Buying Business Toll-free Number? Never Ignore These 5 Tips

Toll-free numbers play a constructive role in expanding business opportunities. Not only can it enable the customer to reach you without charging them but also gains their trust and reliability in your services. Benefits of toll-free numbers are countless when applied in the right ways. With the ‘right ways’, we refer to a number of calculations and considerations with respect to your business peculiarities.

Here are some of the important facts that one must consider before buying a Toll-free number for the business:

ROI Prospects

Business intellects consider the Return of Investment (ROI) with almost every decision. Now that they have heard of Toll-free and its abilities pretty much, it can easily be luring. But before you make the final call, you need to realize the actual profits that it can lend to the business in the long term as well as the short term. Since the toll-free number may not always be involved directly in the sales and could be used purely for support solutions, it may not be so simple to quantify the ROI.

So, an important thing to consider is that toll-free number is not always about the ROI prospects. It can often influence the brand image. The point is not to dismiss a toll-free number just because it is not bringing in direct sales. Analyzing your requirements correctly is the only way to ensure that your business gains the requisite with the toll-free number installation.

Location of the customers

A toll-free number can be reached from any part of the world but that does not mean it is free for all the callers. Toll-free numbers are usually only free for a certain country. So, the callers from the other countries will have to pay international calling charges. This implies that the business must carefully look at the geographical density of the customer base. If your business commands a strong customer base in different countries, then it is better to opt for different toll-free numbers for each of the countries.

Different toll-free numbers for different countries might have variable charges. Thus, you must consider the ROI prospects again. On the positive side, country-specific toll-free numbers do not require you to set up a local contact center in each country. They can easily be routed to any location of your choice.

Market Your Toll-free Numbers

Consider this example – a business is offering toll-free number but customers are not aware of it. Clearly, the expenses of maintaining the number is going down the drain. Calls on the toll-free number can be converted into sales only when possible customers are dialing the number. And, you cannot expect someone to dial a random number and reach you.

A toll-free number is often a strong revenue generator when used correctly. At the same time, it can also earn trust for your business as it entices a feel of reputed and reliable brand among the customers. This goes on to imply that if you buy a toll-free number to assist the customer, ensure that customers (or prospects) are aware of it. Go ahead and market it heavily. Display it on your ad campaigns, websites, email signature, etc.

Choose Vanity Number & Check Its History

Vanity numbers are the special sequence of digits in the toll-free number that may represent the business in some way and/or they are easier to remember. For example, a business that provides cloud hosting may pick a vanity number, such as: 1800 – 461 2464 (HOSTING). Such numbers are easier to remember and more influential on customer’s mindset. When the customer is not able to make the call instantly on viewing your ad, vanity numbers ensure that the customer will remember them and easily be able to call later on when needed without having to look up the number or listing.

Verifying the history of any toll-free number is important because the number that you are using might have been serving another business earlier. Their customers, not aware of the change of business, may dial it and you will be paying for the calls that are not entertaining your profit. With vanity number, such cases occur more often. So, go for a verification check of the number you are choosing.

Ensure That Routing is Efficient

Proper routing helps the business in two ways. Firstly, when the caller is connected to the desired destination quickly, you save on call duration. Since the business has to pay for the calls made on the toll-free number, quicker connectivity helps in keeping the bills controlled. As the call charges for such numbers are not exceedingly high, this reason might not entice most businesses.

Other benefits of efficient routing include making a positive impression on the customer. A good routing represents the better organization of the business and as everything on a call it all comes down to how the caller is treated, so routing becomes critical. IVR, Automatic Call Distributor, etc. are some of the technologies that can help in achieving impeccable routing.

This guest post was written by Nishant Kadian,  a technical writer and formally associated with Ace Cloud Hosting. He has a strong interest in accounting software, cloud computing and QuickBooks Cloud. Smartphone, computer, and internet are his best friends and he spends most part of his waking time with them.