Getting a toll-free number can be a game-changer for your business. It provides a professional touch, expands your reach, and makes connecting with customers easier.
Whether you’re a small business looking to enhance customer service or a growing company aiming to boost sales, a toll-free number is a valuable tool.
A toll-free number is a phone number where the business pays for the call, not the caller. This makes it convenient for your audience to connect with you without worrying about expensive long-distance charges.
Callers can easily contact your team to learn about your product or service before making a purchase, for example. Or, they can check the status of their orders, get help with product or service issues, and manage account-related queries.
Toll-free numbers have three-digit prefixes, such as 800, 888, 877, 866, 855, 844, and 833. Unlike local numbers, which tie you down to a specific area, toll-free numbers free you from geographical limits.
In this guide, we’ve shared how to get a toll-free number for your own business, the costs associated with toll-free numbers, and the best toll-free number provider.
Let’s dive in.
5 key benefits of toll-free numbers
Toll-free numbers not only offer convenience to customers; they also provide tons of flexibility to businesses. By working with a reliable toll-free number provider, you can use trackable toll-free numbers to measure campaign success and optimize strategies, attract national and international customers, and improve customer service.
Here are some key reasons why companies choose to use toll-free numbers:
1. Better brand identity
Think of a toll-free number like a premium web domain. Numbers with distinct area codes (like 800, 855, or 833 in North America) are far more memorable compared to a local number. They can make your brand stick in people's minds. For example, vanity numbers, also known as alphanumeric toll-free numbers, spell out words or phrases related to your business (e.g., 1-800-PLIVO). Vanity toll-free numbers are catchy, making it easy for customers to remember and instantly associate them with your brand.
2. Enhanced customer experience
Toll-free numbers mean customers can call you without worrying about long-distance charges. This is especially handy if you have clients spread across multiple countries. It makes getting in touch with your support team a breeze.
3. Measurable marketing
You can use different toll-free numbers for each of your marketing campaigns to see which ones drive the most leads and sales. This data helps you optimize your marketing strategies, increase ROI, and lower customer acquisition costs (CAC).
4. Improved sales
Using toll-free numbers removes the cost barrier for customers, making it easier for them to contact your sales team. This convenience leads to more inquiries, questions, and informed purchasing decisions. Ultimately, this boosts customer engagement and increases sales.
5. Enhanced cloud communication abilities
Integrating toll-free numbers with your cloud communication system allows you to manage calls efficiently from anywhere. Features like call routing, interactive voice response (IVR), and CRM integrations improve customer interactions, making your communication system more effective and seamless.
How does business toll-free service work?
Dialing a toll-free phone number is straightforward for callers; it works just like any other phone number.. The primary difference is that the caller doesn’t incur long-distance charges—these costs are covered by the business.
On the business side, toll-free phone numbers offer additional features like auto-attendants, call forwarding, hold music, call recording, call analytics, and even business texting. The availability of these features can vary greatly depending on the service provider you choose.
It’s important to note that some VoIP providers may impose additional fees for receiving toll-free calls. When choosing a service provider, consider these potential costs and ask for transparent billing.
Get a toll-free number for your business
You can procure a toll-free number for your business in five steps. Here’s how to get started.
Step 1: Find a service provider
The first step is to find a reputable service provider who can assign your business a toll-free number. Here are some criteria to consider when selecting a provider:
- Reputation and reliability: Look for providers with strong customer reviews and a proven track record of reliability. For example, Plivo offers globally distributed direct-to-carrier network services that ensure high quality and low call latency.
- Pricing: Evaluate different pricing plans to ensure they fit within your budget. Plivo, for instance, provides transparent, usage-based pricing with the option for volume discounts as your business scales.
- Customer support: Opt for a provider that offers comprehensive customer support. Plivo provides 24/7 premium support and consultative customer success teams to assist with technical guidance and industry expertise.
- Scalability: Choose a provider that can grow with your business, offering the ability to add more lines and features as needed. Plivo’s platform is designed to scale, supporting businesses of various sizes.
Step 2: Compare features
As you vet different providers, evaluate the additional features they offer. Essential features to look for include:
- Call tracking: Monitor and analyze incoming business calls to gather valuable data on customer interactions.
- Call recording: Record calls for training and quality assurance purposes.
- Call forwarding: Your provider should easily let you forward calls from a toll-free prefix like 800 or 888 to your cell phone, ensuring you never miss important business calls.
- Simple IVR: Automate call handling with an easy-to-use interactive voice response system.
- Detailed reporting: Access comprehensive reports on call activity to better understand customer behavior.
- Unlimited channels: Handle multiple calls simultaneously without any issues.
- CRM integration: Ensure the toll-free phone number can integrate seamlessly with your existing CRM systems for streamlined operations.
Step 3: Choose your prefix
Look for a memorable prefix that your target audience will perceive as professional and trustworthy. Common options include 800, 888, 877, 866, 855, 844, and 833. Each prefix can be chosen based on availability and your branding needs. The 800 prefix is the most recognizable option.
Step 4: Set up your account and activate the number
Here’s a step-by-step guide to setting up and activating your toll-free number:
- Sign up: Create an account with your chosen provider, such as Plivo.
- Choose your number: Use the provider’s console or API to select and purchase a toll-free number from the available options. You can have toll-free numbers assigned for general inquiries and a vanity number like 1-800-PLIVO for easy recall and brand reinforcement.
- Configure settings: Customize features such as call routing, IVR, and call recording according to your business requirements.
- Activate: Complete the setup process to activate your toll-free number. Plivo offers instant activation in countries where no additional verification is required. If verification is needed, you can submit necessary documents through their API.
Who can use toll-free numbers?
Toll-free numbers have plenty of advantages for various industries.
1. Healthcare
Healthcare providers, such as hospitals, clinics, and telehealth services, use toll-free numbers to offer patients an easy and free way to schedule appointments, inquire about services, and receive medical advice. Toll-free numbers help reduce barriers to communication, ensuring patients can get the support they need without worrying about call costs.
2. Financial institutions
Banks, credit unions, and other financial institutions use toll-free numbers to facilitate customer service and account management. Customers can call to check their account balances, report lost or stolen cards, inquire about loans, and receive financial advice. Toll-free numbers offer a convenient, cost-free way for customers to manage their finances.
3. Educational institutions
Schools, colleges, and universities leverage toll-free phone numbers to streamline admissions and offer student support services. Prospective students and parents can call toll-free to learn about programs, tuition fees, campus tours, and application procedures. Current students can also use these numbers for academic advising and administrative support, ensuring they have easy and direct access to necessary resources.
4. NGOs
Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) use toll-free numbers to engage with donors, volunteers, and beneficiaries. Donors can call to contribute, inquire about ongoing projects, and participate in volunteer opportunities. Beneficiaries can reach out for assistance and information about services offered by the NGO. Toll-free numbers help NGOs maintain strong relationships with their supporters and effectively deliver their services.
5. Entertainment
Theaters, concert venues, event organizers, and others in the entertainment field use toll-free numbers to manage ticket sales and customer inquiries. Customers can call toll-free to purchase tickets, inquire about event details, and resolve any issues related to their bookings.
How much does a toll-free number cost?
The cost of a toll-free number depends on three main factors:
- The number itself
- Your number’s capabilities
- The caller’s location
Let’s dive deeper into each one of these factors.
The number itself
You can buy toll-free numbers from an FCC-approved provider, known as Responsible Organizations (RespOrgs). Prices vary, with some providers charging $15 per number per month, while others might charge $30 or more.
For instance, Plivo offers toll-free numbers starting at $15 per month. You can purchase these numbers directly through Plivo’s console. If you need additional numbers, they can be added for a small monthly fee, making it affordable for businesses needing multiple numbers.
Inbound and outbound calls
Charges for inbound and outbound calls on your toll-free number can vary. Here are the typical pricing structures:
- Per-minute pricing: Pay for each minute of call time. For example, Plivo charges a competitive rate for both incoming and outgoing calls, ensuring you only pay for what you use.
- Bundled minutes: Pay a set fee for a specific number of minutes each month, such as 200 minutes per month. This can help manage costs if your business has predictable call volumes.
- Plan rates: Higher-tier plans include toll-free minutes, reducing the per-minute cost.
With Plivo, you can choose the plan that best fits your usage patterns to manage costs effectively.
Your caller’s location
Call costs can vary based on where the call comes from. For example, receiving calls from within the US might cost $0.02 per minute, while business calls from countries like Australia could cost $0.10 per minute. Plivo offers transparent international rates, allowing you to calculate costs accurately and avoid unexpected charges.
Example: Plivo’s cost structure
Plivo provides flexible pricing options tailored to your needs. For instance, toll-free numbers are available starting at $15 per month, with additional charges for incoming and outgoing calls based on per-minute usage. This pay-as-you-go structure helps businesses manage costs by only paying for the minutes used.
Why should you choose Plivo for a toll-free number?
Plivo is one of the best toll-free number providers. Here’s why:
1. It’s easy to set up and use
Setting up a toll-free phone number with Plivo is quick and easy. You can get started within minutes. Log in to Plivo’s console, select, and activate your number. Plivo’s user-friendly interface is available via desktop or mobile phone, enabling you to manage your communications from anywhere.
Businesses love Plivo’s round-the-clock support. Plivo offers 24/7 premium support and a dedicated customer success team to provide technical guidance and industry expertise whenever you need it. This support ensures you can resolve issues quickly and effectively, maintaining smooth operations.
2. It’s trusted and reliable
Plivo’s API handles over a billion requests monthly, ensuring your communications are fast and reliable. The globally distributed direct-to-carrier network and intelligent routing provide minimal call latency, so your business calls always get through promptly. Plus, it supports outbound calls to more than 220 countries and inbound voice calls to Plivo phone numbers in 46 countries.
Additionally, Plivo's platform is designed for maximum availability and reliability, boasting a 99.95% uptime SLA. It adheres to strict data privacy standards like Privacy Shield and GDPR, making it a secure choice for businesses that prioritize data protection.
One of our customers, Patrick Ryan, vice president of innovation at LAZ, shares, “Reliability is really important because this is our revenue — this isn’t marketing. One of the things that got us comfortable with Plivo was the fact that you have a status page on your site that shows us the history of any glitches or downtime. It’s transparent, so I could see there was not one red dot in the last 30 days.”
Read the full story here.
3. It has a premium network
Plivo has strategically placed Points of Presence (PoPs) in seven key regions: California, Virginia, Mumbai, Singapore, Frankfurt, Sydney, and São Paulo. These PoPs ensure low latency and high voice quality by routing calls efficiently within these regions.
Plivo also uses direct carrier connectivity, meaning your voice calls are delivered through one-hop, local, in-country carriers. This setup minimizes latency and avoids out-of-region audio issues, ensuring crystal-clear communication.
In addition, Plivo’s intelligent routing engine uses real-time data to prioritize call routing based on multiple quality parameters such as latency, jitter, and Mean Opinion Score (MOS). This ensures your calls are always routed through the best possible paths for optimal performance.
4. It’s packed with features
Plivo offers powerful features right out of the box to help you craft engaging call experiences. These features include voicemail transcription, call transfer, call queueing, call whisper, call hunting, call conferencing, dynamic caller ID, multiparty calls, music on hold, a call feedback API, text-to-speech, and voicemail.
With these tools, you can efficiently manage calls and enhance your communication capabilities, ensuring a seamless and professional experience for both your team and your customers.
5. It provides granular insights
Plivo's Voice API platform provides tools for monitoring and fixing call quality issues. The Call Insights feature gives you quick, actionable summaries to spot and address problems quickly. The Call Summary Dashboard displays key metrics like latency and packet loss, segmented by various factors. Collect user feedback through the Call Quality Feedback API to correlate issues with network conditions and device data.
Detailed call logs and event timelines help pinpoint problems quickly. Real-time alerts and proactive monitoring ensure immediate attention to call quality issues. Features on the roadmap, like audio capture and pre-call connectivity tests, will further enhance troubleshooting.
6. It’s affordable
Plivo's pricing is transparent and usage-based, meaning you only pay for what you use. A toll-free number starts at $15 per month, and additional numbers can be added for $5 per month each. This pricing model and a free trial let you evaluate the service to see if it meets your needs without a large financial commitment.
