resources based in Australia.
Auto Attendant: an Auto Attendant (or Virtual Receptionist) allows callers to be transferred to an extension without the intervention of a receptionist via an option menu ie; press 1 for sales, press 2 for accounts etc.
BAU: Business as Usual
Hosted PBX: (Hosted Private Branch Exchange) is an IP-based telephony solution provisioned and accessed entirely through the Internet. Also referred to as a Cloud PBX or VoIP PBX.
IVR: (Interactive Voice Response) IVR is a technology that allows a computer to interact with humans through the use of speech recognition voice and DTMF tones input via a keypad. An IVR differs from an Auto Attendant in that it takes input, process it, and return a result; whereas that of an Auto Attendant route calls.
VoIP: (Voice over Internet Protocol) – phone calls made over an internet connection, as against traditional phone lines.
