Toll free number for small businesses and start-ups: Benefits & setup guide

Managing calls from customers and prospects can be tough, especially for a small business or startup. How do I know? Well, I have been a part of few. While running a small business, the budgets are aggressive, efforts are enormous, ambitions are high, and so is the anxiety and excitement. Because you are here, chances are you are either a small business owner or a rising entrepreneur running a startup. And you are looking for a toll-free number for small business too for managing customer calls and support systems. Well, you have landed on the right corner of the internet!

Before we help you to get a toll-free number for your small business or startup, let us give you a quick overview of what a toll-free number is and what it can do for your business.

What is a Toll Free Number?

A number that allows customers to call a business without having to pay any charges for such calls. The company pays the cost of such calls.

Generally, toll-free numbers are referred to as “1800 numbers” or “1-800 numbers” as well.

Point to be noted: A toll-free number is free for customers. A toll-free number is paid for a business.

Benefits: What can you do with a tollfree number for your small business or startup? 

There is more than one way in which a toll-free number can help small businesses and startups. Here, I have listed only a handful of business things you can achieve with a tollfree number:

Build a better brand image

toll-free number and free calls – that’s something that still excites customers and prospects and fosters greater business trust. Don’t believe our words. Ask yourself one question: “If a business provides me an option to call for free, what impact does it make on my mind?” Don’t you imagine that business as big and more professional? Yeah, you got the answer!

Businesses with a toll-free number are perceived as significant, more credible, and legitimate.

Grow with your business 

A toll-free customer care helpline can be set up for a team of one to a group of hundred or thousand support agents. So, whether you are flying solo with your small business or have a small team to take care of business calls, tollfree is a viable option.

And as your team grows, you can map the individual phone numbers of your new support agents on the same tollfree number. No need to change the tollfree number, ever.

Low-cost call management solution 

Thanks to cloud-based telephony solutions, toll-free numbers are no longer something that only big businesses can afford. Today, the tollfree number set up cost is somewhere around the cost of your home broadband.

There is no requirement to set up any hardware. All systems are hosted in the cloud. That means zero capital expenditure.

Billing is done on a pay-as-you-go basis. It makes sure that you only pay for used minutes.   

Delight customers with welcome greetings

In a tollfree number, you can set up a customized welcome message using IVR System (Interactive Voice Response System). So, when customers call on your business tollfree number, they are greeted with a personal message like:

“Good Day! Thanks for calling us. We are connecting your call to one of our executives.”

Isn’t that a great start to welcome your customers? Well, it is. And it will surely delight your customers, which will have a positive impact on the customer satisfaction level.

Get a virtual receptionist

If you have different teams and departments to manage your small business, you can transform your tollfree number into a virtual receptionist. 

How? 

By using Interactive Voice Responses (IVR). Seems technical? No worries. Let me give you an example.

Imagine a scenario where a customer calls on your tollfree number. With recorded IVR, you can greet your customer like this:

“Welcome to My Business. We are happy to receive your call.

To connect with our sales team, press 1.

To connect with our support team, press 2.

For general inquiries, press 3.”

Depending on the response of the caller, the call can be transferred to the concerned person in the right department.

So, on a single number, your customers and prospects can avail all the support services that your small business has to offer.

See, how professional and easy that looks. Isn’t that impressive?  

Make your support system efficient

A toll-free number is more than just a free calling facility for customers. It comes with facilities like call recording, call tracking, call forwarding and a live panel with modern call management features.

With the call forwarding facility, all incoming calls can be routed to the right person in the right department, saving lots of time.

In the live panel, you can get valuable insights like the volume of incoming calls, calls attended, and missed calls. Missed calls can be timely followed-up by your support agents.

Call recordings can be used for monitoring and supervision of support agents and provide training to improve the quality of support.

Boost marketing efforts

You can prominently advertise your tollfree number on your business cards, advertisements, brochures, website, social media, and all other channels. An 1800 tollfree number is a sure way to make your small business look professional when reaching out to your customers and prospects.

Never miss a call again

Each business call is a new opportunity – An opportunity to get a new customer or provide support to an existing customer.

With a local number, you can attend only one call at a time, and other callers are greeting with an irritated message like:

“The number you are calling is busy. Please try after some time.”

Do you know what is likely to happen next? Well, the customer is not going to call you back, and you are going to be left with a lost opportunity.

With a tollfree number, you can handle unlimited business calls. Want to know how? Well, on a single tollfree number, you can add as many support agents as your business needs.

If all your support agents are busy, callers get an option to leave an instant voice message that is stored in the live panel for follow-up. As soon as one of your support agents gets free, s/he can listen to the voice message and get back to the caller.

Add mobility to your teams

In the modern workspace, best teams are those which are agile, learn continuously, and can work from anywhere. With a tollfree number, you can have all those elements for your team. 

With a cloud-based tollfree number, you can set-up a remote call center software and forward all your business calls to the mobile phones of your support agents. So, they can take care of your small business calls while working from any location.

Further, all calls received on a tollfree number are recorded and stored on the cloud. You can listen to those recordings, find quality gaps, and provide required training to your support agents.

Better Brand Recall

With a vanity tollfree number and the integration of a WhatsApp API, you can make it easy for your customers to remember your brand name as well as your business number. That means more calls, more business, more revenue.

“In a study, 72% of people correctly recalled vanity numbers after hearing a 30-second advertisement. The same advertisement with a numeric number resulted in a recall rate of just 5%!”

In a study, 72% of people correctly recalled vanity numbers after hearing a 30-second advertisement. The same advertisement with a numeric number resulted in a recall rate of just 5%!

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Q&A: Responses to most common questions regarding tollfree for small businesses and startups

Can I connect my existing number to the toll free number?

Yes. You can connect your old business number with the tollfree number. That means you will not miss any incoming calls on your previous business number.

How much does a tol lfree number cost?

MyOperator tollfree number plan starts at ₹2300 per month. The plan includes 2000 minutes. Additional minutes are charged at ₹1.2 per minute. Features like IVR solution, call recording, call tracking, and call management panel are also included. 

Is there any list of toll free numbers?

1800 is claimed to be the first and original prefix of tollfree numbers introduced in the 1960s. Now, due to the increasing need for tollfree numbers, the regulatory authority has issued new prefixes, including 800, 833, 844, 855, 866, 877, and 888.

Can I get a toll free number for my cell phone?

Yes, you can get a tollfree number for your cell phone. With the call forwarding feature, all the incoming calls on your tollfree number can be forwarded to your cell phone.

How to get a tollfree number for your business?

You might be thinking, “How can a small business have a tollfree number for customer service? Isn’t it kind of a big deal?”

Well, getting a tollfree number for your business is as simple as buying a SIM card. Surprised? Well, that’s true.

At MyOperator, we have made it quick and straightforward to get a tollfree number. That’s why more than 6000 small businesses and startups trust us for their tollfree numbers and call management solutions.

With the MyOperator online sign up process, you can activate your online panel and tollfree number in less than three minutes. In the signup form, all you need to do is provide your email address and phone number, and hit that signup button. 

Once you sign up, your account, and the tollfree number will be activated instantly. To make you familiar with the call management panel and all the features available on your tollfree number, our support team will contact you for a personalized onboarding experience. 

And yes, don’t worry about payment while getting started. We provide a three-day free trial to all our new customers. So, you will have enough time to experience all the tollfree number services that we offer.    

So, what are you waiting for? Sign up today to get a tollfree number for your business and level up your customer experience and growth today.

Conclusion

Whether you are running your entire business show on your own or have a team of tens or a hundred people to support you, our cloud call center solution, in the form of a cloud-based toll-free number can level up your business communication and support system.

If you are still confused about tollfree being the right move for your business? No worries. We understand. Mail us at hello@myOperator.com one of our executive will call you and you can speak to our caring team right now. They can answer all your questions and set up a free demo account for you. If you want to set up your account yourself, go ahead! Sign up online.