Countdown Commences for Call Charge Changes

There are just 2 months left until Ofcom’s new call charging system comes into effect on 1st July 2015.

From this date, all service providers using 084, 087, 09 and 118 numbers will be required to declare their Service Charge everywhere their number is advertised. The new rules will apply to all consumer calls to these numbers across the UK.

Calls made to ordinary landline and mobile numbers are not affected. Neither are calls made from payphones, international calls, or calls to the UK when roaming overseas.

With the aim of making the cost of calling numbers clear for everyone, the new system will be made up of two parts:

• An access charge – This part of the call charge goes to your phone company, charged as pence per minute. They will tell you how much the access charge will be for calls to service numbers. It will be made clear on bills and when you take out a contract.
• A service charge – This is the rest of the call charge. The organisation you are calling decides this, and will tell you how much it is.

The changes have been welcomed by members of the contact centre industry.

“It is great to see that Ofcom will finally close the door on opportunist operators out there that have selfishly preyed on consumer confusion, similar to the way supermarkets confuse us with special offers that are perhaps not so special after all but are typically more expensive!” said Mike Murphy, Territory Manager at Interactive Intelligence. “It will be easy for the consumer to compare with the “service charge” being charged by competitors, driving down the use of the 08, 09, or 118 numbers, especially in the contact centre market and encouraging the use the 03 numbers instead. The more these poor practices get eliminated, the sooner we will convince consumers to trust our brands through the contact centre.”

“Consumers are hesitant about calling 084, 087, 09 and 118 numbers in any advertising and marketing materials as they are unsure of what the call will cost them, only finding out when they receive their bill at the end of the month,” said Lindsey McGowan, Product Manager – Voice at Azzurri. “Companies currently using a 080 number will have to factor in the extra cost of covering calls from mobiles into their budgets or decide whether they wish to continue to use a 080 number. A definite win for the consumer!”

What should you do now?

You need to understand how these changes will affect you. You need to find out the service charge that will be applicable to the numbers you use and decide whether to keep those numbers or move to ones with a different service charge.

This information should be available from your service provider now. You also need to review all literature and advertising/marketing materials where the numbers are stated to ensure you are communicating the charges clearly and correctly.

What if I don’t want to declare a Service Charge?

Those who cannot justify imposing a Service Charge on callers, or are unwilling to declare it, must change their number to one that does not have this arrangement – an 01, 02 or 03 number, for example.

Ofcom made matching 034 and 037 numbers available in 2007, so that users of 084 and 087 numbers had a simple migration path available – invoked by changing a single digit (the 8 becomes a 3).