Price isn’t everything and all toll free services are NOT created equal
I had an email exchange today with someone who was looking for a new toll free number because as he said, “it took 3 or 4 rings before the calls ever got to us. We had to cancel it, as people were hanging up before we ever got the call.” He wanted to know how long it we take for our phone system to actually connect the call?
I explained that with regular toll free service there is no delay, and you hear the first ring that the caller hears, just like you would if they had called your local number directly. I said he was probably using an enhanced voicemail service because they send the calls to their voicemail platform and then route the calls out to you. Those services tend to have more options, but they may also have a delay that you won’t get with regular toll free service. I also suggested that he might be able to transfer his previous number out to another service to eliminate the problem, that he might not need to use our service to find a new number.
He said that he was with PhonePeople.com, which explained both problems. The delay was in their platform and any J2 company (including, Onebox eVoiceReceptionist or PhonePeople) is horrible about holding onto numbers and holding customers hostage. That was why he had to get a new number.
The point though is that the things you can’t see up front are often much more important than the price. This is especially true with the enhanced voicemail services which tend to vary more from company to company than regular toll free service. So it’s even more important to get your number separately and transfer it over to the service you want because that way if there’s any problem you’ll always be able to transfer it away if necessary, and you won’t get stuck after you’ve put it in all of your advertising. Even the nicest looking websites and cheapest sounding services can have issues that you can’t see ahead of time. So protect yourself by getting a number that you own, and never advertise a number that someone else owns and ultimately control or you put yourself under their control.
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Bill Quimby (678 comments.) says:
August 20, 2009 at 5:42 pm
Thanks to Brian Jacob for the feedback