Sign up for an account
& choose a number
Choose from a huge range of virtual numbers from any UK town or city, a prestigious London 0203/0207 number, a non-geographic 0333, 0808, 084 or keep your existing number.
Want to know more?
You can also call
0800 009 6555 or email
[email protected]
Get started in seconds
Go virtual today
Get started in three easy steps:
1
2
Choose the perfect system
to suit you
Choose between inbound call management with a virtual number connected to your existing landline, mobile or phone system. Or, a cloud-based VoIP phone system allowing you to make & receive calls.
3
Start making or
receiving calls
Set up your phone number in minutes and start using your new smart number right away. Speak to our UK based customer service team who guarantee to answer your call with friendly advice or support.
Choose your Perfect Number
We have the perfect virtual phone number for your business
Local 01/02 numbers
We love to shop and call locally. Advertising a local number
can increase your calls by 22% from the local area.
London 0207 numbers
Rarely available and highly prestigious London numbers that give you an established London presence.
London 0203 numbers
Give your company a London presence without the expense of renting a London office.
0808 numbers
Allow your customers to call free from landlines and mobiles. A great number to use on advertising.
0333 numbers
Get a national presence and allow your callers to phone using their inclusive bundled minutes.
084 numbers
Give your business a national presence at absolutely no cost to you when routing to a landline.
Get in touch
We’ve helped thousands of businesses with their live chat outsourcing.
How will we use your data? Read our privacy policy. Or, opt-out of on-going communications from us.
"
Well!!! What can I say........simply outstanding service. I would 100%
without any hesitation recommend this company.
"
Connor Glass, Director - Hillhead Security
Why We Do What We Do
We pride ourselves on being good for business. Switchboard free was born out of a need for a fully-featured cloud-based business telecoms system or PBX (Private Branch Exchange). Something that was affordable and accessible to any business with a broadband connection. Our cloud-based services can cater to sole-traders, individuals as well as large corporate enterprises.
Over the 12 years since its inception, SwitchboardFree’s services have evolved every year in direct response to our customers wants and wishes. At the core of everything we do is our customers, and we listen very carefully to all of them.
We pay attention to our customers recommended features and constant feedback, enabling us to tailor and refine the service based on what is actually required and not what we think is best.
We are convinced that the success of SwitchboardFREE is down to the fact that we put our customers first at every opportunity. We truly and genuinely listen to what they have to say and we would not have come this far otherwise.
Never Miss a Call
The very heart of what we do is for businesses to never miss a call. This is still at the core of what we are about, but we have added a few bells and whistles since then.
When you receive a call on the SwitchboardFREE platform, our system tries to find a human for your caller to talk to. It does this by rotating through redirects and groups to minimise the possibility of a missed call.
The reason we put so much effort and work into trying to eradicate a missed call is that inbound calls are the lifeblood for any business. Missed calls can therefore mean the difference between success and failure.
We are so passionate about this, in the last few years, we added an office of trained receptionists to answer your calls for when you cannot.
The importance of a Phone Call
Even with changes in communication, instant messaging, broadband and social networks, phone calls are more important than they have ever been. You may conduct a portion of your business via email and live chat, but real business is conducted over the phone and if you miss calls, you are directly impacting your bottom-line sales.
If a potential buyer searches for you online, they want to talk to you. They want the reassurance that there’s a human being behind the website and if they get no answer, they will go to the next search engine result. This means that you’ve not only lost a sale, you‘ve also lost any repeat business or potential referrals.
The Future of Customer Service
Putting the consumer first has always been synonymous with good business. But in such a demanding and competitive marketplace, the bar has now been raised.
Consumers are now able to instantly review a business using their broadband-enabled home pc or smartphone, and the world can see how you measure up. If your support team fails to answer or your callers are on hold for too long, then this becomes public knowledge in a just few short clicks.
Treating your clients with respect has a direct impact on your bottom line. The cost of online advertising has increased and an ever-competitive marketplace and good reviews, referrals, and a stable client base could mean the difference between success and failure.
Free up your time with our
Call Handling service
Move your business forward, increase your sales and don’t miss precious opportunities with
our Live Chat services. Don’t lag behind thousands of UK small businesses who have
already outsourced their Live Chats.
You can also call 0800 009 6555 or email [email protected]
Get started in seconds
Why standard phone lines
are just not up to the job
Your standard home landline or mobile phone lines work fine for personal
phone calls, but to be in control of your business, you need
more specialised equipment.
When you receive a call on your business line, it is important to make a good impression
straight away. This not only helps you to appear more professional but can also add
greater efficiency to your business and I’ll explain how.
Here’s what every business
phone line needs:
Whisper
We have a fantastic free tool called the “Whisper”. This “Whisper” will play a short, customisable message down the phone to inform you of what number, business advert or department that person just called. This allows you to answer the phone with the appropriate greeting.
Not only does this prepare you for the call, but more importantly, the whisper requires you to press the star key to connect. This button press bypasses any automated voicemails and will rotate through your redirects until a human being presses the star key.
Departments
Nothing says "big company" like departments (Auto-Attendant). "Press 1 for orders and press 2 for support". We only allow our departments to be one level deep. Feedback across thousands of our users show that multiple levels are confusing. Drop-off increases the deeper you go, so we stick to a maximum of 9 choices which should more than enough for most businesses.
You are then able to redirect or route the calls to specific individuals and groups depending on the choice that your caller makes. This alone, can increase the efficiency of your calls and make the user journey a better one.
Advanced reporting
Download your stats to your computer to see your busiest time of the day, your busiest day of the week or just how many calls you may be missing. We provide you with a “Clever Missed Call List” for all those unique callers that have not yet had a conversation. You can also feed your information directly to google analytics to help you track marketing.
Marketing
Track your advertising spend easily by using unique and disposable numbers. You can temporarily add these to your account and employ these on radio ads, online campaigns, and other marketing. When your campaign has finished, just download your stats to see where your marketing budget is better spent.
How it works
Once you sign up and chose the number or package that is perfect for your business, your account is instantly made live and you can
start making and receiving calls straight away.
You can manage your entire account from your web portal and if you get stuck,
we have a 5-star rated support team on hand to help.
What happens when you get called?
As soon as your number is dialled, your caller then hears a professional greeting. If you have departments in place, they will then be given the option to make a departmental selection.
Our management system then starts routing your call to individuals or groups in your very first redirect position. When you answer the call, you are presented with a “Whisper” (if chosen) which will inform the receiver of the call, the department choice, or the origin of the call. This allows them to answer with the correct greeting. If there is an existing voicemail system on the receiving phone, the whisper will circumvent this as the “Whisper” requires a keypress to accept the call.
If no one picks up the phone in the first group, the system then automatically routes that call to the second group and so on, or you can choose to route this to our call answering department. All the while, the caller is listening to your chosen “on-hold” music or your audio branding. Your customer is then able to leave a voicemail at any time on our system, which is sent to you via email, or if they hang up, we will then send you a missed call alert with the caller’s phone number.
A downloadable log of all your call details are held on our system together with recordings of the calls if required.
Set up
Getting set up is easy. You can create your account, choose a number, and set your account live in minutes. Once created, simply login to the online portal to refine your settings and tailor the system to your needs. To test your settings, just ring your own line. If you get stuck or need any help, our support team can help you.
Porting
You can port your existing number from most operators to us including BT. This way, you can take advantage of our could-based features. This can take 10—20 days, but we have a dedicated porting team in place to make this transition as smooth as possible.
Customer support
We have a 5-star rated officed based, support, and technical team available by email, phone, or live chat to help with any questions.
Want to know more?
You can also call
0800 009 6555 or email
[email protected]
No credit card required •
Frequent questions
Got a question about Virtual Business Numbers & VoIP Systems?
See below for some of our FAQs...
Choosing the right number for your business is very important.
Local
Local numbers can increase your calls by 22% if you operate locally. You can even add a few of these to cover a wider area.
London (0207 & 0203)
London numbers are perfect if you are looking for a London presence. Add a London number and get all the prestige without the expense of a London location.
0808
0808 numbers are recognised as free and offer a National presence. These are ideal for sales and support lines.
03
03’s are mobile friendly and national. Calls to 03’s are included in inclusive mobile minutes and charged at standard rates.
084
084’s are completely free to use when routed to a landline. The charges are higher than a standard call rate but are mainly used nationally for specific campaigns.
Multiple numbers
Using multiple numbers across your business is a great idea to give you that big business feel. You can also track marketing spend on different forms of advertising.
We do not tie you into any long-term contracts and you can cancel at any time by giving just 30 days’ notice.
Our "Management App" gives you total control, so you can easily configure your account on the go and our "Phone App" is used to make and receive calls from anywhere in the world.
Calls can be forwarded or routed to any landline or mobile device. Just choose the most appropriate forwarding minute package that suits you best.
You can change the outbound presentation from your website portal when you dial, and you will be able to do this from the “Management App” on the next update.
Make low-cost calls from wherever you are in the world and receive business calls wherever you are using our “Phone App”.
Enable recording so you can train staff, improve compliance, and easily resolve conflicts.
You can choose to block individual nuisance or persistent callers using our contact book, or you can take advantage of “Filtering” to block international or withheld callers.
Get in-depth statistics and reports on all calls, busy times and missed calls. You can even link your reporting to “Google Analytics” and you can download your reports as a CSV file.
Why Use A
Virtual Number
Virtual numbers are specifically designed for business. They have all the features that allow you to scale your business, reduce missed calls and increase your professional perception. We’ve used the feedback from over 80,000 businesses to hone and refine what we do, so you get the very best result for a low cost.
You can also use multiple numbers to track your advertising spend or give the impression of a larger business. As our system is cloud-based, you can access and manage your entire phone system online and get access to performance and usage statistics helping you to manage your business with greater efficiency. We also have an array of telecoms experts on hand to help you get most from your telephone system if required.
Why Use VoIP?
VoIP or (Voice Over Internet Protocol) has grown to become the default standard over traditional BT landlines. With advances in broadband internet and cloud-based mobile phone technology, VoIP has become more stable, better quality and more versatile than its predecessor.
Traditional phones lines are currently being decommissioned by BT and with the advent of fibre broadband and technological leaps in VoIP, BT are looking to replace all traditional landlines with VoIP by 2025.
VoIP also gives you many options for how you make and receive calls. From using broadband-enabled desktop phones to a PC-based softphone or mobile app. VoIP gives you much more flexibility and features and it really is a technology that is now being globally embraced. VoIP lines also have the benefit of being able to make and receive calls globally, except a few countries that restrict the usage of VoIP you can make free or low calls from any location in the world.
How does a VoIP line differ from a traditional BT landline?
VoIP lines use your broadband or internet network connection. You do not need any expensive hardware or equipment and it should not take up too much bandwidth. Whereas your existing BT landline uses analogue signals sent down copper wire to transmit your voice signal to a phone or handset. If you have a stable broadband connection, then there are many benefits to using cloud-based VoIP calls over traditional BT voice phone calls.
VoIP calls usually offer a reduction in costs over BT phone services as well as other benefits. They are more configurable, making them ideal for use in an office environment. Cloud-based VoIP calls can also work using a handset, app or softphone running on your computer, providing you have broadband in place and a stable network or internet connection.
Do I need broadband to use a VoIP phone?
You do need an internet connection to make a VoIP phone voice call. You can either use hardware connected to your PC, which would use your home broadband internet connection, or you could use your mobile phone data which uses your mobiles phones internet.
Please check with your mobile phone provider to see if you have sufficient data or if you are in a good connection area. Some mobile phone providers are able to speed test your phone to see if you are able to make a VoIP phone call. You may need to increase your data allowance, which can increase your bill costs so it’s a good idea to contact your provider to check.
What makes us different?
Many VoIP and virtual number companies out there are usually reselling somebody else’s products, such as cloud-based telecoms and broadband, they act as the middleman and as such, increase the overall cost to cover their involvement. We on the other hand are a fully-fledged telecoms company.
We were one of the first providers of virtual numbers in the UK and have been supporting some of the biggest names in Business over the past 13 years. We don’t resell other people’s products and everything we do has been built by us.
By having our own in-house software engineers, we are able to react quickly to feedback from our customers.
The response we get from our reviews really demonstrate that our support department go above and beyond, and we constantly update our software to improve the efficiency of the service.
With an office of in-house trained receptionists and support agents, able to take your calls for you to our free to use conference system, if you need anything to do with business telecoms, we can help.
Speak to us about upgrading
your business
Get in touch with our welcome team today.
You can also call 0800 009 6555 or email [email protected]
Get started in seconds
