One of the best ways to strengthen the power of your vanity toll free number is to use it in all your marketing materials. That includes putting it in your telephone greetings. Think about it: Clients dial “1-888-PET-CARE” and the greeting they get is “Hi, this is Johnson’s Pet Supplies.” But they could be hearing “Hi, you’ve reached 1-888-PET-CARE, Johnson’s Pet Supplies.”

This is a no-cost way of helping customers recognize and remember your custom toll free number, increasing the likelihood that they’ll call your business again in the future. Here are five ways to use phone greetings to turn those vanity number calls into sales — and increase customer satisfaction.

1. As often as possible, have a live person answer the phone and present your message during business hours. Studies show that customers expect and prefer it, and it’s the ideal during a sales campaign when you want a sales person to have immediate access to a prospect. After all, studies show that customers who make purchases over the phone order more merchandise, and 95 percent of the time they order more expensive merchandise than customers who are ordering from print or online catalogs. If you are using your toll-free number for non-sales purposes, it’s not as critical that the live person greeting the customer be on your team. A good answering service can handle the caller and then send you a convenient email message.
2. If you need to use recorded messages, be sure to record separate ones for business hours and for after-hours. Why? See tips 3 and 4.
3. When your callers do get a recorded message during business hours, it should mention your 1-800 number and your company identity. Then tell the caller, quickly, how to get to the department they’re calling or the information they want. Example: “Thank you for calling 1-888-PET-CARE, Johnson’s Pet Supplies. A representative will be with you in one minute. If you need to reschedule a delivery for tomorrow, please press 3 for the shipment desk. For all other business, please stay on the line.”
4. The message callers get after hours should (again) reinforce your business identity by mentioning your toll-free number and business name. Then let people know when you’ll be back in the office and what they can do to get a message to you in the meantime. “You’ve reached the after-hours line for 1-888-PET-CARE, Johnson’s Pet Supplies. We’ll be back in the office at 8 a.m. Please call back then, or press 2 to leave a message with our answering service.”
5. If you have a website that allows people to view products or schedules, place orders, or send email, be sure to mention that website in your phone greeting. For some callers, this is a plus. But keep in mind that many callers to your toll-free number prefer to talk directly to a live person.

For years, companies have used toll free numbers to boost sales and streamline customer service. But today an increasing number of firms are getting toll free numbers to manage the costs of calling for their telecommuting workforce.

An estimated 25 percent of the U.S. workforce is involved in full- or part-time telecommuting. Companies have discovered that telecommuting helps them save a bundle on office space, comply with local government “trip reduction” requirements, and attract and retain talented workers who would be reluctant to make a long daily commute.

Toll free numbers are helping these companies manage their telecommuting workforce. Rather than handling complicated reimbursement paperwork for employees trying to use a cell phone for both personal and office work, many corporations are simply setting up toll free numbers for business calling.

Control calling costs for off-site employees

Some companies set up toll-free numbers that allow employees to call into the office switchboard from anywhere they might be. (In a survey of telecommuters reported at CNN.com, 40 percent said that their companies had were providing them with such toll-free numbers for internal calls.)

Many agencies in the U.S. government rely on toll-free numbers for telecommuters and field workers. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s telecommuter guidelines require that employees use the toll free number when calling in from any long-distance location.

Still other companies are employing toll-free numbers as part of the computer network services for telecommuting employees.

Connect customers with your home-based agents

Companies such as Peak Travel have assigned individual toll-free numbers to each of their  home-based agents. Calls from customers are routed directed to those travel agents, helping the company manage costs and record keeping.

Find out more

If you are setting up or revamping your telecommuter program, contact Custom Toll Free to find out more about toll-free numbers and how they can help your organization and your bottom line.

With all the many companies out there, consumers are wise to evaluate what will help them get fast, seamless and reasonable phone packages. Here are some reasons to access Custom Toll Free:

Real-time, real cool
Companies or individuals have access to real-time call reports. You are never in the dark when you have an 800 number through us. We will let you see just how many minutes you’ve used to the minute.

Harness bulk-rate plans
Every company has different needs when it comes to phone services. Some clients need to get bulk-rate plans. This can be done easily with help from one of our agents who can offer pricing for special services.

Branded advertising
Sometimes it’s all about name recognition. By using a toll free vanity number you can set your company apart from the rest. Being consistent means tying in all your creative elements from your logo and business cards to your vanity number and signage.

Simplicity: looking for a number is 1-2-3
First, all you have to do to get a toll free number is do a simple search. At Custom Toll Free, this is a very easy process. Simply use the search bar at our “Available Toll Free Number Search” page and find the ideal toll free number for your business.

select the “industry” to view what numbers are accessible; for instance Computers/Internet, Sports or Travel.

Finally, you can filter the choices by prefix such as 800 or 866 only. You can also use the slider to indicate your projected price scale.

Contact Custom Toll Free today for more advice about getting your personalized phone number.

There is more good reason to harness the power of a toll free number: you save customers money. Let’s face it, the economy is first on the minds of consumers. If they have the option of two phone numbers in front of them, they are going to be more apt to call the toll-free one and save money.

There’s even toll free directory assistance. It is accessed by dialing 1-800-555-1212, of course this is a completely free call to make. But not all phone numbers are subscribed to the service. So if you have a toll free number, make it available for customers to look it up through the toll-free assistance service.

To reinforce my point, not all toll-free numbers are listed in the directory, only the ones that subscribe are listed. However, the FCC has a plan in the works to review the promotional aspect and competition among multiple providers, such as directory assistance options for toll-free numbers.

Custom Toll Free can help you learn more about what’s on the toll-free horizon.

Supposedly the government has been reserving some 855 numbers to be able to deal with the toll-free number shortage. This is meant to help resolve the dwindling supply of 800 numbers. Only the 855 numbers have not been made available yet. When they do, you know Custom Toll Free will do what we can to help clients access these new numbers.

Consumers should harness an 800 without haste. Here are some good reasons to secure an 800 toll-free number:

•    Increased sales and fewer missed calls
•    A great marketing tool
•    Added word-of-mouth referrals
•    A decrease in item returns
•    Ensure vanity number availability

Learn how Custom Toll Free can help secure effective numbers.

800 numbers and notification e-mails
Today, “toll-free” has become a comprehensive service. When a business goes with a service provider or a toll-free company, they can monitor things like usage with call notification emails.

Monitor your toll free number via automatic e-mail notification systems. Many of our clients here at Custom Toll Free decide to go this route. Especially if they want to monitor things such as caller ID and the time of day the call comes through.

Going the toll-free route takes more forethought than simply getting a good vanity number. Let us help you.

Available 800 numbers are on the decline. That being said, there has never been a more urgent need for companies to get 800s if they have not already. It’s been over a decade since the federal government tried to help bolster the supply of toll free numbers. In fact, 800 numbers seem to be hard to come by, and it might be getting worse. Over the years the government has tried to safeguard 800 numbers in various ways.

Not so long ago, 866 saved the day
We all remember when 877 or 866 prefixes were the new digits on the block. With the technology boom and the expanding role of Internet (the emergence of matching vanity numbers with domain names) those newer digits slowly became in short supply as well.

Consumers may or may not know that The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) does have a plan in place for solving 800 numbers from becoming extinct.

While the remaining 800, 888, 866 and 877 become less and less available, phone companies and consumers feel the pain. This could have far-reaching implications on new and existing businesses and how they communicate with customers and clients. Many companies have come to realize that their toll-free numbers a seamless way to help market and grow their businesses.

When it seems like you can’t find a good toll free number, let Custom Toll Free help you secure the right one for your business needs (one point of our service is that we DO get numbers that are not available).

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One of the most effective ways to track your ROI on marketing campaigns is to assign a unique toll-free number to each particular offer. Then it’s easy to track how many calls each campaign generates, how many sales are closed, and even what type of business is generated.

1. You can use unique toll-free numbers to run a split test, comparing the effectiveness of two different campaigns.
2. You can use one number to track the effectiveness of a particular campaign over time. Find out if your campaign is losing its punch, or see if it generates increasing amounts of business as your message penetrates the market.
3. In web advertising (and some other media) you can modify a direct marketing offer almost immediately, then track responses to the toll-free number to analyze the results of that change.

Custom Toll Free can help you acquire blocks of toll-free numbers to handle all types of tracking for direct marketing campaigns.

At Custom Toll Free, we’re well aware of how much time and effort our clients put in to finding a good vanity toll-free number. We help our customers choose the best toll-free numbers and, often, we help clients acquire a great toll-free number that’s not readily available.

People go to all this work because strong toll-free numbers are a proven way to enhance your market presence and attract business. Toll-free numbers are associated with major companies. And a good vanity toll-free number is easy to remember, maximizing the chances that people will call.

After all the work that goes into securing your vanity toll-free number to bring prospects to your business, you want to invest plenty of time and effort into making sure that when prospects call you, they have the kind of phone experience that turns callers into buyers.

Here are a few “must haves” to maximize your investment in a custom toll-free number:

• An efficient phone system. Don’t let eager prospects languish on “hold.” Invest in a call system that can handle your call load. 
• Trained sales staff answering your phone. If someone is answering calls to your toll-free number, that person is part of your sales team. Your call center staff should be trained to do what it takes to convert callers into buyers. 
• A professionally written sales or customer service script, tailored to your business. This is essential if your company is new to telephone sales. And, if you’ve been doing phone sales for a while, it never hurts to have a professional re-evaluate your script to see if it is still aligned with your products/services and your customer base.

Toll-free numbers are popular for business of all sizes. Large companies and government agencies use them for sales and customer service. But, increasingly, small- and mid-size businesses are finding toll free service to be a valuable tool for marketing, advertising, and direct response research. According to experts, a toll free phone number can level the playing field and help smaller businesses compete. Because a toll free number is often portable, it’s ideal for a small business that may relocate as it grows.
Industries most like to employ toll-free numbers include telecommunications, internet service providers, beauty, banking, insurance, and travel. You’ll also see research organizations list toll free numbers to improve response to their surveys.

If you’ve been thinking about getting a toll free number for your business and have some keywords in mind that you’d like to use, here are some easy-to-use tools that can get you started.

• NumSpell searches for word that might be spelled using an existing seven-digit number.

• Available Toll Free Number Search finds custom 800, 866, 877, and 888 numbers that meet your keyword needs. Refine your search by industry, number type, and monthly cost.

In addition to these free basic tools, we also offer fee-based tools for more powerful toll-free number search and toll free number lookup. These give you access to a vast database of information on numbers and their status.

• You can search tens of thousands of numbers for numbers that meet your needs. (For instance, numbers that contain the alphabetic sequence that spells “law” or “pizza.”)

• If you know exactly what numbers you want, you can do reverse toll-free number lookups to find out the status of the number.

Once you’ve done your basic research, we’re available to provide additional services. We have an excellent track record at helping customers find the owner of a toll free number they are interested in. We can also conduct negotiations to help you acquire a toll-free number currently assigned to another business.

Not sure how to proceed? Custom Toll Free can monitor a toll free number and let you know if and when it becomes available. For more information, please contact us.