1. Inroads in Toll-free Phone Service
Instant routing Assessing program companies as small as one-person oper-
ations. Kall8 offers one of the most
without expensive success
flexible toll-free services available,
equipment Many toll-free services now feature
allowing businesses to receive, route,
Cut Costs While an advanced call tracking system. A
It became apparent in the marketplace
track and manage incoming calls.
call detail database with predefined
that there was a real need for a cost- While benefiting sales, marketing and
reporting by toll-free number, source
effective service that allows companies to customer service departments, it does
Improving Business Efficiency
geography and time period allows cor-
instantly change where an incoming toll- so without any costly equipment or spe-
porate leadership to make important
free call is routed. For example, if calls cially trained technical support person-
business decisions based upon call vol-
are coming to an office that is not nel.
ume, such as expansion, reduction or
manned at a particular time, routing Toll-free services allow small compa-
by Barbara Silverman-Hauke changing business hours to meet
them to an off site line, cell phone or nies/home businesses to operate like
demand.
another employee can help a business their larger corporate counterparts.
Marketing departments in large cor-
I
increase sales and provide better service Without the expenditures of a recep-
porations utilizing these services have
without missing a beat. But the reality tionist or costly in-house equipment, a
already found the service irreplaceable
of today’s business climate is that com-
n tough economic times businesses rush to decrease costs to weather business can always take important calls
in terms of managing advertising and
panies no longer have the time to wait and send others to voice mail or to
the storm. All too often the cost-cutting leads to a direct decrease in promotional campaigns and assessing
for a telephone company to make a cen- another employee. Business people who
campaign success.
tral change or the funds to buy and used to hand out office, cell and home
productivity. The savviest managers find ways to reassess many core Marketing people used to have to
maintain large amounts of equipment phone numbers, or risk missing impor-
jump through hoops to gain the statis-
operational expenses, leading to the that brings routing in-house. tant calls can use one toll-free phone
tics necessary to assess the success of
At the heart of a small number of number that follows them throughout
selection of new technologies and promotions. Instead of paying for mul-
the day.
these innovative toll-free services is a
tiple numbers and engaging consulting
services to reduce expenditures and Among the most popular benefits of
simple set of Web pages allowing
companies to mine data from special-
such services is the ability to choose
authorized users to manage all of their
gain productivity. ized telephone systems, enhanced toll-
who is allowed to use the toll-free
toll-free numbers. Routing rules can be
free service enables non-technical mar-
One way to do this, surprisingly to numbers. As is the case for call rout-
established based on time, state, area
keting personnel to access call detail.
ing, calls can be immediately and auto-
code and even individual number. The
many business owners, is by taking Since this detail is stored to a database,
matically accepted or rejected based on
rules can be changed at a moment’s
it can be linked to CRM and
advantage of innovative and produc- state, area code or full phone number,
notice to meet emerging needs. Since
eCommerce data sources for purposes
an essential tool for keeping costs
the system allows for different levels of
tivity-enhancing toll-free services now of campaign return-on-investment and
down.
access, employees can be granted access
sales-lead time analysis.
on the market. Toll-free services are Toll-free numbers can be programmed
to change and view only the elements
Many corporations fear needing to
nothing new. For decades companies so that they can be accessed only by the
pertinent to their job functions. change routing parameters to handle
partners, sales leads, customers and
have offered 800, and its 866, 877 unexpected results during a campaign,
employees the numbers are designed to
as it would require costly equipment
These features have already proven
and 888 derivatives, allowing cus- support. By significantly reducing toll-
programming or weeks of time for a
immensely beneficial to companies of all free number use by unwanted callers,
tomers, partners and employees to telecommunications service provider to
sizes. companies find they have more money
complete necessary changes. This is no
call without incurring long-distance to use toward improving the position-
longer the case, as they may simply
ing of core business operations.
In the case of a service’s large corporate
charges. What makes toll free servic- meet challenges by altering routing on-
When businesses are looking for bet-
clients, enhanced toll-free service has line in real time.
es more cost effective and productive ter ways to increase revenues and man-
enabled sales, customer service and
age costs, while at the same time stimu-
now is the ability for non-technical alliance management teams to publish a
lating sales, it makes a lot of sense to
single toll-free number, yet route calls to
employees to route, track and manage Cost-effective evaluate these affordable and results-
appropriate employees based upon the
options in real-time via the Web. for any size business oriented toll-free services.
caller’s telephone number or region. Most
importantly, the routing is done without Large corporations are not the only
R
the cost of a receptionist or the always- businesses currently utilizing these
annoying endless automated phone-tree Barbara Silverman-Hauke is Vice
newer toll-free services to increase pro-
system. When a specific employee is out ductivity and sales leads. Since you can President, Marketing for Kall8
of the office, a simple visit to the Web get such a service for as little as $2 for (www.kall8.com), a Seattle-based compa-
page can have the incoming toll-free calls setup and $2 per month plus usage for ny that is quickly gaining popularity as a
routed to another location. a single toll-free number from a compa- low-cost, high-productivity telecommuni-
ny such as Kall8, it is affordable for cations service provider.
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January/February 2004 z HBJ w w w . h o m e b u s i n e s s j o u r n a l . n e t