Toll Free Number?

Wanted some opinions on the need for a toll-free (1-800/888/877/866) number. I'm not in a position to take orders over the phone so it would be more for customer service.

The numbers are really inexpensive now but I don't want to pay for something if it's not needed. I do list a local business phone number on the site.

Hi lawman,

if you can affort this for your business, I would recommend a toll free number.
It helped me boosting my sales, since a personal contact is always the best service you can give. And for free...that is always a + for your customers.
And it gives a professional touch to your ecommerce

We couldn't do without phone orders and phone customer service... our customers love the phone.

The current version of Skype already handles total free calls on the net, (good signals too), all over Ameridian central (Canada and US entirely). I use this to call in US sometimes and it is very practical and easy to use. Not costing a penny, for a limited time, but - even their regular prices, according to me, are quite honnest. :thumbsup:

Thanks all!

I use ringcetral.com I LOVE it. you get a full voicemail system. I have mine set up to welcome customers, then prompts them to push 1 for sales or 2 for customer service. When they choose an option, it forwards the call to whatever phone number I have set in the list first. if there is no answer, or if the call is denied, it moves on to the next number. I have it set to ring my home office first, then ring to my cell phone. If I don't take the call, it says "We're sorry, all representatives a busy helping other customers. Please leave a message and a customer service representative will get back to you shortly." It works very well. A bit hard to set up initially, but they were very helpful. You can also set your business hours so your phone doesn't ring all hours of the night. If you sign up, please tell them that (800)705-2056 sent you. They'll take a few bucks off my bill! :0)

i have the Vonage service and I'm looking in to adding an 800# to my store.

has anyone tried Vonage for the 800#?

if so, feedback would be cool.

• it appears that you can set the 800# up thru Vonage very easily and it's comparable to ringcentral.com in price. $9.95 per month.

• i also know that you can forward the 800# to your vonage line and/or cell phone.

• Vonage is VOIP, so, if your Internet connection is down, Vonage has a feature to forward straight to your cell phone.

http://vonage.com/help.php?article=240

Additional $5.00 a month, 100 months free, each additional month is $0.049

This is one of those 'you can't afford NOT to' things. Many customers just won't even do business with you if they can't reach you (at the time of sale or after) tollfree. I'm one of them. :)

My toll free is essential and relatively inexpensive. I affored it by using Vonage for home (ha~) The voice quality for Vonage, IM not-so- HO is awful, but you get what you don't pay for.

I wouldn't use them for business until they get their act together.