I just had an inquiry about a magnet, however, they want 3 phone numbers on it…I guess there is some expense in going to a single number that rolls over…But how how business is lost when clients phone a number that is busy?..And if they get a busy signal will they even bother trying another number?..How much marketing opportunity is lost by having 3 numbers to promote?..Do 3 numbers simply confuse folks?..
Roll-over service is less than $25 if I recall correctly, from a 2nd tier/value line…
But I’ve been so happy w/my VOIP system, I’d never go back to hard-wire lines…
They could be in one of those rural areas where from prefix 1, number 1 is long distance, but not from prefix 2. My wife used to have one of those “jumper” numbers that could call three prefixes with none being a toll call, but the first prefix was LD to the third prefix and vice-versa.
Otherwise, no, it’s going to be really tough to get a person to remember three different numbers and the customer to retry them.
In those rural areas, don’t they just yank on the string??
Patriot’sPizza,
You’re just teasing me with the VOIP… I’m looking to do that, but haven’t found a great solution yet. Any ideas you’d luv to share?
I’m sure rates vary, but I pay a whopping $12 per month for line hunting on four lines. I can’t believe it would be cost prohibitive under any circumstances to not have line hunting.
Why don’t you ask the customer why they have 3 numbers and how it helps there biz. I always wanted to add a easy number to remember to my shop. I was thinking about putting both numbers on my menues until i just stopped displaying the old number(still would keep old number in the hunt).What
I did this. My number assigned by the phone company was one digit off another pizza place in town and they wouldn’t change it so I got a cell number that is 8Daddio and forwarded it to the one the telco gave me.
Oh, the other pizza place is no longer in business 
We are in a “rural” area and we could not get roll over lines for years because the pre fix numbers were different. Then we realized we could just get extra lines with the same prefix to roll over the lines. They only have one other line to roll over to but it still beats the odds against a busy signal.
I am sure they aren’t aware the lines are cheaper.
I’ll call a spade a spade. Publishing 3 numbers is dumb. I guess if there really is no roll-over available that is one thing (hard to believe anyone is farther out in the sticks than I am and we have had that feature for over a decade) but…
Even if it cost $5 per line per month that would only be a little over $100 per year. I would be willing to bet it would cost more than that in lost sales every month!
Pizza2007…
We use nextiva.com - their 360 program…We have 2 lines coming over cable (Brighthouse) into a LinkSys phone Adapter (less than $40)…
My cable bill is $65 for 5 static I.P.'s (I run P.O.S./BigHoller on-line ordering too…)
I have it set to roll over to my cell as well & can add shift leader’s cell #'2 if needed…
I use the auto attendant as well…(press One to hear specials, press Two to place an order…)
I’ve only had one major outage in the past 14 months…
So 4 less than $200, I have an auto attend, an on-line order system, internet & phone - all easy to control…not one complaint about the auto-attend either…
The only thing I might do different is to send the 1st call to my cell #, then the store #'s (in case of another outage) &/or try the new 4G wireless programs they have out…
The quality of the phone is perfect (99% of the time) and the on-line system reduces the need for more lines/staff as well…
I’ve sat @ home & taken orders over the phone & set them thru the on-line system as well…works great when short-staffed & too far away to help…
I agree, the three numbers thing makes no sense. Unless they are in different towns or are somehow trying to give neighboring communities a non long distance option.
For phone systems, I just started trying a new system today that I’ve been toying with trying for awhile.
- I ported my store number to a cell phone that sits in my office on a charger. T-Mobile has free extra lines right now until 2012. Total cost per month: $0
- Cell phone is set to forward to a Google Voice phone number
- Google Voice then rings any phone numbers I choose.
- First number we answer is a VOIP from T-Mobile. $15/mo.
- Second line we answer, if someone is on the first, is a MagicJack line. $20/yr.
Monthly phone bill is less than $17.00 and I can activate my cell phone to ring in about 15 seconds and take calls and order from home during rushes. Plus, I can block certain types of calls or specific numbers to get rid of all these spam phone calls.
Voice mail is translated to text and easy logging of calls, not just the most recent 20 my Caller ID holds. There’s a lot of other options, still learning about all of it.
Indie…nice set-up, but we had 2 stop the MagicJack, as it jumps to VM to soon (3 rings?)
There’s a setting somewhere for that, I had the same problem for a little bit. I was able to change it to 6 or 8.