International and local presence numbers for recruitment agencies

There is a right way and a wrong way to look local. The wrong way is presenting a number you do not hold — which is both a compliance problem and increasingly a technical dead end as networks block invalid caller identity.

• We provision genuine geographic numbers in the areas your desks work, and route them back to those desks.
• Each presented number is callable — a candidate who rings back reaches a person, which is the entire point.
• Per-desk or per-brand caller identity, so a Manchester desk presents a Manchester number and your exec search brand presents its own.
• Consistent identity across softphone, desk phone and mobile app, so the candidate always sees the same number.

International recruitment adds practical questions that are easy to get wrong at the point of purchase.

• Number availability and regulatory requirements differ by country — some jurisdictions require evidence of a local presence or address before issuing numbers.
• Inbound routing needs to follow working hours in the market, not in Hampshire.
• Out-of-hours handling matters more, because “out of hours” is somebody else’s mid-morning.
• Call quality over distance is a connectivity and platform design question, not something to discover on a client call.
• Costs vary sharply by destination, so outbound tariffs are worth modelling against your actual dialling pattern.

Most agencies we review have accumulated numbers over years with no map of what they are or what they do. That is a commercial risk as well as a mess.

• A documented inventory of every number and DDI range, what it is advertised on, and where it routes.
• Retirement of numbers nobody uses, and redirection of ones that still appear on old job adverts and directories.
• Numbers held in your name where possible, so they are portable and not hostage to a supplier relationship.
• A plan for numbers on marketing material, job boards and email signatures so nothing you advertise rings out.