8-800 - is it worth it or not?

This article is not about the once popular business model of the Nokia 8800 phone, although the topic is, nevertheless, most directly related to telephony. We’ll talk about the number 8800 or 8-800 (freephone, freecall, toll free), which can be called by absolutely anyone, and absolutely free of charge - the bills are paid by the owner of the number.

8800 phone numbers are used by entrepreneurs who place them on their websites, billboards, business cards, etc. Thus, an interested client can call the specified number from any phone: landline or mobile. In addition, it does not matter at all that between the owner of 8-800 and the calling person there can be several tens of thousands of kilometers. The essence of this number is one thing: calls are free for the caller!

At the same time, the cost of incoming calls for the owner of 8-800 depends on where this call comes from. So, for an incoming call from a fixed Moscow number you will have to pay 0.80 / 1.00 rubles per minute, and for a call from the numbers of mobile operators of Russian regions - 3.20 / 10.00 rubles per minute.

Statistics show that calls from fixed numbers in Moscow make up 10%, from fixed numbers in other regions of Russia - from 15%, and from numbers of mobile operators - about 70-75%.

Plus, for owners of 8800 numbers additional requirements may be put forward. For example, a monthly fee or a minimum required account. As you know, with a large number of customers, a very substantial amount for the payment of a "convenient" number 8-800 runs up for a month. In order not to be unfounded, we’ll clarify that our company pays about 15 thousand rubles a month for servicing the 8800 number.

Of course, 8-800 is convenient, but not for everyone. The advantages of this number include the fact that it is available to customers in any region of our vast country, moreover, it is completely free. That is, the owner of the number does not need to create offices in other cities, only one thing is enough - the main one. Of course, if you have a large company working with all of Russia, such a number is clearly useful. But if you work only in Moscow and the region - what's the point of paying huge bills?
An ordinary 495 number is enough, and you can choose a “beautiful” combination of numbers.

It is also worthwhile to be aware that owning the number 8800, you can literally go broke. For example, calls from telephone hooligans may come to your number, plus there is a possibility of DDoS attacks. In addition to the fact that after this, customers simply will not be able to reach you, there is a possibility of getting an account with astronomical amounts. A reasonable question is brewing: do you really need the number 8-800?

These numbers are so popular among entrepreneurs because there are several erroneous assumptions about them. For example, many people think that if you place the number 8800 on your site, then it increases the conversion of the site, that there will be more calls to the company, such a site causes more confidence than the sites of competitors without the number 8-800 (they say, a serious company, not "Sharashkin office", once "forked out" for a similar number). In addition, many believe that a site with this number is at a higher level in search engines. Unfortunately or fortunately, this is not the case. Personally, 8800 did not give us any of the above.

Therefore, you should think soberly and understand whether you really need the number 8-800. If it is useful for large companies, then it is simply useless for small local firms.

Before you purchase the number 8800 for your company, you need to decide:

• whether the advantages of this number will not be disadvantages for you;
• Calculate if 8-800 maintenance costs are too high for you
• Will you be able to pay for calls of all your customers (most of which will turn out to be potential, that is, not their service will not pay off).

If you decide that you will not “pull” the costs of servicing the 8800 number, then you can always use the ordinary number 495, including the “ beautiful ” one. And, by the way, the presence of the Moscow city number also inspires confidence - instead of an illusory set of numbers, a person sees the telephone code of the capital and clearly understands where he is calling.