A toll free number may be defined as a telephone number that is free to the caller as the charges will be paid by the call’s recipient.
Having a toll free phone number is admittedly a powerful marketing tool as existing as well as prospective customers will be motivated to call more often as they will not be required to pay the phone call charges.
When running a business,
your telephone communication is crucially important and to expand your customer base and improve sales, buying an 800 number is essential. A toll free number is actually one of the most promising investments that you can make to stay and survive and thrive in business.
While toll free phone numbers are widely referred to as 800 numbers, toll free number services have rapidly expanded to include area codes 888, 877, 866, and, most recently, 855.
A toll free phone number basically serves as type of call forwarding feature as they route any call from anywhere in the country made to your 800 number straight to a pre-determined local phone - whether it is your office phone or own personal cell phone. As toll free phone numbers are principally designed for a caller/customer to reach a business without being charged, an 800 number is a powerful form customer service and commercial expertise.
All toll-free numbers invariably start with any of the three-digit codes "800," "888," "877," "866" or "855." This code straightaway indicates to intending callers that a particular number is a toll-free number. Please know that these three-digit codes are not interchangeable.
Businesses widely use toll-free phone numbers to allow customers as well as employees to reach them without getting charged for the call. This makes a toll-free number a useful business tool as it allows a customer or a company employee to call the company with ease. By having a toll free number, small and midsize business enterprises are able to project a big company image and a more national appeal.
The number is also helpful in providing a single number to direct callers to specific outlets/ departments like customer service, sales, technical support, billing support, product/services complaints, marketing inquiry etc.
It is found that toll free numbers are highly useful in developing good customer rapport as customers will call more frequently and you can interact with them often. Toll free numbers is an open invitation to customer saying "Talk to us." The more calls you get in your toll free number, the greater the chances of you getting a new customer.
More importantly, toll-free numbers allow customers/employees to make phone calls across the country without accruing long-distance charges. There are also toll free numbers that are accessible to people calling the country from international locations. When a customer calls a toll-free number, the call is routed to the local telephone number of the called party. This allows a caller coming from any state, and sometimes another country, to reach a destination phone with ease.
You must understand the utility and effectiveness of toll-free vanity numbers as they are used by business organizations for branding and direct response purposes. A customized "phoneword number" obviously helps callers to easily remember the exact toll-free number to dial because the word/term relates to the company’s nature of business.
Some examples of easily recognizable toll-free numbers include 1-800-FED-INFO, 1-800-FLOWERS and 1-888-NEW-CARS. Vanity toll-free number also serves as a form of advertising because it can be easily popularized in the company’s print materials, TV and radio commercials as well as flyers, brochures, billboards and even websites.
