But when I’m craving pizza, do you know where I call?
Stratos Pizzéria. Phone number?
No idea. I googled it on my smartphone!
Welcome to 2015: information just a click away
How many of your clients actually remember your phone number? Will they call you more than someone else if your number is 514-747-dent, 514-63-chiro or 418-343-ergo?
The answer is simply no. Since the advent of smartphones, people who know their close friends’ phone numbers by heart — or even their own spouse’s! — are increasingly rare. We just save the numbers we may need or find useful in the short term.
So one may well question the point of having an easy-to-remember phone number. After all, even if your health services are essential, believing that people will remember your number belongs in the miracles department. Easy to remember or not, it isn’t an effective way to get people to contact you.
What matters is that it’s easy to find.
In an emergency, people won’t think too hard and will call the first place that seems to meet their immediate need, as long as it’s nearby and open at the time of the call. If it isn’t an emergency, the phone number isn’t a deciding factor either. They’ll take the time to look at the website, look for answers to their questions and check the place’s reputation, as well as the factors that matter to them.
However, we use it and understand it in everyday life. Is it accepted? If not, it can be replaced with: “did a Google search.” Either way, a quick Google search will tell you that what matters is good search engine rankings. Since Google is optimized to meet users’ needs, it looks for an answer suited to what is being searched for. Surprised? The phone number isn’t one of the criteria considered in rankings.
In short, don’t put too much effort into getting an easy-to-remember phone number for your business. It’s an outdated practice in the health sector, just like advertising in the paper phone book.
