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Give Your Business a National Presence with a Toll-Free Fax Number from eFax^®

Are you considering the benefits of a toll-free fax number for your company?

A toll-free fax number in the United States indicates that your company and services are available nationwide. Clients can contact you free of charge from any city or state.

Toll-free numbers first became available in January 1966. Several decades later, many companies continue to use toll-free 800 numbers as their primary phone and support lines because they make connecting with customers more convenient. Over the years, more toll-free numbers have been added due to increased demand, so aside from 800 numbers, you can now use 833, 844, 855, 866, 877 and 888 codes for your toll-free line.

"86% of consumers believe an 800 number connotes a quality product."

— Technical Assistance Research Programs

What Is a Toll-Free Number?

A toll-free number starts with any of the toll-free codes, and it’s a number customers can call or fax without incurring any fees. Applicable long-distance rates will be charged to the owner of the number instead of the person calling or sending a fax.

Toll-free numbers are available through a variety of channels—they can be obtained as phone service add-ons or from communication platforms like eFax.com.

A toll-free number is particularly advantageous for firms that serve clients who live outside their local area.

Origin of Toll-Free Numbers

While many phone and faxing contracts in 2021 include unlimited domestic use within the United States, there was a time when calls and faxes made outside a local region carried significant long-distance expenses for people. This is no longer the case.

Toll-free numbers were established in the middle of the 20th century to make long-distance collect calls more convenient for both callers and operators. Originally, calls charged to the receiving party were placed through an operator, which was time-consuming.

With toll-free numbers, instead of the caller being charged for the cost of the long-distance connection, the business receiving the call or fax would be responsible for the cost. And because the call was “toll free,” it could be directed anywhere and no longer had to go through a live operator. This quickly gained in popularity among large national corporations that routinely received large volumes of calls, particularly hotel chains and car rental companies.

Toll-Free Numbers Today

Toll-free lines are still very much in use today and are popular with businesses that want to appear huge and significant, mainly because the general public links toll-free numbers with the large organizations that were the first to adopt them. However, a range of other additional benefits are associated with toll-free numbers, as you will see later on.

Should Every Business Have a Toll-Free Fax Number?

Toll-free numbers are perfect for businesses that serve customers across the country and have a dedicated phone line for customer service, sales and other functions. Call centers, sales departments and other areas where you want your personnel to be easily accessible would benefit from this feature.

Additionally, a local toll-free number may indicate to your target audience that you’re a member of the community, which may result in increased grassroots support for your company.

However, there are situations where a toll-free number isn’t the best option. For example, if you run a small bakery and you don’t ship nationally, it doesn’t make sense to own a toll-free number. The ability to accept calls from all over the country may not be necessary if the majority of your operations are concentrated in a single geographic area.

Industries That Need a Tool-Free Number

If you work in the real estate industry, location is everything. People move around the country every day, which means plenty of opportunities to sell to a client outside of your immediate area.

Companies with a nationwide consumer base may want to think about investing in a toll-free fax number. They include:

Legal
General e-commerce
Moving services
Shipping services
Insurance services
Telecommunications

A toll-free fax number is highly beneficial if you’re getting a lot of phone orders as well. Generally, both B2C and B2B services and products can benefit from a toll-free number.

Importance of Toll-Free Numbers in Marketing

While toll-free numbers play a significant role in companies’ ability to better understand and serve the needs of their customers, they can also be an important tool for any number of other business tasks—from optimizing client service operations to analyzing marketing reach and visibility.

Vanity Numbers for Recall

Vanity toll-free numbers or numbers with easy-to-recall patterns are a clever way to help your existing and potential customers remember the number to call if they need to connect with you. Some examples are 1-800-FLOWERS, 1-888-BEST-BUY and 1-800-T-MOBILE. With eFax, customized toll-free numbers such as these are provided at the same price as a standard toll-free number.

Benefits of Toll-Free Numbers

Toll-free numbers are great marketing tools, but that is not all. They come with a number of benefits for your company.

Build Trust

Toll-free numbers convey a nationwide presence that translates to credibility and professionalism. This gives customers outside of your business headquarters the chance to connect with you free of charge and you the opportunity to build your local presence even when your business is not physically located in the area.

Enhance Branding

A toll-free number increases brand recognition and remembering potential, especially if it’s a vanity number. A taxi company that uses 1-800-TAXI-USA, for example, is significantly more memorable than one that uses a randomly allocated local phone number. Another good example would be a real estate company that uses the toll-free fax number 1-800-HOME-NOW for all their paperwork.

Increase Conversions

As your company grows, you’ll likely need more phone lines to connect with customers. The last thing you want is losing customers who’ve been calling your busy number all day to get in touch with you. With toll-free numbers dedicated to specific purposes—such as customer service, technical support, etc.—you give customers the attention they want, increasing sales and customer loyalty in return.

Become More Accessible Through Text Communication

Giving your customers the ability to text your toll-free number opens a new connection channel between them and your business. Many consumers prefer engaging with companies via text, which is a convenient and cost-effective way for your company to communicate with them. Text messaging is used widely by businesses to announce deals, sales and other offers.

Track Marketing Efficiency

Toll-free numbers can be used to track the reach and efficiency of a marketing campaign because they can be assigned to specific advertising campaign segments. This type of advanced tracking can help you get the most out of your marketing budget. You’ll be able to see which advertisements, creative assets and media channels elicit the most effect on your target audience.

Enhance Sales Operations

Sales teams can use software to capture critical consumer data that they can leverage to adapt their sales strategies. For example, Twilio can be integrated with your toll-free number to deliver insights about campaign performance. The data it collects can also be used to optimize call or text forwarding, ensuring consumers are connected to the best person to assist them, thus enhancing the overall customer experience.

Analyze Customer Calls

Another type of software that can be integrated with your toll-free number is speech analytics software. It inspects audio recordings or live consumer calls for words or audio patterns that may indicate emotion or tension in the speaker’s voice.

The data extracted from this analysis can subsequently be studied to provide insights on agent performance, client behavior, the customer experience, and service or product shortcomings. This data can also be shared to increase productivity, service and cooperation across your organization.

Grow Your Business with a Toll-Free Fax Number from eFax

Toll-free numbers make it easier for customers to reach you when they’re located far away. With a toll-free number, they don’t have to spend money to communicate with your company, which can increase sales.

Don’t let a potential client worry about incurring a charge to get in touch with you, or they may choose to do business with a different company instead. A toll-free fax number from eFax makes your business accessible nationwide—at no extra charge.

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