Telecom For Dummies

Identifying Your Carrier’s Available Toll-Free Services

When you’ve determined what your toll-free numbers must do to make your business work, call your carrier’s sales rep and ask what’s available. Your rep should have all the services suggested in this chapter, and probably a few more that the whizzes in Research and Development just created. When you have the features locked in, go deeper to determine what else your carrier can do for you. Some things you should ask about are:

• Is redundancy for built in? Your numbers may play a supporting role in your business, or they may be your business. If you have one toll-free number that receives four or five calls a day, redundancy may not be much of a concern. Ask your carrier how long it may take to send your calls to your cellphone or to another phone number if the phone lines currently receiving your toll-free calls fail. If you have more that one toll-free number, but fewer than 500, talk to your carrier about what kinds of disaster recovery and backup options are available. Redirecting your toll-free numbers to another office or to a cellphone may be your only option if your dedicated circuit dies, or your local carrier is experiencing an outage.

• How long does reserving a toll-free number take? As long as you’re not ordering more than 500 toll-free numbers at a time, you should be able to reserve a toll-free number in 24 hours. If you need numbers quicker, project the quantity of numbers you will need for the next 30 days and order them in advance. You can keep them in your inventory by activating them with your carrier and pointing them to a phone line that nobody uses. If you need a toll-free number that spells something like 1- 800-4MY-TAXI, you may have to wait 24 to 48 hours for responses (if the number is even available). Everything depends on how your carrier is set up to handle these requests. You may just call a customer service number (toll free, of course) to instantly reserve numbers — that’s that.

• How quickly can a toll-free number be activated? Again, your business model drives what length of time you deem acceptable. Companies that plan for product launches 30 to 45 days out may not worry about this as much as those that need fast turnaround times. If you have a pager company that assigns and activates toll-free numbers for every pager you sell, you can’t wait a month. If you need your toll-free numbers up in hours rather than days, you need to confirm that your carrier can comply. Toll-free numbers assigned to regular, nondedicated phone lines generally take about 24 hours to activate, but setting up a dedicated circuit for toll-free calls may take 30 days. Know your time frame.

• What is the carrier’s response time if there is an outage? It is never too early to meet the people who take care of your toll-free numbers when there is a problem. A day will come when your toll-free services don’t perform to your standards. Your may have echo, static, or calls to your toll-free numbers may just fail to connect, leaving callers hearing a fast busy signal. Now is the best time to request the phone numbers for your support, as well as standard response times for your carrier. You can avoid frustration in the future if you know that they have a two-hour response time for a number that has 100 percent failure and an eight-hour response time for toll-free numbers with static or echo.

• What online tools are available to customers? Most carriers have secure Web sites that enable corporate customers to add, change, and block toll-free numbers. If your business is big enough, you can use the Web to get direct access. Using the Web can help you cut costs, manage your usage better, and even give you a competitive advantage on the service you can provide to your customers.

   Remember  Online tools are great and a lot of fun, but they also represent a considerable amount of investment from your carrier. If you have access to an online tool, you may be required to sign a large monthly commitment with your carrier, or the per-minute rate you pay may be a few pennies more. If the features are fun, but not integral to your business, you should weigh their benefits against the cost savings. I know that it is nice to see the number of calls and total minutes of those calls hitting each of your dedicated circuits, but so is staying in business, right? Such features can cost as much as $50,000 more per month.

• What are the toll-free directory assistance options? This is a very good question and most people do not choose to be listed in the National Toll-Free Directory Assistance database. Most people don’t know how to access this directory, and if people don’t know how to reach the service, why would you want to pay AT&T the $45 per month (or whatever AT&T is charging today) to be listed? Incidentally, if you want to access National Toll-Free Directory Assistance, the number is 800-555-1212.