Single number or direct lines: advantages, limits and effects on how calls are answered

With a single number, all calls arrive at the same place, then are distributed by a person, a menu or an automatic system. Direct dial-in, known in France as SDA (sélection directe à l’arrivée), by contrast lets people outside call an extension connected to the organisation’s switchboard (the PBX) directly, without a receptionist: each team member or department gets its own number while remaining connected to the same switchboard. Direct numbers can also be simple independent lines, mobile or landline, that share no infrastructure.

These models are not mutually exclusive. An organisation can display a general number for new contacts and give direct numbers to regular customers, suppliers or partners who know who they are looking for.

A single number simplifies communication and memorisation: one line on the website, the sales documents and the Google listing. It also centralises the first contact, which helps to ensure the same greeting, the same information and the same quality of handling whoever picks up, or whatever system answers.

Its limit is that it creates a compulsory point of passage. If it is overloaded, poorly informed or closed, all callers are affected at once, including those who could have reached the person they know directly.

If you opt for a single number, take care over the greeting: say who you are, what the caller can get straight away and how to reach a person or leave a message. A greeting that clearly announces what happens next (“a colleague will call you back today before 18:00”) tells the caller more than a generic waiting phrase, and obliges you to keep that promise.

A direct number shortens the route: the caller reaches the right person without repeating their name or their request to an intermediary. For a close relationship (an adviser, a practitioner, an account manager), that is often what the caller expects.

But every direct number becomes a door to watch. If the person is in a meeting, absent or on leave, the call is lost, unless you have arranged forwarding or message-taking. Multiplying direct numbers therefore means defining a rule for each one: who answers, what happens when they are absent, who checks the messages, and how quickly. Without that discipline, apparent closeness turns into a full voicemail box.

One possible compromise is to limit direct numbers to a few key roles and document them in a one-page table: who, at what times, what back-up when they are absent, what callback deadline. That table also helps to spot numbers that hardly ring any more and can be removed.

A number known to customers is an asset: it appears on cards, quotes and directories. The Arcep reminds us that a subscriber can keep their landline or mobile number when changing operator within a single territory, that the new operator handles the process from the operator identity statement (relevé d’identité opérateur, RIO), obtained by calling 3179 from the line concerned, and that no direct charge is applied to the end user exercising this right. If you move, the Arcep specifies that, since 1 January 2023, you can ask to keep a number starting 01 to 05 within a single territory, but that the operator remains free to accept. Porting remains possible up to 40 calendar days after the contract is terminated; after that, the number is considered inactive and the operator may refuse to port it.

In practice: before cancelling a subscription, ask for the RIO, subscribe with the new operator by giving them this statement, and do not cancel the old contract yourself, as it ends when the porting actually takes place.

If your number is used to follow up the performance of a contract or to handle consumer complaints, article L121-16 of the Consumer Code (Code de la consommation) states that this number may not be premium-rate. A ministerial reply (a government minister’s written answer to a parliamentary question) recalls, relying on a judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union of 2 March 2017, that the cost of a call to an after-sales service may not exceed that of a call to a geographical landline or a standard mobile. This is a criterion to check when choosing a number, before you display a special line for your after-sales service.

In practice: a single number and standard direct numbers raise no problem; the problem is the use of a premium-rate number (starting 081, 082 or 089, according to the Arcep) for this type of contact. Numbers starting 0800 to 0805 (free) and 0806 to 0809 (the price of a normal call) respect this prohibition, according to the Arcep.

Start from your callers: do they already know who they want to speak to? If so, direct numbers make sense, provided you organise for absences. If not, a single number with a well-informed greeting saves time. In both cases, decide what happens when nobody answers: a message that tells the truth, a contact request, a callback.

Alyas can answer a line, 24 hours a day, from the information you give it: it announces that it is an AI and that the call is recorded, takes the caller’s details and request, says when it does not know and offers to pass the request on, places a transcript and summary in your workspace, and transfers to a single number when the caller asks. It does not route between several departments: use it where one line corresponds to one contact. Free 10-day trial, with no credit card required.