Frequently Asked Questions
How much does it cost?
We charge a flat rate 99p per call but you can buy call credit at up to 15% discount providing call costs as low as 84p. There is a minimum monthly account use of £5.00. As long as your call charges are more than the minimum it's fine. If we had only received 3 calls @ 99p = £2.97 they would be charged an extra £2.03 up to the minimum monthly service spend. The minimum charge is to cover the cost of administering the account and line charges incurred.
Who will be answering my calls?
When you sign up you will be assigned to a small team of 4 people who will primarily be responsible for your calls. If they are all busy your call would overflow to another group, but typically the same four people will be answering your calls. We find this approach works much better than anyone of 100+ handlers answering because it provides a more intimate relationship with account. Your clients, suppliers and key contacts will be typically speaking to the same people and we truly become an extension of your team.
Do you charge VAT?
No. As a business we have been quite creative in our structure to avoid charging our clients VAT. Our input tax is minimal and the effect of adding an output tax on to our small business customer's fees would be dramatic as many are not registered.
What hours are available?
We operate 24/7. Normal working hours are Mon - Fri, 8.30am-5.30pm. Calls outside of office hours are processed as usual with an additional service premium of 50p per call.
Can you just cover working hours?
It is possible to opt out to a 'restricted service' where calls are answered at the times you choose by using a 0844 number from one of our trading partners at www.yourfreenumber.co.uk This (free service) provides the flexibility to set opening hours, voicemail messages as well as diverts to mobile and landlines. You just set our 0161 routing number in your dialling list for a comprehensive call management and messaging solution.
Can messages be sent to different people?
Yes. You can set up multiple contacts i.e accounts, sales, etc. Each one can have different forwarding and messaging instructions.
What are the payment terms?
We operate a pre-pay service to avoid the costs associated with chasing smaller users for money. Top up payments can be made through our website. Our system notifies by email when funds are running low.
How do I set up?
Use our online form to register as a client and set up your service information. It takes about 2 hours to become operational. We will forward the telephone number to use for calls, as soon as we have logged your details onto our system and performed necessary line & email tests.
I already have an advertised 08XX number, will this work?
Yes we provide a DDI number to route your 08xx service to us either for all calls or just on busy and no reply.
Is there any contact period?
No. You have the freedom to leave the service at any time. We're sure that if we do a good job you will be happy to continue the relationship over time.
Can this be used just for holiday cover?
Yes. This can be used for any short term cover, although we do charge an additional setup fee of £25 plus calls which covers the administration cost. We do not charge this for our regular service because we recover the cost from ongoing revenue over time, which can not be achieved on short term contact.
Refundable Deposit
The £25 is payable only on sign up. It's to encourage only people who genuinely wish to test the service and is refundable in full at the end of the trial if it does not meet your needs. Otherwise the £25 becomes their first instalment of call credit.
Call Credit
This is purchased in blocks of £25, £50, £75, £100, £150 & £200. There are extra % options available on each block if the account is still in credit at the time of purchase. We operate a pre-pay service. Credit can be purchased through our website. Our system notifies the client when the balance is getting low.
Invoices
The invoice is generated at the time of purchase of call credit. There is an option to print the receipt but the system also sends email confirmation. At other times you can log on to your account at www.call-message.co.uk and view usage information and download call details etc.
Online Message Centre
This is located at www.call-message.co.uk. Passwords are provided at sign up and you can request reminders by using the original email address used to sign up. You can change call settings, message routing & view your financial information.
Minimum Service Charge
There are no fixed monthly fees for the standard call answering service. However, there is a minimum account turnover of £5.00 per service number. Therefore if you had spent £3.49p in call charges over the month you would pay a top up of £1.51 to cover the shortfall.
Routing Numbers
We provide you with a 0161 number to divert your calls into our data centre.
Other 01, 02 or 03 Numbers
We can provide any number for almost any location. The cost is £5.00 per month rental (does not contribute towards min service fee). The number can only be diverted in to the call message centre. If greater flexibility is required we recommend www.voipfone.co.uk where you can get (and keep) a number of your choice then point it to our messaging service.
0844, 0845 Numbers
We recommend a trading partner www.yourfreenumber.co.uk which easily integrates with our 0161 routing number for a comprehensive call management and messaging solution.
Call Transfer
Due to low use and high support costs we no longer offer call transfer to mobile or landline (Dec 08). Call routing to a mobile can be achieved using our partner site www.yourfreenumber.co.uk with our answering service as a back up if the call cant be answered.
Co-Location Data Centre
We have structured our business to continue to operate should we lose services to our main site. We have multiple servers to continue service in all but the most extreme situations.
Non-Std Call Charges
We charge (as advertised rates) for calls received, and a lower fee of 39p for non standard incomplete calls like answering message recordings, caller didn't speak, etc. See our optional 'Junk Filter' to avoid calls of this nature.
Fax Calls
If a fax comes through on your main line we will transfer to our own fax server & forward to you by email.
Sales Calls
We are happy to request any cold callers do not call again without prior contact from you. We offer a TPS registering service to help stop nuisance callers. We also have a unique filter which identifies multiple offenders and sends them to voicemail instead of a live handler. Voicemail is forwarded by email as an attached mp3 file and is free.
Custom Handling Work
Non standard call handling is priced based on the following criteria;
1. Training - Primary call team (4 people) will be firstly trained on the type of calls expected and the responses, product, website navigation required. The cost is £75 per hour for as long as it takes.
2. Information - If custom info is required then a bespoke form needs to be created for logging the data. The cost is a one off £49 fee.
3. Call Time - This will be charged based on an average call length at a unit rate of 0.01p per second.
Outgoing Calls
We charge outgoing calls on behalf of clients at 50p premium on top of std call charges.
Junk Call Filter
We have an optional filter that sends 'known' junk call offenders direct to voicemail instead of a live handler. Answering thousands of daily calls, we can easily identify the main companies responsible for this type of activity (the switch energy providers, the Indian call centres, improve your Google position, etc). You still receive the message as an MP3 email attachment, but don't have the cost of the call.
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