As a lifelong marketing professional, it is easy for me to talk about the value of toll free telephone numbers. Toll free numbers, especially vanity numbers, are a wonderful tool for boosting advertising response rates. The latest research shows that advertisements featuring a toll free number receive up to 30% more responses compared to ads without a toll free contact. This increase in response rates holds true whether the ad appears on television, on the radio, on billboards or in the newspaper.
Still, it’s surprising that there are large businesses that don’t use toll free numbers or are reducing their reliance on them in favor of the Internet. Yes, there are cost-savings associated with online-only marketing and support, but I think there is something to be said for the personal connection a customer experiences when speaking to a live person. Human interactions help companies build trust with customers, either in a single instance or over time. That same human touch also provides a better opportunity for up-sell compared to online conversions.
Toll free numbers have many other benefits as well. They improve brand recognition, enhance product recall and eliminate a potential barrier for interaction by enabling customers to communicate with you at no charge to the customer. They allow customers to contact you when they are most interested and motivated to buy. For smaller businesses, toll free numbers can help you appear to be a larger business than you really are. In addition, toll free numbers can help you easily track responses when running multiple ad campaigns.
Enough about the marketing benefits, toll free numbers are also important for customer service operations. Toll free numbers help to dramatically increase customer service response time and customer satisfaction. Statics show that product return rates can be decreased by as much as half if a toll free number is placed directly on the product. It seems customers are more likely to call in to resolve their problems rather than return the item.
Clearly, toll free numbers can be a valuable asset for your business, regardless of the nature or size of your operation. If marketed successfully, your company’s toll free number can provide a variety of benefits to your company both for marketing and customer service. If your business needs a toll free number, give us a call on our toll free number. We can help.
Heather Bryson
Marketing Manager
DOW Networks
