Search a new number in every format before printing it, and ask for another if it carries a past. If you already use it, have old listings marked closed, directories corrected, and answer old callers politely.

A number that arrives with a past

A new business sets up its phone line, and the phone company assigns a number. Within the week it is on the website, the cards, the vehicle and the Google listing.

Then calls start arriving for someone else: a business that had the number before and closed, moved or changed lines.

Phone numbers are recycled. Once a number has been out of use for a while, it goes to a new customer, and nothing tells the new owner what it was used for.

The previous business's listing, its directory entries and its reviews often still carry the number, long after the business itself has gone.

Where the old business lingers

The first matters most. Google uses the phone number as one of the details that ties a listing to a business, and a closed business's listing does not disappear on its own.

Search the number before printing it

Before anything is printed, search for the number the way someone else might have written it: with spaces, with dashes, with brackets around the area code, and as one unbroken string of digits.

Try Google and Bing, the main online directories and Facebook. A number that turns up nothing is a clean start.

If the searches find another business, especially one with poor reviews, ask the phone company for a different number. At setup that is usually quick; once the vehicles are lettered, it is a much bigger job.

What a shared number does on Google

Two listings with the same phone number can look to Google like one business listed twice. It may show only one of them, and not necessarily yours.

Since early August, the local pack in Google's results shows three businesses instead of seven. A confused pair of listings can cost a place in a much shorter list.

And a customer who searches your number before calling may find the old business's listing and its reviews instead of yours.

Google My Business listings are still tied to Google+ pages, so the old business can linger there too, with its reviews and photographs attached.

Asking for the old listing to be corrected

On Google, any user can propose a change to a listing, including reporting that a business has closed. Do that for the old listing, and mention that the number now belongs to a different business.

For directories, contact each one and ask for the number to be removed or the entry marked closed. Many directories copy from a few large data suppliers, so a correction at the source can spread.

Keep a list of where the number appeared and when you asked. Corrections can take weeks, and some sites need asking twice.

Calls for the old business

Answer with your business's name every time. A caller who hears it learns at once that something has changed.

Agree a short, polite reply for everyone who answers the phone: this number now belongs to a different business, and we cannot help with the old one.

Taking messages for a business you have no connection with only makes trouble later, for you and for the caller.

Some callers will be unhappy customers of the old business. Be kind and brief; they are not your customers yet, but they could become them.

A worked example

A pilot car service runs escort vehicles ahead of and behind oversize loads: wide farm machinery, modular buildings, bridge beams. Most of its work comes from trucking dispatchers who need an escort at short notice.

When the owner started the business in the spring, the phone company assigned a mobile number, and it went straight onto the car doors, the website, the business cards and the Google listing.

Within a week the calls began for a small moving company that had closed after a run of poor reviews: people wanting a piano moved, or asking about a deposit.

Worse, two dispatchers who searched the number before booking found the moving company's listing and its one-star reviews, and asked whether this was the same business under a new name.

The owner suggested an edit marking the old listing closed, wrote to the directories that carried the number, and kept a one-line answer by the phone for the moving company's callers.

His own listing now shows photographs of the cars, the area served and the hours. A search for the number leads to his business, though a few old directory pages still name the moving company.

If the number is already everywhere

Sometimes the history only appears after the cards are printed and the vehicles lettered. Changing the number then is costly, and still sometimes the right call.

Weigh it plainly. A few stray calls a week for a business long closed will fade. A number tied to a poorly reviewed business in your own trade may cost more than reprinting.

If you keep it, make your own listing complete, with photographs, hours and the area you serve, so that a search for the number finds something current.

The counter-case

Many recycled numbers carry no history at all, or one so faint that nothing turns up. For them, nothing needs doing beyond the search.

And a business with a long-standing number should keep it. This is a concern for new lines and new businesses, not a reason to change a number customers already know.

For any new number, though, search it before anything is printed, and correct the old listings if anything turns up.

Before anything is printed

  1. Search the new number in four common formats.
  2. Check Google, Bing and the main directories.
  3. Ask for another number if it carries a past.
  4. Suggest an edit marking old listings closed.
  5. Write to each directory that still shows it.
  6. Answer every call with your business name.
  7. Keep a list of every correction requested.

Step three is the cheapest fix there will ever be. Before anything is printed, a different number costs one phone call; afterwards it costs signs, cards, vehicle lettering and months of corrections.

Choosing which number leads on your listing is covered in a toll-free number on a neighbourhood business.

Frequently asked questions

Why do new numbers get calls for others?

Phone companies reuse numbers once they have been out of service for a while. Listings, directories and printed material from the previous owner keep sending callers to them.

How do I check a number before using it?

Search it with spaces, dashes, brackets and as plain digits, on Google, Bing, the main directories and Facebook. Ask for another number if anything turns up.

Can a shared number affect my Google listing?

Yes. Two listings with one number can look like the same business listed twice, and Google may show only one of them, which is not necessarily yours.

How do I get the old listing corrected?

Suggest an edit on Google marking it closed, noting that the number now belongs to another business, and ask each directory to remove or update its entry.

What should staff say to old callers?

Answer with your business name, then explain briefly and politely that the number now belongs to a different business and you cannot help with the old one.

Should I change a number already printed?

Sometimes. A few stray calls for a long-closed business will fade. A number tied to a poorly reviewed business in your own trade may cost more than reprinting.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

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