N844AA
Member
- Location
- Los Angeles
Your Advice Needed On Phone Number...
- Thread starter N844AA
- Start date
- Status
LarryFine
Master Electrician Electric Contractor Richmond VA
- Location
- Henrico County, VA
- Occupation
- Electrical Contractor
Brag about the fact that obtaining excellence only requires one phone number.
"One call covers all!"
"One call covers all!"
cadpoint
Senior Member
- Location
- Durham, NC
For the record I have no problem calling a 1-800 Number, maybe it's an area code thing.
Me personally no problem, but I sudo understand the peridox.
Me personally no problem, but I sudo understand the peridox.
gar
Senior Member
- Location
- Ann Arbor, Michigan
- Occupation
- EE
100213-1724 EST
There was time when you picked up the phone and a young lady said "Number Please" and you responded with something like 317. Less than a 1000 phone numbers in a city of 50,000, but many were party lines.
I order parts from many different companies and areas of the country. I do not mind 800 numbers for this purpose, but I like to know the location of the company which in many cases is never identified anywhere. If they also include a regular phone number with its area code that is positive information for me. But an actual address is better.
Here is a different criteria. I will buy from Mouser before Digi-Key because it is too much of a problem to get industrial processing tax exemption from Digi-Key. No hassle from Mouser. Mouser is Texas and Digi-Key is Minnesota. About the same delivery time either way. UPS ground --- Digi-Key goes to Fargo ND before going back to MN.
Ease of working with a source is often times very important to a customer. A real person at the end of a phone number is very important. Answering machines are a NO-NO. In addition that real person ought to know a lot about the business and be able to answer questions intelligently on the first call.
I virtually never call a residential serviceman for any purpose, but when I do I generally want someone from nearby. Why? Partly because I solve my own problems, but mostly by getting quality in the first place there is not much need for service. 50 miles away is too far, even possibly 20 is too far. 5 to 10 miles is more realistic.
If I were looking for an electrician ease of working with them, work quality, cost, and last distance would be the criteria sequence. Size of job would relate to distance. The bigger the job the less important is distance.
I use a local ISP for my DSL, e-mail, and web hosting because I can call them on the phone, usually get a human that is intelligent, and get a problem solved. Impossible with ATT which is also our local phone company. Never have had any satisfaction from the phone company except when an actual serviceman arrives. They are usually fairly good.
As an aside in a different field. We require CNC service from time to time. We only use the dealer that supplied the machines. But there is a big difference in servicemen. Some are totally incompetent, some we have to help, others are very good.
If you can do really good work try to sell that, and look for the customers that want quality, and maybe the phone number won't be so important. Do not hide your location it will suit some and not others.
Bottlenecks are a real problem to customers. If I have five numbers as new prospects as a source and I call these and get an answering machine on four and a live person answers on one, then who is likely to get the business? Those answering machines are bottlenecks to me the customer.
I have digressed some from the original question because it may not be the correct question to ask.
.
There was time when you picked up the phone and a young lady said "Number Please" and you responded with something like 317. Less than a 1000 phone numbers in a city of 50,000, but many were party lines.
I order parts from many different companies and areas of the country. I do not mind 800 numbers for this purpose, but I like to know the location of the company which in many cases is never identified anywhere. If they also include a regular phone number with its area code that is positive information for me. But an actual address is better.
Here is a different criteria. I will buy from Mouser before Digi-Key because it is too much of a problem to get industrial processing tax exemption from Digi-Key. No hassle from Mouser. Mouser is Texas and Digi-Key is Minnesota. About the same delivery time either way. UPS ground --- Digi-Key goes to Fargo ND before going back to MN.
Ease of working with a source is often times very important to a customer. A real person at the end of a phone number is very important. Answering machines are a NO-NO. In addition that real person ought to know a lot about the business and be able to answer questions intelligently on the first call.
I virtually never call a residential serviceman for any purpose, but when I do I generally want someone from nearby. Why? Partly because I solve my own problems, but mostly by getting quality in the first place there is not much need for service. 50 miles away is too far, even possibly 20 is too far. 5 to 10 miles is more realistic.
If I were looking for an electrician ease of working with them, work quality, cost, and last distance would be the criteria sequence. Size of job would relate to distance. The bigger the job the less important is distance.
I use a local ISP for my DSL, e-mail, and web hosting because I can call them on the phone, usually get a human that is intelligent, and get a problem solved. Impossible with ATT which is also our local phone company. Never have had any satisfaction from the phone company except when an actual serviceman arrives. They are usually fairly good.
As an aside in a different field. We require CNC service from time to time. We only use the dealer that supplied the machines. But there is a big difference in servicemen. Some are totally incompetent, some we have to help, others are very good.
If you can do really good work try to sell that, and look for the customers that want quality, and maybe the phone number won't be so important. Do not hide your location it will suit some and not others.
Bottlenecks are a real problem to customers. If I have five numbers as new prospects as a source and I call these and get an answering machine on four and a live person answers on one, then who is likely to get the business? Those answering machines are bottlenecks to me the customer.
I have digressed some from the original question because it may not be the correct question to ask.
.
cadpoint
Senior Member
- Location
- Durham, NC
Gar
5:30 13/2/10
Your just no fun some times...
AV ELECTRIC
Senior Member
I think this will pertain more to older folks thinking they want someone in there local area and more traditional in the way they perform there business of coarse the population is getting older. People do look at area codes and sometimes prefixes . I get calls all the time asking me where im located and I tell them and they think that's to far . I explain to them that I service there area but the farther away the more it will cost the customer I believe they realize that .
N844AA
Member
- Location
- Los Angeles
another thing to consider, is LA keeps adding overlay area codes. So if you have a number in one of the older area codes, it looks like you have been around for a while. For example if you have a 424 number, i know that was just issused at the earliest a couple years ago, whereas if you have a 310 number I would think you have been around for a while.
N844AA
Member
- Location
- Los Angeles
I'm gonna get a (213) number, now that's old school!
that, or youre downtown. The newer area codes are overlays instead of split. So if you were on the westside 10 years ago you got a 310, if you set up there now you would get a 424, while your neighbor has a 310.
LarryFine
Master Electrician Electric Contractor Richmond VA
- Location
- Henrico County, VA
- Occupation
- Electrical Contractor
See if you can come up with an easy-to-remember word for a number. Mine is (if it's not a Mod Squad violation) 804-ELECTRIc.
N844AA
Member
- Location
- Los Angeles
OK, I just got a (310) number but before I committed to it, I googled it to see if there were any results, many of the numbers belonged to attorney's, pool services, etc. I wanted a "clean" number that was not indexed in google.
I advise against using tel numbers that spell something, as many of the newer smartphones dont have the traditional dialpad numbers on the number keys. I could not call you from my blackberry (without having to look at a regular telephone to translate the number, or by trying to figure it out which would take longer than finding the telephone number of another electrican)
that is neat that you got a number that spells electric though.
LarryFine
Master Electrician Electric Contractor Richmond VA
- Location
- Henrico County, VA
- Occupation
- Electrical Contractor
- Status