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Slide 1: 800 Numbers and Its Best Features With more and more business enterprises beginning to recognize 800 numbers as a cost-effective marketing tool, the demand for of toll free 800 numbers is steadily on the increase. Gone are the days when it was believed that 800 numbers were the exclusive privilege of big corporations and out of reach for small and mid-sized business houses. There are today a plethora of toll-free 800 numbers service providers and as such the task of choosing the right service provider assumes greater significance. You will have to carefully compare the various features and terms offered by the service providers of 800 number services before making a final choice. There are two main types of plans – the monthly service plans and the pay-as-you-go plans. You will have to weight the two options and find out which of the two will be more beneficial and viable for your nature of business. The monthly service plan will assign for you a pre-determined number of minutes each month for a fixed price. This monthly fee is payable regardless of your usage. The payas-you-go plans, on the other hand, have a monthly subscription in addition to a fee for minutes used. Once you determine how many minutes you will be required to use per month will help you choose the better of the two plans. When negotiating rates you should take into account the features that you intend availing. The toll-free 800 numbers have a host of features and your business enterprise may not need them all. Opting for features you may never use will merely end up your needlessly overpaying. Please also know that some 800 numbers service providers include the cost of the additional features in their base price while others charge separately for the extra features. There are certain standard features which are universally provided by almost
Slide 2: all service providers such as voicemail, call waiting, and call forwarding. It is good to know some of the other features unique to 800 numbers. Call blocking. When availing 800 numbers, some of your callers may fall outside of your coverage area and thus would entail additional costs. With call-blocking feature you can block the calls that fall outside your coverage area. Account codes. It is possible that you may wish only authorized callers to get the calls through. For this purpose, you can issue account access codes to employees, business associates and regular customers. Automatic Number Identification (ANI): This feature more or less resembles caller ID. However, as ANI is not quite related to caller ID, even if caller ID blocking is activated, the caller's telephone number and line type are captured by ANI equipment. Dialed Number Identification Service (DNIS): Assuming you have more than one 800 number, DNIS will enable you know which particular number was called. This feature is highly beneficial in certain select cases – for instance, if you are running multiple marketing campaigns and want to know which was the most productive. Regardless what features you avail or what features you discard, toll-free 800 numbers will lend your business a better professional image, motivate your customers to call you more often and the increased interaction with the customers will contribute towards a more efficient CRM (Customer relationship Management).