Wait? Phone numbers aren’t just mobile or landline?

Recently, FranchiseHelp did some data analysis to learn what types of phone numbers our leads provide us.

The idea is that if we can understand what types of phone numbers our leads provide to us, we can communicate better. For example, when we learned that such a high percentage of our leads use mobile phones, it gave us more confidence in exploring a text messaging strategy.

For the month of August 2014, of the thousands of phone numbers that we captured, here is how they break down:

A few caveats before we go any further:

• These are all the phone numbers that were entered by visitors, not the breakdown of phone numbers that we sold as leads. So the 5% of invalid numbers were almost certainly not sold (similar to the premium and toll free).
• These numbers are directional rather than 100% accurate. It is impossible to tell which type of number it is simply by looking at it. The only way to get to these numbers is by cross-referencing them against publicly available information. Therefore, there is quite a bit of room for error. That being said, this is close to the best we could do.

So let’s dig into the different types of phone numbers we see –

• Mobile (69.7%) – Numbers tied to phones that use radio waves from cellular networks and are associated with being able to be taken anywhere as they are not hard-wired. These are usually good for leads as the person is generally always very near to the phone.
• Landline (19.8%) – Numbers that are tied to phones that use metal wire telephone lines. The issue with landlines as leads is that sometimes they are business phone numbers. However, in general, we like seeing landlines.
• Invalid (5.2%) – Numbers that have absolutely no chance of being real e.g. 555-555-5555, 000-000-0000, or something like 123-456-7890. Obviously we wouldn’t want to sell this as real contact information.
• Toll Free (0.3%) – 1-800 Numbers. Very unlikely that people tied to these numbers are serious about franchising.
• Premium (0.04%) – 1-900 numbers. Nearly impossible that people tied to these numbers are serious about franchising.

So, VOIP. It may a buzzword that you’ve heard, but let’s start with what it stands for, “Voice over Internet Protocol.” Essentially, a VOIP phone is one that uses the internet to transmit the communication rather than a wire or cellular network. VOIP is becoming a bigger and bigger thing as the internet becomes more and more embedded with the operations of businesses.

• Non-Fixed VOIP (3.2%) – VOIP numbers that are not assigned to a handset permanently located somewhere. Two of the more common providers of these numbers are Google Voice and Skype. They generally are not the best numbers from a quality perspective but their presence is only growing, so it’s important to make leads like these work.
• Fixed VOIP (1.8%) – VOIP numbers that are assigned to a handset. In practice, Fixed VOIP looks exactly like a landline and it’s really just the wiring that’s different. These are generally good numbers, similar to landlines.

Are you ready for the VOIP revolution? Let’s chat about phone numbers. Give us a ring.