Not getting the backorder success percent you wanted?
This came up recently in an email and I thought it was worth posting since people probably feel this way sometimes even if they don’t say so. Statistically some people are not going to get the numbers they’ve backordered. It’s worse than just the mathematical averages too in many cases for several reasons.
If you’re not getting the percent of backorders you had expected, there are several possible reasons.
1. You haven’t done a large enough sampling to go by the %.
2. You are in a competitive category.
3. You are looking for above average phone numbers.
4. You’re trying to get mainly ‘800’ numbers.
5. You’ve just been unlucky.
6. We’re not really trying to get your numbers for some reason.
7. The system doesn’t really work like we say it does.
The issues listed above are basically in the order of popularity or probability. Numbers 6 and 7 aren’t really there because there’s any reality to them, but I just wanted to include the theoretical possibility because that’s what customers sometimes think.
Quantity
The most common issue is the first one on the list that customers aren’t looking at a large enough sample to get the real percentage. The next two or three might hit in a row.
Quality
The second and third refer to the sample they are shooting for. The original person who asked this was a lawyer, so his requests were for legal numbers, one of the toughest categories of all.
The third issue happens all the time with people really into numbers. Customers in the vanity number business or playing with it a little, usually only request the very best possible numbers in any category. If they were requesting several numbers related to a specific target name or business, they would have a MUCH higher chance.
Picking only the numbers that are worth tens of thousands of dollars or more is unfortunately going to mean you get only a small fraction of the percentage we get overall. The best example of this are premium numeric numbers, especially numbers that are 4 and 5 star or more quality. These honestly have a dismal backorder percentage and we often tell people backordering them not to expect much.
Area Code
The fourth point is pretty obvious, we definitely get a higher percentage of the backorders on 866s and 877s because there is less competition. That’s also why we charge more for ‘800’ numbers and less for 866 numbers.
Luck?
You could just be unlucky, but in the end it all balances out. If the first girl you asked out said no, would you give up and resign yourself to be single or would you pick yourself up and ask someone else out? Eventually someone will go out with you and eventually we’ll get you a good number!
Second Chances
We also give backorder customers a second chance. We can’t guarantee to get a number, but we do guarantee to do our honest best. After all we only get paid if we get you that number you want. So we certainly do our best and really don want to get that number for you.
Your billing information only stays in the system for 30 days so if you miss a backorder give us another request via email within 30 days of the original drop date and we’ll enter it as another backorder without any backorder fee. We’re not doing this to make $4.95 on you. We’re doing this to charge you $795/595/395 or 195 for getting you that brand name number that nobody else even shows as possible.
There’s a lot more about backorders in the Backorder section, or the Backorders Simplified section too, but if you have any additional questions give us a call or drop us an email. We really look forward to helping with this.
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Bill Quimby (249 comments.) says:
August 5, 2008 at 9:07 pm
Someone asked a question related to this that I thought was worth adding. We get a very low percentage of backorders for people in the vanity number business. This isn’t because we try any less, but because they only backorder the very cream of the crop in any industry.
They are usually the most obvious most valuable numbers that everyone else in the vanity number business would make their top priority too. So those are real long shots with a much lower probability than the numbers that regular customers usually ask for.
Bill
Bill Quimby (249 comments.) says:
October 28, 2008 at 1:43 pm
One more thing to add. I’m working on a new document called the Backorder Report. Some of the information from that will probably be added to the website, but it’s also going to be given out to everyone who backorders a number. It goes into what else we can do for you and what else you can do to try and increase your chances of getting a number. I figured this was certainly relevant to this post. So it should be ready by the beginning of November.
Trying Harder for your Backorders at TollFreeNumbers.com says:
November 15, 2008 at 7:10 pm
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