Call answering for Coleraine businesses
Your 028 70 number stays exactly as it is. When you can't get to the phone, whether you're on a job out at Castlerock or stuck the wrong side of a road closure, an AI receptionist answers in your business name, takes the caller's name and number and what they need, and texts it straight to you. From £249 a month flat, no per-minute or per-call charge, live in about five days.
What happens to the call you can't take
Your number rings on as normal. If you don't pick up inside a few rings, the call diverts and the receptionist answers in your business name. It asks what the caller needs, takes their name and number, gets the detail down, and tells them you'll ring them back. Then it texts you the lot.
You read that at the next break, in the van outside a job in Portstewart or between customers, and you ring back the ones worth ringing. Set up right, the caller gets answered instead of ringing out to voicemail. That matters more here than in most places, because Northern Ireland runs on very small firms: 89.4% of VAT or PAYE registered businesses in NI employ fewer than ten people. In plenty of them the phone is one person with a mobile in their pocket, and when that person is under a sink or up a roof, nobody is answering it.
What the Coleraine year does to your phone
Coleraine sits on the River Bann, with the Bann Bridge and the Sandelford Bridge carrying the town across it and the Causeway Coast about ten minutes up the road. Town trade keeps its own rhythm. The Diamond Centre and the shops round The Diamond, Causeway Hospital on Newbridge Road, the Ulster University campus, the industrial units out at Loughanhill and Wattstown. On the second Saturday of the month the speciality market takes over the Town Hall end of the centre from nine until four, and if you're working through that you're not hearing your phone.
Inland it's different country again. Macosquin, Aghadowey and Garvagh sit in the BT51 postcodes round the town, and Kilrea Mart sells sheep on a Monday, fat and dairy cattle on a Tuesday and store and suckler cows on a Wednesday. If you run an agri contracting outfit from a yard out that way, Monday to Wednesday is exactly when you can't lift the phone.
Then there's race week. The North West 200 runs the Triangle circuit linking Coleraine, Portstewart and Portrush, and the A2 and A29 shut over race week each May. Great week for takings if the trade suits you. Rotten week for answering the phone, because you can't get across town and your mobile is in your pocket at a job you're already late for.
“It pays for itself in new clients and takes the hassle of the phone away. It’s got me jobs after hours with my phone sitting out in the van.” Shaun Williams, electronics shop, Garvagh (Google review)
Live in about five days
No new number, no new hardware.
We learn your business
A short chat about your calls and services; we set the voice and tone.
Set up behind your number
Call-forwarding keeps your number the same. You decide when it answers.
You start catching calls
Every answered call texts you the name, number and what they need.
Common questions
Will my customers notice anything different when they ring my 028 70 number?+
They ring the same number they always have. Nothing gets ported, nothing gets replaced, and your number stays with whoever you're with now. You set a divert so calls you don't pick up roll over to the receptionist, and it answers in your business name. Ring your own line before you go live and you'll hear exactly what a customer hears.
My trade triples in July and dies off after Halloween. Is it worth paying for in February?+
That's the Causeway Coast for you. Pricing starts at £249 a month, flat, with no per-minute or per-call charge, so a mad July of holiday-let callouts costs you no more than a quiet February. Winter calls tend to be the ones you can least afford to miss, because there are fewer of them coming in.
What about race week, when half the roads round here are shut?+
The North West 200 closes the A2 and A29 between Coleraine, Portstewart and Portrush over race week each May, and the same roads clog up every time Portrush hosts something big. Those are the weeks the phone goes hardest and you're least able to reach it. The answering doesn't depend on where you are, so a caller ringing while you sit at a closed road still gets a proper answer, and the lead still comes through to you by text.
I'm out at yards round Aghadowey and Garvagh with rotten signal. Does that break it?+
No. The divert happens on the network, not on your handset, so your phone can be showing one bar in a shed and the call still gets picked up. The lead text lands when your signal does. Same story on the back roads towards Kilrea and Macosquin.
Get your 028 70 number answered
Hear exactly how EdgeAudit would answer for your business in about 30 seconds.