Toll Free Use Is a Staple of The Business World

Toll free service is now a staple of any type of business. Small business owners, following the lead of the CEO’s of nearly half the Fortune 500 companies, are using toll free numbers as a marketing tool. Personal use of toll free numbers has also grown. Estimates indicate that more than two-thirds of the available supply of 800, 888, 877, and 866 numbers are taken. Millions of new subscribers are registering every year.

Toll Free Informational Messages

Toll free service is the perfect way to convey informational messages to the public. Government agencies use them all the time to provide data, instructions, and information during a crisis. Businesses are starting to use the same method.
It makes sense to put taped informational messages on toll free lines rather than on standard phone numbers. Callers who need information won’t have to pay for the call and employees wont be disrupted to repeat the same information over and over.

Toll Free On The Rise For Power Companies

Power companies all along the East Coast are in the process of setting up toll free numbers in case of a hurricane this summer. As the annual storm season approaches, and with predictions indicating a high number of hurricanes in 2009, toll free phone service will be one of the main ways people can obtain information prior to the storm and assistance, if necessary, afterwards. For example, Virginia Dominion Power has set up 1-888-667-3000 to report outages or downed lines. The company’s outage reporting system, which consists of call-center representatives as well as an automated voice response unit, can handle up to 100,000 calls an hour.