As most of you know, we are based in the UK. Those that have called us on the phone will also know that we have a US phone number. It is listed on our contact page. That phone number comes straight through to us here in the UK. We don’t have an office in the US – there is no US mailing address on our contact page – just a US number. We set the US number up a few years ago because we wanted to make it easy for our US customers to contact us, and we realised that many companies in the States don’t allow international calling. Calling outside your country is expensive, and with low, flat-rate calling plans, optimised for mostly local calls you may not even be able to call internationally. Why pay for the option when you hardly ever need to do it? So to make life easier for everyone we set up a US phone number that routes straight through to us here in the UK. If you’re in the US and you call it you’ll only pay for a national call (or local if you are in WA). But you get to talk to us in the UK. Simple!
So, five minutes ago I took a phone call and the guy said “Is this the US office?”. I said “No, you’ve come through to the UK, we don’t have a US office”. He said “So it’s just a mail drop?”. I said “What’s just a mail drop – there’s no US address on our contact page where you saw the number you’re phoning on”. “Ok”, he says. I said “We provide a US number so our US customers can get through to us easily”. He said “Thanks”. I was just about to say “So, anyway, how can I help you?” when I realised that he had hung up. That was it.
So what was all that about? I was slightly concerned that he was a potential customer who was put off when he found out there was no US office. But surely I am being paranoid. He didn’t even give me a chance to ask him how I could help. Perhaps it was a cold caller trying to sell something, and finding we had no US office decided the service or product he was selling was of no use to us. Hopefully the latter, not the former. I certainly don’t want to be scaring customers away. Is it a problem that we don’t have a US office? In nine years it hasn’t been yet! But either way, I was surprised he disappeared without explaining why he had called.
Anyway, if you ever need to call you will find the numbers on our contact page. The only issue with us being in the UK is the time zone – we’re 5 to 8 hours ahead of the US – but because of that we work late most days, so the only time our US customers may fail to catch us is if they call late in the day. So here’s a tip – call in the morning, your time, and you’ll be sure to get through!
