A toll free number is basically a number where people from a country can call for free. From any region and with no area code. Being a free call for customers and not depending on a specific location. Like local numbers or landlines. It increases the probability of an inbound call and allows your business to have the local presence. Without requiring in many cases a physical location.
If you think about expanding your business to other countries. Establishing a reliable and close point of contact for your customers is very important. Whether you are an e-commerce or a services business, opening offices are not always the first best option. Because of the costs involved; At this point, toll free number become an option since you can request them. In many countries and can assign them without requiring a local physical location. Inside the country and they can use by customers by calling from a landline.
When you make the request to a virtual phone services provider. Your toll free number is a virtual phone number, so it will connect to your cloud phone platform and you will be able to answer calls from your clients from anywhere in the world, either through a call forwarding or the use of VoIP technology to answer using internet connection.
Costs of a toll free number
Your customers in the country where you request the phone number, can call you for free but for this to be possible, you must bear in mind the following costs:
- One-time setup fee: In some countries, a single payment may require to enable and configure the toll free number.
- Monthly fee: Your toll free number is purchased as a service so it will have a monthly cost.
- Cost per minute: This is perhaps one of the biggest differences between a Toll free number and a local number, in the toll free the cost per minute is charged to the owner of the phone line, in this case, your business.
Costs may be different for every country and in some cases. You must send documents from your business to comply with legal requirements of the country you request.
Start expanding your business with a toll free number
After choosing a target country to expand your business and solve logistic issues and other requirements associated with your business model, you can use digital marketing strategies like SEO, SEM and SMM to get visitors and leads in your target country visit your page, but for them it is important to be able to contact you by phone to request support, answer questions about your product or service or even make a purchase. For the following reasons, a Toll free line is the best first option:
- You can have a local presence without opening offices in the target country.
- Generate confidence since free phone numbers seen customers as a resource for good companies. And if behind this line you have good customer service, things will much better.
- You can validate if your product or service accepted in the market of the target country with a minimum cost.
- If your toll free number is a virtual number, you can connect it to your virtual phone system, answer calls using the internet and consolidate a single call center for all your customers.
- If your expansion attempt does not work, you should only cancel your phone number, without tied to contracts or additional costs.