1300 Numbers: Advanced routing options for Australian businesses

One of the benefits of 1300 numbers (and 1800 numbers) is that you can use a single phone number for your business Australia-wide, which is great for branding and advertising.

Sophisticated routing options mean that the 1300/1800 network can determine where your callers are located, and automatically forward their calls to your nearest office (no matter how many offices you have).

These routing options provide a great level of flexibility, allowing you to specify a single number per state, right down to routing calls based on the caller's local Telstra exchange.

One office per state

State-based routing is ideal for businesses with offices in multiple capital cities around Australia.

You can specify one answerpoint number for each Australian state. For example, all callers from Queensland have their calls routed to your Brisbane office, and all callers from South Australia have their calls routed to your Adelaide office.

State-based routing has the added benefit of being FREE (i.e. no additional monthly fee) from most 1300 number and 1800 number providers.

Multiple offices in each state

Choose the routing option with the appropriate level of "granularity" for your business—from major regional centres right down to individual Telstra exchanges:

• Region-based routing Select from 208 regions Australia-wide (for example Sydney, Wollongong, Newcastle and Gosford).
• Area-based routing Select from 2045 areas Australia-wide (for example Melbourne City, Dandenong, Sunbury. Werribee).
• Exchanged-based routing Select from the 5283 Telstra exchanges Australia-wide.

Note that the 1300/1800 network can determine locations only for calls that originate from fixed landlines. With all of the above options, you can select to route all calls from mobile phones to a separate number, from which the calls can be redirected (e.g. via an IVR menu or live operator).

Postcode prompting

Instead of automatically detecting the caller's location, you can select to route calls based on a postcode that the caller enters. This option is ideal for

• callers using mobile phones (where origin-dependent routing cannot determine their location)
• callers dialling from a number that is in a different location from the service they require (e.g. calling from work when looking for a business close to home)

Calls are answered with a recorded message that asks users to enter their four-digit postcode. This allows for more granular call redirection setups than you’d get in most other types of routing. Furthermore, you can customise the recorded message to better suit your brand. This means that both you and your callers enjoy better call handling with postcode prompting.

Extending office hours

1300/1800 routing options also provide national businesses with the ability to extend office hours at no additional cost!

You can use time and day-based routing to automatically direct all early-morning calls to your East Coast offices, and those later in the day to your West Coast offices.

This extends the hours in which you can provide your customers with expert assistance from your own employees without the need to pay any overtime.

Time and day-based routing is FREE (i.e. no additional monthly fee) from most 1300 and 1800 number providers.

Find out more about 1300 numbers

You can find out more about advanced routing options and other benefits of 1300 Numbers and 1800 Numbers on our web site. Or give us a call on 1300 ALLTEL and talk to our Australian-based customer service team about the ways in which we can help with your business telecommunication needs.