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An 0800 number may seem the obvious choice. Your customers know that the service is free to them from a landline (which encourages them to call you) and the fact that the call charges are born by you shows that you care about your customers. You also have a good way to be available to customers whilst not having to give out a home or personal line. An 0800 number shows you are thinking nationally and that you are a serious business.

0800 numbers are portable - you can redirect them to a mobile (at extra cost) so never need lose touch with your customers. They are also useful for sorting calls - you can have one for sales and one for support and therefore know what your caller is contacting you for. This can help prioritise calls and make you look like a larger business.
The real bonus is that you can track marketing projects. By using only one number on your website or advert you can see where people are finding you and at what time of day. This really improves your business potential.

You can also take your free phone number with you if you need to move premises. This will avoid the need for new business card and other stationary reprints to accommodate a change of landline.

It is worth noting that paying a premium for a memorable number probably isn’t worth it unless you are using it for TV or radio advertising. Most of the really memorable numbers have gone anyway so think carefully before going down this route.
0800 numbers are best for connecting a business with its customers. On the downside, as a business, you pay for every call to the number, including those from time wasters.

0845 numbers can do similar things to 0800 numbers for you but are not necessarily free to call for your customers (although for some BT callers it now is). When paying customers ring an 0845 number all they pay is the cost of a local phone call - just as if they were making a call to someone in the town. That way, some customers who are a long way away from you in the country can actually save money over calling your normal landline number as the call is cheaper to them.
The main advantage to businesses of the 0845 number (and the reason that they are outselling 0800 numbers) is the fact that when you buy an 0845 number the costs are fixed no matter how many times the number is called, whereas for 0800 numbers the costs are for the actual minutes used. Fixed costs and the fact that bills cannot run away for business owners make the service easy to budget for.

If buying either phone number, make sure that the telecomms supplier you are using is reliable. Look at how long they have been in business, try and talk to their customers, and make sure you have a physical address for them. Check their position for if you find that that your number is not doing what you hoped it would, or if you need to change it so that you don’t run into unforeseen costs later.

Itemised bills charged by the second are a sensible way to go to avoid being caught out by the company rounding up calls to the nearest minute, and remember that nothing is free - if there’s no set-up and rental fee your call charges will be higher to compensate.

An example of a company using an 0800 number are Snibor who are Dorset builders and they use the number to be customer friendly. The number is visible on their homepage and throughout their web site. An example of a company using an 0845 number is Omnio who sell KVM switches. Again, the number is prominently displayed on their website and they are seeing the benefits for their type of business model.

Think carefully which number will be best for you before you buy and choose what’s right for you.