The use of toll-free numbers is quite on the rise these days. Having a phone number that doesn’t cost you money is lucrative for the ones who has to make outbound calls.
Keeping a toll-free phone number for business is a usual phenomenon in large businesses and enterprises. And that move is slowly being followed by new startups and small businesses.
Getting a toll-free free number for business may sound a compelling move since it doesn’t cost the customers to make a phone call to you. It aids in getting customer queries and leads on your product/service, which helps to acquire new customers and retain the old ones.
The downside, however, is you need to bear all the cost even for the inbound calls. And for small business, that may look rather more profligate.
So it is really an effective approach to use a toll-free number for small business or is it just an overkill? Let’s find out!
What is a toll-free number?
Toll-free number is the type of business phone number, which does not incur charges when a phone call is made to it. The toll-free numbers work on landlines and phones of all types.
Toll-free number is an excellent approach to allow clients to call you from distance, saving clients’ money and increasing sales. Obtaining a toll-free number entails locating a service provider, some of which specialize in services such as SMS to toll-free lines and call analytics.
Nowadays, most businesses either online or offline use toll-free numbers to reach out to customers more and provide a better customer experience.
These figures may have appeared on billboards, handouts, booklets, and even corporate websites. Common prefixes include 800, 888, 877, 866, 855, and 844. It is common to use the terms “toll-free number” and “800 number” interchangeably.
Businesses pay the incoming rates on such connections so that their clients can call them without incurring any expenses. In layman’s terms, the expense of dialing a toll-free number is borne by the company, not the client.
The cost of a toll-free number is determined by your phone plan. A reasonable estimate would be $2 to $15 each month. Depending on your plan, calls to the number will cost between $0.06 and $0.30 per minute.
Advantages and Disadvantages of using a toll-free number
You might consider toll-free call numbers unsuitable for entrepreneurs at the beginning of their journey. It may be because toll-free calls have long been associated with large corporations and international businesses.
Well, this is not the case, let’s look in detail at the upsides and downsides of using a toll-free number for small businesses:
The upsides of Toll-free numbers for small businesses
Why would you include something that doesn’t add value to your business? Here, we’ll explain why toll-free numbers are beneficial for businesses.
1. Extended services
Many of the users make emergency calls from landline phones as they can work under any circumstances without being disrupted. Rather than a mobile phone which may need power backup or no signals, landlines can be used without power or battery.
According to AARP, around one-quarter of all homes still have a landline phone. Also, 65% of the people choose to contact any business by phone call.
However, if you discover that the majority of your consumers call you from landlines, having a toll-free number will help you extend your business. This is because landline consumers can contact your toll-free number for any purpose without fear of getting charged.
2. Improved Customer Retention
According to a report, 66% of the issues that consumers are facing are resolved through phone calls. With a toll-free number, your clients will never hesitate to call you for any reason, whether it is for product assistance or any other inquiry.
Whether the problem of the customer is small or big, they will call you when you have a toll-free number. And if you solve their problem according to their needs, then you have a high chance of customer retention.
When a customer gets your service, they also expect better support from your side too. When you provide a cost-free calling service, it automatically makes the customer consider that the after-sale service is a positive side of your business. And in the future, if they need any other product, they will reach out to you first.
You can also receive IVR services with your toll-free number, which will allow you to rapidly transfer your customer’s call to the appropriate department. The IVR service does not come along with a toll-free number but you can add it later on in the same number. This can also help in customer satisfaction and retention.
IVR is an abbreviation for Interactive Voice Response. You may use this option to record a voice script to play once a consumer dials your number. The nicest thing is that your clients will be able to engage with the speech script and navigate as needed.
You also receive more advanced capabilities to measure, manage, and enhance the efficiency of your staff.
3. You may quickly track your promotions.
Assume you are operating many marketing initiatives. Many campaigns may be running on billboards, as well as in other print and digital media. Once you’ve assigned these campaigns to their respective toll-free numbers, you can begin tracking a variety of campaign information.
For each campaign, you may track the information of the clients that contact you. Also, as their geographic area and favorite time of day to make calls.
Here are some examples of advertising channels where toll-free numbers can be used:
Broadcast advertisements, direct response campaigns, and email campaigns are all options.
4. Simple to remember
Another advantage of having a toll free number for your company is that it is a lot simpler to remember than any other number. Some of the toll-free numbers can be lengthy and random too. So you have to make sure to use an easy one to remember.
Regarding the toll-free number, you can use a vanity number which will help to make it far easier for consumers to remember 1-800-Flowers than 1-800-942-8573. The toll free vanity number can help in brand recognition. You can take a vanity number using the keyword that resembles your brand.
From vanity numbers to numbers that are easy to remember, toll-free numbers can be used to promote your business. Make sure that the keyword you choose for vanity numbers will recall your business or the service it provides.
People are more inclined to call you, it can increase sales, and it may be a very effective marketing tool for your company.
5. Adds Credibility to your business
Having a toll free number will make your business look big. It can provide brand value and help small businesses to add some professional touch. Although your business might not have a very big office, adding a toll free number would make your business look big and professional.
6. Saving Money
A phone line is adequate for the task. You may convert a single telephone number to a toll free number if you have a tiny home office setup.
Installation fees are also inexpensive. In addition to the toll-free number, service providers provide extra services such as voice mail, ignoring nuisance calls, and a message center. A toll-free number will assist your home office setup in lowering operating costs by limiting the labor force.
Another option you can have is cloud-based toll-free lines: they have lower subscription rates than ordinary telephone devices. As inbound call charges are also paid from your account. A cloud-based number can help you in many ways (similar to skype) like no physical infrastructure is required, you need not pay for any telecom company, no wires charges.
A cloud-based number has many more features than an ordinary phone number. And you can all acquire the features at a minimum cost. You also need not pay extra for IVR services as they come along with the subscription plan you choose.
Therefore, using a cloud-based toll-free number will reduce cost in a significant way rather than making a currently used number a toll-free number. The ROI of having a cloud-based number makes it looks cheaper though some amount is charged for inbound calling.
7. 24-Hour Customer Service
Problems can arise anywhere and anytime. People want real-time support and answers for their problems. According to a report by Forbes, 96% of the customers will leave you for your bad customer service. So, you must focus on providing good customer service.
With these toll-free numbers, the client gets constant access to the brand. They also don’t have to bother about dialing a local company number and dealing with the complications that come with it.
The 24/7 customer service will help to increase the customer, helps to improve conversion rates, and meet market demand, and customer satisfaction. You can also use the auto-recorded message when some customer calls you. This can improve customer service as they can follow the instructions to reach out to a particular department for their queries and problems.
This also helps in managing employees as they are not required every time to answer the call when you use the IVR call system. This provides 24/7 customer service although there is no one to receive the call: the IVR system will automatically do it for you.
When there is no cost for customers to call for their problems, they can call anytime. For that you can integrate IVR services, and an auto-response system to take those calls. You can also add some FAQs on the auto-response so that customers get solutions easily.
And using services like IVR will generate fewer calls to answer directly from your side as most of the solutions can be directly addressed through the system.
These toll-free numbers put clients at ease, provide a professional touch to your business, and make it simple to provide help to your customers.
8. Improve the Efficiency of Your Marketing Campaigns
Nowadays, every company publishes its contact information on billboards, handouts, booklets, websites, and other marketing materials such as infographics, ebooks, and so on.
With toll-free lines, you may set up an infinite number of extensions to easily shift consumer calls to other departments. For example, a client seeking more information about your product and services can have their calls diverted to your product support department, and the same can be said for other activities.
You may also route consumer calls based on their location or source. Customers phoning your company after seeing your brochure near Washington, for example, can be transferred to your office in the Washington region.
9. Improved staff training
When you call customer service on a toll-free line, you must be familiar with the following message: “This conversation may be recorded for training and quality assurance purposes.”
Conversations conducted over a toll-free line are recorded and preserved in a cloud database. It may be used to identify problems in present customer support delivery. You may correct such faults quickly and give better training to customer service representatives.
The downsides of Toll-free numbers for small businesses
Having a toll-free number for your business has many advantages, but it also has a few disadvantages. Let’s have a look at them too.
1. Unnecessary Phone Calls
The ‘free’ distribution of toll free lines generates a large volume of unwanted calls.
Miscreants like using this clause. You will have to deal with a number of callers that are uninterested in your product or service. People will contact you even if they have no intention of purchasing the product.
2. May no longer be necessary
According to Pew Research, 97% of Americans own a cell phone. These phones are often sold with unlimited calling plans. This inclusion cancels the consumer cost savings provided by toll-free lines, making them obsolete.
3. Makes you look cold
Cold phone calls are less preferred by customers than live chat. A report claims that customer service over the phone is currently rated as the lowest touch point. Emails and live chats have higher percentages than phone calls.
Customers often believe they will be speaking with an automated system if they contact a toll free number. As a result, they may decide not to call or hang up right away.
4. Not a stand-alone source
Unfortunately, a toll-free number cannot be utilized just to increase sales. Yes, a toll-free number will help with sales; nevertheless, you cannot rely on it for a consistent return. It will help you provide better customer service to your valued consumers.
5. Imperfect for local businesses
Local audiences frequently want to know that you and your company are deeply established in their town. Because they begin with non-local area codes, toll-free numbers have the reverse impact. That fact alone might create a mental barrier between you and your consumers.
A Toll-free number for small businesses: Effective approach or an overkill?
As you can see, toll-free numbers for small businesses have both pros and cons. Seeing the advantages and disadvantages, in some cases, it may be difficult to choose if you want toll-free number or not. You have to make it more effective so that your customer experiences better service from it. Rather than having a local phone number, a toll-free number can help to grab more customer attention.
There might be very few scopes, less capital, and fewer service area for small businesses to grow. In such cases, these types of companies should not leave any chances to create better customer service to promote their brand. As per the study revealed that 98% of residents in America between the ages of 18 and 65 regularly use toll free numbers. So you have better chances to promote your brand.
Only limited customers come in search of your product. The toll-free number helps for better customer experience and satisfaction. Since in a small business, the budget will be less in which the marketing capital will also be less. Therefore, using toll-free vanity numbers will help you gain brand recognition through the keywords you use in such numbers. This will also help to scale your business in the future.
Creating brand recognition and recall type keywords in your number will add more to the customer experience and marketing of the business. Though your business is small, it sounds credible and competing with large businesses when using the toll-free number. At the same time, it saves money. Adding a keyword to your number will help to know about the type of your brand too.
In order to have an effective toll-free number for small businesses, you need to improve on certain factors. You also must be aware that sometimes you may have to work remotely and picking up the calls instantly might not be possible. Also, the charges for toll-free numbers will raise as you are charged for both outbound and inbound calls.
Some small businesses may not have the budget to afford the toll-free service and some of them may look confusing. In a long run, brand recognition is important, and customer retention is important. So you must not hesitate as we know that acquiring customers is a lot of hard work which toll-free number can help to make it easy for you. In a long term, it is beneficial. Though there are charges for inbound calls, the lead and conversion from the calls can justify the pricing. Else you can go for a cloud-based system as it is cheaper.
Unnecessary phone calls can be annoying but usually, they are genuine. This can be really helpful to know where the people are calling from and how the reach of your brand is growing. You need to see the placement of the leads where they are coming from which can help in marketing your business accordingly. Overall, it is good for business growth and scaling. Also, it may be a small business but it can help in traffic and leads generation.
In the current trend, a toll-free number is necessary. You may sound like cold calling but, sometimes, you can generate the leads from there. This type of change is necessary to expand your business and generate revenue from it.
Therefore, it is a great and effective approach to have a toll-free number for a small business if you go through making the risk analysis and knowing all the benefits and downfalls.
The phone calls might seem unnecessary, but they can help you know how much your business has expanded and some callers might be interested in your services.
Conclusion
Toll-free numbers can make your firm considerably more accessible to clients who still use landlines. Even though cell phones are now practically ubiquitous, a toll-free number may be used as a marketing strategy in and of itself.
Customer stories of the experience they had using the toll-free number customer services can be really useful for you to enhance your business. Toll-free numbers can help your startup business develop healthy relationships with its existing customers and prospects.
Furthermore, toll-free numbers are quite affordable, so if used correctly, they may be a low-cost tool to better interact with your clients. And it is always the ultimate aim.
FAQs
Is it better to have an 800 number or a local number for business?
A local number makes it simple to reach clients in a certain location. Toll-free numbers might make your company look impersonal, whereas local numbers appear more trustworthy. This improves your local visibility and allows you to develop personal ties with your consumers.
What is the difference between a telephone number and a toll-free number?
A phone number might be toll or toll-free. The idea of a “toll,” which refers to a fee or tariff, distinguishes the two number kinds. Calls to toll numbers are charged, however, calls to toll-free numbers are free.
Why would a toll-free number affect a company’s marketing budget?
Toll-free numbers also aid in market research. For example, a company that employs a number of free phone lines can track the number of calls received from each number. This allows business owners to precisely determine which advertising channels are the most successful.
Do people still use the phrase “Toll-Free”?
The answer to this query is yes, despite flat-rate calling plans and no long-distance costs, most businesses continue to use a toll-free phone system.
Should I have a local phone number for my company?
Clients can interact with you on a more personal level when you have a local phone number. It boosts a company’s local presence and offers the impression that it is easily accessible to its clients. On the other hand, toll-free numbers are useful for companies that want to establish a national presence.
Is it necessary to have a business phone number?
A business phone number is more than just a direct line to your firm. It also indicates your presence on a local, national, and worldwide scale. Even if the great majority of your customers are unlikely to contact you, having a phone number provides the amount of confidence that clients need.
Is a phone number required for my small business?
In short, your company requires a business phone number. It boosts your internet business’s professional image and assists your customers in making relationships. As a result, your company’s revenues increase.
Are toll-free numbers free internationally?
When called from overseas, calls to toll-free numbers are not free. When the call is successful, you will be charged ordinary international rates (sometimes higher). So, if the company/person you wish to contact also has a standard phone number, dial the latter while phoning from another country.