DDIS numbers, why have them?
A Direct Dial In – often referred to as a DDIs number – can become a valuable part of your business phone system. As well as having a main switchboard number, your business can also set up individual numbers for staff members and departments. This of course means that your staff can give out their DDI number to colleagues and customers who need to reach them easily, but it can also have great benefits for reporting on marketing campaigns and tracking call sources.
Published: 13/03/2018
Updated: 12/06/2024
What are DDIS telephone numbers?
Simply put, a DDI number are telephone numbers assigned to individual extensions or lines within a company’s phone system. A direct number to a staff member or team, available without having to go through a menu system.
How does a DDI number work?
If you’re unsure just how a DDI works in practice, here is a simple diagram to help explain a customers experience from point of using the dedicated numbers to how it is routed to the intended recipient within your team.
Click thumbnail to view how DDI numbers work from the perspective of being a member of the public looking to contact a specific person within a business with DDIs implemented.
How Businesses Use DDIS Numbers
| Benefit | Reason |
|---|---|
Campaign Tracking | Assigning unique DDIs to campaigns enables a marketing team to track incoming calls and prove campaign success through precise attribution. |
CRM Integration | Log call data and enable retrospective actions , whether it be monitoring, re-engagement or sales enablement. |
Dashboarding | Visualise trends in geographic locations, call frequency, duration and conversion rates. |
Lead Qualification and Segmentation | Review lead quality direct from a campaign to understand intent and probability of success to tailor follow-up actions and marketing messages. |
Engagement Monitoring | Determine sales cycles and understand how a campaign fits in to the business’ overall decision-making. |
Example of how business use DDIS numbers
A marketing team operates a campaign across three distinct channels, including: social, email, and direct mail. Each campaign is linked to a specific DDI.
Process:
- Tracking Calls: The marketing team monitors incoming calls on each DDI.
- Data Analysis: The call data is integrated with the CRM to evaluate the lead quality and conversion rates of each campaign.
- Strategy Adjustment: The data reveals that the email marketing campaign yields the highest quality leads and conversion rates. Consequently, the team reallocates more budget towards email marketing and refines the social media advertising strategy.
Outcome:
By leveraging DDI data for informed decision-making, the team can improve their ROI and the overall effectiveness of their campaigns.
What are the benefits of a DDIS number?
There are several benefits that businesses are often surprised by before implementing Direct-Dial-Ins. These include cost-savings, improved customer experience, productivity and flexibility. Here are the five reasons why your business need to consider them.
| Benefit | Reason |
|---|---|
Cost Savings | A DDI number will streamline communication by eliminating the need for interactions with receptionists or switchboards. This reduces wait times and leads to more productive conversations for your team(s). |
Customer Experience | Customers can directly access relevant team members through their assigned DDI numbers. This reduces waiting time and enhances overall satisfaction. Put simply, nobody wants to be passed from one team member to the next and there is only so many times a caller can be expected to listen to hold music before losing patience. Enabling the customer to call the DID number provides quicker action and helps maintain a positive customer experience. There is also no fear in the intended person being out-of-office as you can rely on call forwarding, voicemail and backup groups. |
Productivity | Less time is spent routing the call to the intended recipient. With DDI numbers the incoming call always ends up at the correct person. Putting more focus on the work at hand. |
Flexibility | Combining DDIs with a VoIP phone system ensures your business can make the most of any device in any location. So, if your team member is off-site you can ensure the call still ends up with the right person by directing calls to mobile phones, softphones or handsets, all through the use of a simple VoIP system app. Not only is this flexible to your teams needs, but, ensures efficiency and customer experience. |
If your business records calls, you can use call reports to analyse call volume and duration for specific phone numbers. This analysing can provide valuable insights to benefit your business, you can then make informed decisions to improve your operations and customer service.
If you are running marketing campaigns and are spending money to advertise on several different channels, you can use DDIs intelligently.
By using a different direct dial numbers for your press activity, PPC, email marketing, website and social media etc, you will be able to log the number of calls generated by each channel, trace sales and track the ROI of your spend. This in turn means you can distribute budget efficiently and make sure you are putting more into the activity that is generating results.
Reasons for using DDIS numbers
There are several benefits that businesses are often surprised by before implementing Direct-Dial-Ins. These include cost-savings, improved customer experience, productivity and flexibility. Here are the five reasons why your business need to consider them.
| Consideration | Description | Reason |
|---|---|---|
Implementation Costs | Implementation costs are the expenses related to establishing DDIs, encompassing both the initial outlay and the ongoing operational costs. |
|
Training Requirements | Training requirements refer to the instruction and learning necessary for staff to efficiently utilise and manage DDIs. |
|
Reporting Capabilities | The size of your team or the number of campaigns could determine the level of reporting needed. |
|
If your business or department is actively running campaigns that are difficult to review or if you’re having challenges attributing a campaign to a new lead, you need to be considering the positive impact of DDIs on your marketing department and business. You’ll be able to put focus on what does work and reduce budget wastage on what doesn’t work.
Discover How We Will Solve Your Business Communications Challenge
Frequently asked questions
How many DDIs are in a range?
The number of DDIs within a block will depend on the range your provider has issued during the setup of the VoIP system.
For example, if you have requested a range of 5 direct-dial-in numbers based on your primary number being 01234 555000, then the issue range would usually include:
- 01234 555001
- 01234 555002
- 01234 555003
- 01234 555004
- 01234 555005
Is DDI and DID the same thing?
Yes. DDIs and DIDs are the same, but, the terminology used will largely depend on where you are based. DDI numbers (Direct-Dial-In) is a term associated with Europe, whereas DID (Direct Inward Dialling) is commonly used in the US and other countries outside of Europe.
They are both are unique direct phone numbers assigned with a business, either to individuals or departments. When a call is connected using a DDI/DID from an external line, the call is routed through to the designated recipient.
What is the meaning of “DDI phone” in telecommunications?
DDI, which stands for Direct Dial-In, is a telecommunication service that allows callers to reach specific extensions within a private branch exchange (PBX) system directly, without going through a switchboard or operator.