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.

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.

No question about it—TV advertising remains one of the best ways to get a time-sensitive marketing message in front of prospective customers. Pair it with a vanity toll free number, and you’re maximizing the chances of a direct response to your campaign.

TV viewers not only see and hear your number—they see and hear it at a time when it’s convenient for them to take action. (This is in contrast to radio and billboard advertising, where the potential customer may be driving a car, in a hurry, or otherwise distracted.)

Yet, since few people watch TV with pen and paper at hand, it helps enormously to use a highly memorable toll free vanity number in your TV ad. It’s no surprise that the proportion of TV ads featuring toll free vanity numbers continues to grow.

A 2005 industry study found that the majority of toll free numbers in TV ads (using the prefixes 800, 866, 877, and 888) are vanity numbers, spelling out words associated with the advertiser’s name or service. Some advertisers claimed that switching from purely numerical toll free number to a vanity number for TV-centric campaigns more than doubled their call volume.

If your business is one of the many bolstering marketing efforts for this holiday season and using TV ads in your campaign, you’ll want to make sure the number you feature is an easy-to-recall vanity number.

Please contact us for more information on getting the perfect toll free number for your business.