Best contact number for business... Mobile or Land...

What do people prefer to use as their main contact number for business and why?

Thanks for taking the time to answer.

Main = landline, gives an impression of a fixed location, not fly by night etc

I'm very interested to see the results of this survey. I use both but have my landline number on my website. I'm wondering though if I should change it to my mobile. For example I had a call from someone who is not a client or prospective client, but would be useful to talk to her at some stage. Because she called my landline and only left me her landline number I have no way to contact her to tell her I will call her in a few days - other than calling her back, which I don't have time to do at the moment!

Agree that with a customer that has had no previous experience of you, the landline does give reassurance that a mobile number doesn't. It's rubbish bit of due diligence really, as there's plenty of people with virtual landline numbers that just go direct to mobiles anyway and cost very little if anything to set up (which i guess you know a thing or two about Stuart!).

And Jane, a top 5 irritation on pretty much every customer survey ever done, is the unreturned phone call. Call your customer back, it won't take you that long. 

Mobile, as it means I can be contacted any time. If I'm in the office I will have my mobile with me anyway.

As it happens though, I have just set up a VOIP number for exactly the reasons Danny mentioned.

I agree that a landline does give an element of security and professionalism, and if you are an office based business then it seems a no brainer to offer both.

I am a sole trader and beca\sue of the nature of my work am mobile so 90% + of the time I out of the 'office' which is my home. I had my landline which is a private line posted on my site for a while and got inundated with sales calls outside of working hrs from every d**khead under the sun so removed it and replaced with an explanation that landline and address were private residential but available to genuine enquiries.

So only mobile number is available but all enquiry e-mail comes to the blackberry... 

Danny - thanks - actually they are not a customer but wanted a favour and yes I have now called (and yes it did take that long!)

The point is that if you only have a landline number you have no option to text to thank them and acknowledge the call even if you are with another client all day and can't actually call them straight back.

Thanks for the responses folks... keep em coming. 

Interesting so far though.. answers seem weighted in favour of Landline number for now... for lots of good reasons. 

It seems, from here and other folk I've asked (on twitter etc) that there's a worry of not being available in the office and so mobile number reduces that worry of missing calls or not being able to respond to a message in a timely manner. 

Some people do have their LL calls forwarded to a mobile - even if it's just for out of business hours calls. There is obviously a cost to you, the business, though for this. 

And yes, Danny, I do know a few things about converged com's - joining the dots between the fixed business presence of a landline and the freedom of a mobile. There's a few ways of doing it... but I'm curious as to people thoughts. It really helps us understand client needs and how some of these solutions really benefit a business owner. 

:-)

Got to be landline for me, think it give the customer more confidence to call a fixed line. Plus the landline can be forwarded to a mobile anyway.

Both would have been my vote, if you are talking about having them on a business card or a website.

However, if the number was an 0800 or 0845, then we would tend not to use that company.

The reason for that, is that we make all of our outgoing calls on our mobiles phones within our monthly deal, where 0800 and 0845 numbers cost us money.

My suggestion to those who use these numbers, is to also have a real 01--- landline number available as well.

I have both numbers on my business card. It does not matter to me at what time clients call, its all potential work after all and it gives the client a good feeling they can speak to me at any time.

No brainer really.

More interesting responses! This is great guys...

Nigel, particularly interesting point about 0800 and 0845 numbers and the cost to call those from mobiles. I have spoken to a couple of clients who used to use 0800 number as their main contact in a B to C service industry and now want to move to a std geographical local number as most of their business comes from people calling land lines.

Keep em coming.

Landline (virtual). 

It's usually mapped to my mobile anyway. However, if I'm at my desk all day I'll map it to a real landline to save on redirection charges.

I'm sure there was a thread (last year?) which discussed people's expectations, not from the B2B / B2C angle but relating ot business sector. Ie if the business is perceived as office based, a landline fits their expectations, if it's a tradesman then a mobile fits the expectation unless it's a big enough company to have office staff.