Don’t let 10 cents keep you from a Sale
The other day I needed to send a gift basket to someone. I usually look for the closest source to the recipient for gift baskets on the net with Google. Some locations don’t have websites, but I found one that had a decent website. I found a good basket that I liked fairly quickly and was at the shopping cart ready to pay for it within a couple minutes, but I felt like something was missing.
Their website was good from a search engine optimization point of view, but it felt a little generic. It looked professional in terms of design, but then I realized there was no About Us section or information at all. The only way to send them email was with a form which allows them to stay hidden, and there was no phone number anywhere on the website. The Google link that sent me there had a local number but when it didn’t go through. I looked further for the domain name owners information via whois, but all of the information there was hidden too. I clicked away and abandoned that shopping cart immediately because anyone trying that hard to hide their identity certainly isn’t going to be there if anything goes wrong.
People want to buy from someone they Trust and a Toll Free # makes you look more Trustworthy!
All it would have taken was a paragraph about yourself or your organization and a toll free number. A 3 minute phone call would have cost around 10 cents and would have saved a $100 sale. I don’t care if you can’t take calls and have to use voicemail sometimes. It could forward to someone on the other side of the world for all I knew because toll free numbers can forward anywhere. If you can’t afford to give potential customers 10 cents worth of your time and customer service if they need it you’re going to lose a lot of sales.
They may not actually even need to call you, because just having a toll free number helps show you’re a real company and makes people feel more comfortable. Don’t do all the work of getting attractive products, making a nice website, getting an interested prospect to the website and then lose the sale by not having a way for customers to reach a real person. Don’t try so hard to save a dime that you lose the sale!
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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Gregory Reggie says:
April 1, 2009 at 11:18 pm
What are the monthly/minute charges I will incur for my 800 number when my free period expires? Thanks. Gregory
Gregory
Bill Quimby (678 comments.) says:
April 2, 2009 at 10:20 am
Hi Gregory,
The per minute and monthly cost of a number depends on the phone company you select for the ongoing service. We’ll give you a few good options to make it easy, but your ability to select any phone company you want is the key because that’s what guarantees you’ll have good service and a good rate or you can transfer it somewhere else. That’s what ultimately keeps them honest.
Some companies don’t like to be honest and like to use the ownership of the number to lock you into their service. We’re the solution to that because we give you proof of ownership so you can go to any company you want but they can’t say that you were just using one of their numbers.
To answer your question though, the cheapest companies go down to about 3 cents per minute and a couple bucks a month. But you really own the number with no strings. When the temporary service runs out we let you know and you can do a one time extension if you’re stuck because we don’t want you to lose calls if you’ve got advertising. That’s $25 for 250 minutes as a stop gap if you forgot or didn’t get the number transferred in time. Either way you won’t lose the number, and we’ll help you get it transferred as quickly and efficiently as possible over to your company.
See also http://www.tollfreenumbers.com/blogs/price/our-fees-and-rates.html
Bill Quimby
Richard says:
April 15, 2009 at 1:21 am
When I purchase a number do I own it. Meaning, can I keep it but inactive? Meaning, I want to purchase a few 800#s but use them for promotions, etc. Do they have to be constantly active once I purchase them?
If I need to host them, where can i do that at the lowest cost?
Richard
Bill Quimby (678 comments.) says:
April 15, 2009 at 9:33 am
Hi Richard,
You do own it, or more specifically you own the end user rights to the number. But you do need to keep it active with whatever phone company you select. See: http://www.tollfreenumbers.com/blogs/price/keeping-800-numbers-active.html
There’s no one company that’s the cheapest for everyone. Most phone companies have stopped offering toll free service without any monthly fee. (see: http://www.TollFreeNumbers.com/nofee) Opex is one of the cheapest at 2.95 cents per minute. We give you the information on that in the toll free manual after you activate a number. We’re working on a provider directory but that’s not ready yet.
Bill
Holly Olson says:
April 28, 2009 at 2:23 pm
I have skimmed over everything on your site and am very impressed. I have learned a lot but still have a few questions.
I would like to go through a “mock” number set up so I am sure to get all the questions answered and every cost included.
Is there a snapshot of steps associated with costs or does it depend on what we want? We are still striving for a vanity number to do with ESSENTIA.
I see the cost info (below) but there must be additional costs – per minute, per month.
Please fill me in so I can present all to our client. Thank you!!
Bill Quimby (678 comments.) says:
April 29, 2009 at 1:14 am
Hi Holly,
There isn’t any other cost from us at all. Here’s the page with the prices: http://www.TollFreeNumbers.com/price
Our fees are just a one time charge. We give you free temporary service and proof of ownership and then help you transfer it to whatever company you want to use it with for the ongoing service. And your ability to transfer the number and pick whatever company you want is what guarantees that you’ll ALWAYS have the best service and price, not just right now but down the road too.
We help you get the best number but the big thing that most people don’t realize we do isn’t just to transfer it to any company you want, but to be able to transfer it away from whoever you do chose at any time. That’s what keeps them honest and protects you for life.
There’s also more on the typical fees and prices of most other companies at http://www.TollFreeNumbers.com/fee
Getting a number with the term you want is going to be the challenge. Here’s the link for the ESSENTIAL term you were looking for. http://www.tollfreenumbers.com/list/ESSENTIA.html The first box is the exact match which is already in use so it’s not available. But the interesting thing to look at is the third box of additional possibilities. There are a few interesting numbers there you should look at.
I hope that helps. Let me know if you have any questions or need help with anything else.
Bill Quimby