[david knowles]

I have not started my buisness yet but am moving into a new house .
Is it necessary to have a landline number on your van and advertising or can your buisness be run just with a mobile phone ? does this give a bad impression?

[Kinver_Clean]

If you are likely to live in the exchange area for the foreseeable future It is probably a good idea. It says that you are local and not a bait & switch from 150 miles away.
I knew I would not be in that area for very long ( I only moved 2 miles) so I got an 0800 no.
I got that on to my mobile so do not have to pay BT to transfer the calls.

[Tony Gill Carpet Smart]

Rightly or Wrongly if I see a van with only a Mobile number on I think COWBOYS

Regards Tony

[Simon Moat]

0800 number the way to go, or even 0300 number, how many towns very close to you have a differant code that you could operate in?

0800 does give the impression of an 'established/reputable company' and not overly expensive

Good luck with your venture.

[davep]

I have landline free phone and mobile, 80% call the landline

[John Kelly]

You can get a landline number on your mobile phone with your local area code. I have one on mine from Orange 5 quid a month and thats all you pay.

[Warren Aldridge]

You can buy landline numbers from the companies that sell 0800

When you dial an 0800 from a mobile you get that message saying "this number is chargeable etc etc etc"

To me its a turn off calling from my mobile which 90% of people do

[Chris Straker]

I have an 0800 that I no longer advertise but still maintain as certain places still use it now and again. I stopped when weeding out priceshoppers, what chance do I stand if someone even wants to save 20 pence just getting a quote  :

Landline is all I would call, when contacting a company for the first time .......... mobile only would make me think 'driveway tarmaccing' !!

[Dennis]

I think older people (including me!) see mobiles as cowboy but younger customers don't think anything of it. I'm surprised at the number of people say under 35 who don't even bother with landlines.
Off topic but I had a customer in her late 20's the other week and when her husband had forgotten to leave the cash I said a cheque's fine, she said "I've never written a cheque or had a book I always use my card." Made me feel really old! 

[david knowles]

thanks for the replys guys think it will pay me to have both landline mobile and a 0800 number

[david@zap-clean]

Off topic but I had a customer in her late 20's the other week and when her husband had forgotten to leave the cash I said a cheque's fine, she said "I've never written a cheque or had a book I always use my card." Made me feel really old! 

I've set up a PayPal account for this problem.

[Tony Gill Carpet Smart]

Never been a problem they know the terms before I start Cash or Cheque on completion or otherwise agreed Business customers Cash Cheque or B.A.C.S .
No Problems 

Tony

[Deep Cleaning Solutions]

About 90% of customers call my local geographic numbers, and the rest my mobile number.I also have a 0800 number, i hardly get any calls from this, but most of my commercial calls are on the 0800 number.

[Tony Stewart]

I have a voiphone number which is a local number for £2.40 a month. That goes straight to an answer machine which is then immediately E Mailed as a .wav file to my phone. Message is then picked up and dealt with. For my bit of input I advertise as a local family run business and people have phoned me because they suspect that the 0800 number is for those people who are out of town operators.....there you go you just cannot win.