subject: Ring Ring, There Goes 25 Minutes Of Work! Do You Really Need A Listed Phone Number On Your Website? [print this page] Having a phone number listed on your site can certainly help create the impression of a "real" business (despite the fact that there are plenty of Nigerian lotto scam sites, Acai berry scam sites, etc. that have disposable cell phone numbers listed on their sites...). When you have a phone number listed, you're immediately more credible to some visitors, even if they never call. But if you think that you need a listed phone right away, keep this in mind: Amazon.com didn't have a customer service phone number listed on their site until relatively quite recently. They went for years-- highly successful years-- without one that was obviously available. No doubt, this annoyed some users, but they managed. So, successfully not listing your phone number can be done, but does it make sense? For a start-up, quite possibly.
As a start-up, you need to consider that phone callers can be Time Vampires, eating up your valuable time. Unless you can realistically expect to make a significant profit on any single transaction, the potential upside of any single call may be quite limited. The author recommends that for most cases, keep the phone number undisclosed. Call those people who email insist on being called. There's an emotional benefit to these occasional phone calls, just get your footing: Talking to strangers about your business is a totally different experience from talking to your friends. Once you develop some decent cash flow, reconsider this decision; you can hire some part-time customer service personnel to help. Until then, you need to devote all of your resources to breaking through to that critical first point, and phone Time Vampires may not be the way to do it.
Also consider that once your phone number is floating around, you'll shortly need to start fending off sales calls. These calls may be short in duration, but long in annoyance. If there's success in your future, then these sales calls are coming... but perhaps you can delay them a bit.
When you do get a phone number, there are a couple of good options that are low cost: 1) Google Phone, a beta product that's not available everywhere, is free if you can get it. Sign up, even if you have something satisfactory already: Can't you always use a free phone number? 2) I personally know people who have purchased MagicJack, the heavily-advertised $20-something a year service. I have talked to them while they were using their MagicJack phones, and no complaints. These people have raved about the service, actually. Granted, the computer has to be on to make a call, and if it's not, callers are directed to Voice Mail. That said, if your computer isn't on, you're probably not overly available for work anyway.
