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Business phone in Trois-Rivières: what 819 says
819 puts the Mauricie outside both of the large markets it serves. What that means for how your calls display, and how to fix it without running two systems.
John · Owner and CEO · 2 min read · · updated
A Trois-Rivières business sits halfway between Montreal and Québec City, and its area code belongs to neither. 819, 873 and 468 cover the Mauricie; Montreal is 514, Québec is 418. To both of the markets many companies in the region serve, your number displays as coming from somewhere else.
That is the exact inverse of Lévis, where one area code covers both shores.
What does the 819 area code cover?
The 819 family is the largest in Quebec geographically: Trois-Rivières, Shawinigan, Drummondville, Victoriaville, Sherbrooke, Magog, Gatineau, the Outaouais, Abitibi-Témiscamingue and the Hautes-Laurentides.
The 819 family covers a very large territory and neither of the two metropolitan markets a Mauricie business usually sells into.
Reuse this figure anywhere, including commercially, with credit to Ringfully and a link back to this page. CC BY 4.0.
That is an enormous territory and a mixed commercial reality. An 819 does not say "Mauricie" to a customer in Gatineau; it just says "not Montreal". The area code is a coarse signal, and it is worth knowing that before building a strategy on it.
A new number will be an 873 or a 468. The 819 pool is exhausted. See Quebec's area codes.
Three ways to handle it, cheapest first
Three answers work, and the cheapest is usually the right one.
Do nothing
If your customers know you, call display decides nothing. A company that has been in the Mauricie for twenty years has no problem to solve here.
Add a number per market
A 514 advertised in Montreal, a 418 for Québec, your 819 for the region: all three landing in the same greeting, the same queue and the same team. That is display, not a second organization. One call flow per number is enough.
Start over
Rarely the right answer. The number your customers have dialled for years is worth more than the first impression of a prospect who does not know you yet, and it moves rather than being replaced.
What is the same everywhere in Quebec
The area code is a question of perception. The greeting is a question of obligation: if you serve the public in Quebec, it falls under the Charter, in the Mauricie as anywhere. See Law 96 and your phone system and building an auto-attendant callers do not hang up on.
What we are, and what we are not
We supply numbers in 819, 873 and 468 (and in the other families if you want to cover several markets) and set them up with you. We have no office in Trois-Rivières: service is remote and there is no installation visit.
The region has real installers who come to the site. If that is what you need, it is not us. If it is not, tell us which markets you sell into and we pick the codes with you.
Questions people ask
- Which area code covers Trois-Rivières and the Mauricie?
- 819, with 873 and 468 overlaid on the same ground. The family is the largest in Quebec geographically: it reaches Shawinigan, Drummondville, Sherbrooke, Gatineau, the Outaouais and Abitibi-Témiscamingue as well as the Mauricie. To a customer in Gatineau an 819 does not say Mauricie; it says only that you are not in Montreal.
- Can I get a Montreal or a Québec City number for my Trois-Rivières business?
- Yes. Nothing stops a business from holding numbers in several families, and all of them can land in the same greeting and the same team. A 514 advertised in Montreal, a 418 for Québec City and your 819 for the region is display rather than a second organization.
- Should I change my number because 819 looks out of town?
- Rarely. The number your customers have dialled for years is worth more than the first impression of a prospect who does not know you yet, and it can be moved to a new provider rather than replaced. Adding a number per market is cheaper and reversible; starting over is neither.
- Can I still get an 819 number?
- No. The 819 pool is exhausted, so a new number in the Mauricie will be an 873 or a 468. All three cover the same territory and are dialled as ten digits, and none of them tells a customer anything the others do not.
- Does Ringfully have an office in Trois-Rivières?
- No. There is no office in Trois-Rivières, no installation visit and no service on site: everything is done remotely. The region has real installers who come to you, and if that is what you need it is not us.
About the author
John
Owner and CEO
Owner and CEO with over 10 years of experience in the IT industry, including more than 5 years specializing in VoIP and cloud communications. Experienced in designing, deploying, and supporting reliable communication solutions for businesses.
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