Your Small Business Needs a Toll-Free Number. Here is Why.
October 2, 2008
So many entrepreneurs today enter their fields with an attitude of destroying their competitors, particularly large corporations (from which many of these entrepreneurs graduated). They devote a lot of resources to their planning process, they take a few key customers with the promise of delivering where the larger corporations fell short; Customer Service! These entrepreneurs possess the skills and attitude to succeed, but after a few slow months they often lose steam. A lot of these folks complain to us that they just couldn’t compete with their larger competitors or their former employers, the Big Bad Corporation. This is garbage.
Small businesses have an immediate and impressive edge over large companies. Financially, small businesses do not have the burden of heavy expenses; the savings on management salaries alone should be inspirational! Beyond that, small business owners and entrepreneurs not only have the right attitude toward customer service, but they have the means to deliver. After all, they don’t have the big bureaucracy to contend with. In saying that, small businesses and entrepreneurs typically don’t have the same deep pockets as large corporations, but they don’t need to. Small businesses can benefit handsomely from the inefficiencies of large corporations. So why haven’t they?
In more cases than not, small businesses project the presence of a small company. While the customer experience might be exponentially better than that provided by the Big competitor, how can someone with a small presence attract a customer in the first place? After all, a customer looking to spend money on a product or service that is offered by a company whose phone number is 1-800-BUY-OURS will have a much easier time locating the bigger competitor. As a result, this business gets sourced to the bigger company. So how can the small business or entrepreneur compete with a Big Presence Almighty Corporation? There are several ways that we recommend to Build Presence, but the one item that is too often ignored is the toll-free number! Imagine that.
A toll-free number lends a “large” presence to any enterprise. A consumer who has no other resources than a telephone book will choose a local provider who lists both a toll-free number and a local number in their listing. Can you blame the consumer? Especially where larger dollars are involved, a customer will want to know that he can reach you for support from anywhere. He might buy locally, but when he travels out of state, he can reach you. Think about it…
The great thing about setting up a toll-free number is it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. With the advantage of technology, these numbers can be set up in a matter of minutes. Better yet, calls can be routed directly to your cell phone so you don’t miss a single call. Any unanswered calls will be answered by your existing voicemail (rather than an off-site service). This allows you to focus on other business development activities or to enjoy your free time. Sure beats sitting around your office waiting for the phone to ring.
The program Quote Stork endorses is priced at $39.99 per month. The no-frills toll-free solution gives you unlimited minutes (other services limit the usage and charge more for extra minutes), it works from anywhere in the US, and you can use your existing add-ons (e.g. voicemail) without special programming or additional costs.
For the very small business owner who is serious about tackling larger competitors, a toll-free number provides a valuable customer service advantage. Suddenly, the story of David and Goliath rings true.
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