Do toll free numbers turn off local customers?
One of the benefits of toll free numbers is that they give a more local image nationwide. But someone recently asked me a question about whether they would turn off local customers. And while there are some very localized businesses that use or have a lot of need for toll free numbers (heaven forbid!) like Dinners or Pizzerias, there are still larger chains that are changing that and using toll free numbers more effectively.
I think the business owner has to ask himself if he is trying to make his ads look professional and attractive like a larger company or is he trying to make them look like they were just thrown together by the local printer down the street. Nothing against the guy down your street, but there’s a difference in polish and effectiveness between what a professional advertising agency puts together and what the printer lays out for you. There are some businesses that do fine with that down the street look, like pizzerias or maybe a laundromat or car wash.
I don’t think they would have an objection or lose anything by making a more polished image either. In other words, I don’t think even a local pizzeria would object to someone helping them get a more polished and professional image. Maybe this is where the benefits of a “vanity” number can also come into play because if they don’t have a local vanity number, even a nice numeric number isn’t going to be as easy to remember as a vanity toll free number is. And that will translate to more calls and higher response rate for any type of business. There are other ways to signify local. It could be “family owned since…” or if they show a small map showing the intersection they’re closest too.
Companies like to use toll free numbers because they are essentially nationwide local numbers. They make you seem more local than any out of state area code. I know growing up in one town my whole life I can still tell you what the exchange in that town was. Actually there were two and I knew which was the oldest. But today I think there are probably a dozen even in just that small town. So it’s not as easy to tell by the area code and exchange that someone is local any more. And with cell phones and voip phones the area codes not to mention exchanges are quickly becoming more and more scrambled. So whether or not they like it, they really need to look for other ways to show that they are local than just the phone number anyway.
So give them a bunch of good options for a memorable phone number and get something decent for them that you can track and they’ll realize that this is part of building that more professional and attractive image. You used to be able to get away with just having the right things on the page a lot more than you can today. Every business is more competitive than ever before and even if they’re not being beaten yet they will if they don’t keep up and stay ahead. There are bigger opportunities today but they require better and better performance than ever before and change or at least adjusting isn’t always easy.
(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
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Andrew Delaware says:
March 15, 2008 at 12:12 pm
Thanks for this, Bill. Glad that you can find it useful on your website. Interestingly enough, the answer doesn’t quite satisfy him - here’s why.
The client in question is a car dealer. He is really focused on his local customers in particular. His fear is that using an 800# instead of his local number (which we want in order to track his ad performance) will turn away local customers who would rather see a 905 number. He thinks they might not feel he is approachable etc. if he doesn’t appear local and accessible. Make sense?
Bill Quimby (209 comments.) says:
March 15, 2008 at 2:22 pm
Wow, I’ve NEVER had anyone say that a toll free number makes them seem less approachable. That’s actually one of the benefits of a toll free number is that it makes you seem MORE customer service oriented and more approachable, not less. My Top 10 List for the benefits of vanity numbers was written maybe 8 years ago but is still true today, and number 7 is Customer Focused Image. It just doesn’t make sense to think that a toll free number makes you seem further away, any more than having a website makes you seem impersonal. Big impersonal companies might have websites that do that, but the fact that you have a website alone doesn’t make you seem impersonal, any more than the fact that you have a toll free number makes you seem less local.
They are spending their money on more than just a phone number. If they’re concerned about sounding local what are they saying with the rest of their advertising? I think they need to look at the other 95% of their advertising, not just the phone number which is probably 5% or less of their advertising. I hope that helps them a little.
.Bill Quimby.