If you are choosing a national phone number for your business, the two options you will normally come across are 1300 and 1800.
They do much the same job from the business side. Both can route calls to your team, work across multiple locations, and stay with the business if your setup changes. The main difference is what happens for the caller.
For most businesses, the choice is fairly simple once you know how people are likely to use the number.
Photo by Arlington Research via Unsplash.
What is the difference between 1300 and 1800 numbers?
A 1300 number is a local rate style business number. The caller may pay a charge depending on their phone service and plan.
An 1800 number is a freephone number. Calls from Australian fixed and mobile services are generally free to the caller, although there can still be exceptions depending on the service being used.
From the business side, both numbers usually involve service and call charges. The exact cost depends on the provider, where calls are being sent, and how much traffic the number receives.
When does a 1300 number make sense?
For many normal business uses, a 1300 number is enough.
It gives you one national number that is not tied to a particular suburb or office, and it can be routed to a reception team, call queue, after-hours service or different locations as needed.
That makes it a sensible fit for businesses that want one consistent contact number but do not necessarily need to remove the caller cost completely.
When does an 1800 number make more sense?
An 1800 number is useful when you specifically want the call to be free for the person contacting you.
That can matter for support lines, customer service, national campaigns, organisations receiving calls from people who may be cost-sensitive, or any service where you do not want the cost of the call to be a reason someone gives up.
If there is no real benefit in making the call free, though, there is not much point choosing 1800 just because it sounds bigger or more national.
Do 1300 and 1800 numbers make your business look more professional?
They can help, particularly if you operate across more than one location or you do not want your main number tied to a particular area code.
But the number itself is only a small part of the experience. If calls sit in a queue forever, go to the wrong person, or nobody knows what happens after hours, having a 1300 or 1800 number does not fix that.
The useful bit is really the call routing behind it.
Can the number ring different offices or team members?
Yes. A 1300 or 1800 number can be routed in much the same way as any other business number.
You might send calls to one reception team during business hours, another office after a certain time, an on-call person after hours, or different queues depending on the option selected by the caller.
For multi-site businesses, this is usually more useful than having separate public numbers for every office.
Can you keep the same 1300 or 1800 number if you change phone providers?
Generally, yes. These numbers are portable, so changing your phone system or service provider does not normally mean changing the number your clients already know.
There is still a proper porting process, and it is worth checking ownership and account details before changing providers. We would not leave that until the day the old phone service is being cancelled.
What should you check before ordering one?
The number itself is the easy part. We would look at the wider phone setup first.
Who should answer the calls? What happens if reception does not answer? Do you need queues, voicemail, call recording or after-hours routing? Are there multiple offices? Do team members need to answer from desk phones, mobiles or softphones?
Once that is clear, choosing 1300 or 1800 is normally straightforward.
So, which one should you choose?
If you simply want one national business number with flexible routing, 1300 will suit a lot of businesses.
If you have a specific reason for the call to be free to the caller, 1800 is the better fit.
I would not overcomplicate it beyond that. The bigger decision is making sure the phone system behind the number is set up properly and is easy for your team to manage.
Need help with business phones?
Q10 provides Q10 Phones alongside managed IT, internet and cybersecurity services. We can help work out whether a 1300 or 1800 number makes sense, set up the routing behind it, and make sure it fits the way your team actually handles calls.
If you want to go over the options, get in touch and we can work through it with you.