{"id":8835,"date":"2016-06-08T07:46:59","date_gmt":"2016-06-08T07:46:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/?p=8835"},"modified":"2016-06-08T08:01:17","modified_gmt":"2016-06-08T08:01:17","slug":"dial-intelecom-for-sweden-telephone-number","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/dial-intelecom-for-sweden-telephone-number\/","title":{"rendered":"Dial Intelecom for Sweden, the First Country in the World to Have Its Own Telephone Number"},"content":{"rendered":"

B\u00f8rge Astrup, managing director of Intelecom Contact Centre Division explains how the latest contact centre technology is revolutionising the\u00a0travel industry with a new form of \u2018reality\u2019 tourism in the cloud.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"SwedishYou may have read recently about how The Swedish Tourist Association (STA) has celebrated Sweden becoming the first country in the world to abolish censorship 250 years ago by launching its own phone number.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Swedish Number\u201d is the tourism equivalent of reality TV. People from all over the world can talk about Sweden with ordinary Swedish citizens about anything simply by dialling a single telephone number: +46 771793336.<\/p>\n

But why would a country want its own telephone number?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s all part of a new initiative from the STA to help the rest of the world learn about their country and promote it at the same time. Sure you can just Google it but what better way to learn about a place than from the people who live there and can tell it how it really is rather than through a heavily marketed, glossy advertising campaign? When you call in, you are connected to a volunteer ambassador who can answer your questions about the country.<\/p>\n

From the Horse\u2019s Mouth<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you think about it, it all makes a lot of sense. How many times have you looked up a place on one of the many visitor websites such as TripAdvisor to ask yourself if the good reviews are written by friends and the bad ones contrived by greedy competitors! There is nothing like hearing it from the horse\u2019s mouth.<\/p>\n

Speak to a Swede<\/strong><\/p>\n

Like many places, Sweden is full of pre-and-misconceptions. Is everyone, tall, blonde and beautiful? Is it dark all year round? Why would I want to\u00a0visit a country with such high suicide rates? Rather like Britain where tourists might be forgiven for thinking that the food is terrible, everyone\u00a0lives off of fish and chips, it is always raining and you can have tea with the Queen in Buckingham Palace! We all know it\u2019s not quite like that, well\u00a0perhaps the rain part is, but how do you really know if you rely on slick English Tourist Board posters and pretty holiday brochures?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Swedish Number\u201d means you can call Sweden and find out the truth about it before spending a lot of time and money. You do have to pay the\u00a0international charges for the phone call but it\u2019s a fun way to learn about a different place. Plus, you\u2019ll get to learn what it\u2019s really like to live there, from people who actually do.<\/p>\n