More numbers on your mobile - how would you benefit?
Have you ever imagined the possibilities of having more than one phone number on your mobile phone?
Your mobile SIM card came with a dedicated mobile phone number, and ask pretty much anyone how many phone numbers you can have on a SIM card and the answer will be one; one SIM, one number.
The truth is a SIM is actually able to manage two unique mobile numbers but through new breakthrough technology pioneered by RIPTec Ltd, you can now make and receive calls on as many numbers as you need, more importantly these numbers can be; mobile of fixed and national or international.
So why don’t mobile operators want us to have more than one number on our mobile phones? The answer is quite simple – revenue. It is estimated that there are 14.2 million people in the UK alone who carry two mobile phones around with them. That is income from two phones and two mobile contracts as opposed to just one, equating to billions of pounds.
Imagine the savings and freedom from not having to carry and maintain a second phone around but being able to combine a business phone and even a home phone, all into one mobile device.
Just adding your home phone number to your mobile and cancelling your home line, will save a fortune, but more importantly by making your home line mobile instead of set to a static point, you’ll no longer have to wait in for that call from the family or have to rush home to make an important one. Your home line can move around with you allowing you to make and receive calls where ever you are. Calls from the home number can even be pushed to multiple mobile phones at the same time so all members of the family can receive calls and you can even have 3 way conversations whether at home or not!
The sheer cost and inefficiencies of carrying a work phone around with us, is incredible. It is often a phone we don’t like and having to keep it charged and remembering how to use it, can be a real hassle. Simply adding a work phone number to a personal mobile phone and seamlessly being able to make and receive calls on that number is truly liberating. With all business calls being billed directly to the company there is no longer the end of month re-imbursement factor and the tying up of accounts staff plus the company itself saves on supplying phones and SIMs, managing phone numbers and dealing with breakages. In addition, if your company operates a PAYE scheme you can benefit from tax breaks and lower cost handset pricing to give you the latest technology you love, at the lowest cost.
On initial presentation the thought of replacing the trusted desk phone with mobile phones seems alien, but it is a trend that will flourish and for obvious reasons. How many times do you wander away from your desk only to be dragged back as your desk phone starts to ring? Using a mobile you just carry on walking! Being tied to a desk and having to take calls there is actually not that efficient and mobile users love the fact that they can be anywhere in the building whilst speaking with suppliers and customers.
In a recent survey not one person said they utilised the phone book on their desk phone and all agreed making calls from the mobile is actually easier and faster. When asked about ergonomics and comfort not one person had any complaints regarding mobile calls, some citing they were often on calls for extended periods with no issues. Modern features including extension ‘hot keys’, presence, voicemail, do not disturb, call transfer, call recording and conference calls are all readily available on the mobile phone making it the appliance of choice for many people.
For a business the advantages are many. In a traditional telephone set up there are several areas that could cripple all office phones including power cuts, internet degradation and phone line outages. Mobile phones provide multiple independent points of connectivity to the company’s phone system and are unaffected by any of the normal issues. Mobile phone replacement in the event of breakage is seamless and requires no external maintenance, set up or engineering.
Company moves, expansions and departmental staff changes are simple, again with no technical intervention required. Indeed in the event of a major catastrophe like a fire, the company’s phone system will continue working and staff will be able to make and receive calls from wherever they have been displaced to.
Setting up a remote workers telecommunications has always been fraught with issues normally centered on their internet, yet utilising mobile phones, the user can be operational within a matter of minutes with no technical assistance or third party intervention.
It doesn't take a genius to calculate the potential savings for a business when you remove the cost of desk handsets, cabling, routers, internet connections and maintenance. Mobile phones are maintenance free, incredibly simple to deploy and manage and users not only prefer using them but are actually more efficient.
Fixed line numbers are really important in business. They identify you as a larger business as opposed to a ‘one man band’, they are free or low cost to call, and they can identify you as being local, even when you might not be. Many larger companies use different phone numbers for different parts of their business or within publicity to better measure marketing response. Historically a small business or tradesman has been unable to take advantage of fixed line numbers because the nature of the work means that they can′t ‘sit by the phone’. By putting the fixed line number on the mobile it instantly gives the small business the same capabilities as the larger company, putting them in a much more competitive position, and ensuring they are unlikely to miss any calls.
Survey after survey has proved that people are more likely to respond or call back when the phone number is a local fixed line number. This is never more apparent when making international calls. Users can attach local international fixed line numbers to their mobile service and simply call. Recipients see a local number and are happy to respond or even call back knowing they will only be charged at local rates even though the call is being made to a mobile phone in an overseas country!
The world is full of ‘Road Warriors’, the technical support staff, engineers and salesman who maintain an important role on the road. Many know the frustration of running late due to traffic, being lost due to poor directions or any number of reasons they need to contact the next appointment. For the majority they don’t have a company mobile and not wishing to give away their personal mobile number need to make contact via ‘Mandy’ on reception, a cumbersome and highly inefficient form of communication. By putting the company’s main business number on their mobile phone they can make direct contact with the next appointment whilst keeping their personal number private.
Conversely, there are many companies who allow their employees to use their personal mobile phones for business, reimbursing them at the end of the month for any calls made. Whilst initially it might seem economic, the reality is it is often more expensive with bill inaccuracies, but much more importantly the company loses direct touch with the customer. The company has no control or feedback over the calls made to each customer and the customer’s main ‘touch point’ is to an employee’s personal mobile which is potentially dangerous, particularly if the employee leaves the company.
You have many personalities; family, friends, social, work and in this permanently connected world you have many means of portraying yourself, email, IM, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and so on. Direct phone contact is more limited as in many cases you just would not want to give out your personal mobile number, but imagine if you had a different phone number for the various parts of your life.
Many of us have different email addresses for the various parts of our lives and we happily compartmentalise and manage these emails on a daily basis. By utilising multiple phone numbers in our lives we can do exactly the same, giving us more control, safety and cost efficiencies never before even thought of.
Selling items online would no longer be a hassle as you could decide when it was convenient to answer calls or simply use an auto-responder on the number where appropriate.
You could have a separate phone number for social media occasions, to use for social calls and messaging whilst keeping your personal mobile number private.
Match.com and other leading dating sites claim some 22 million people are in search of a date. At the end of every successful search, is a date and often a lurch in to the unknown. In many cases contact numbers are exchanged prior to the date and for obvious reasons this is not always wise. Using a ‘dating phone number’, means you can keep your personal mobile number private, at least until you are comfortable to release it.
Mobile phones have revolutionised the way we live and combing them with multiple numbers is the next natural progression.
One Phone, One SIM, Many Numbers – how will you benefit?