Is It True There Are No 800-Prefix Toll-Free Numbers Available?

If you’re a business owner, you’ve no doubt considered whether a toll-free number would benefit your business. And you may have heard that all of the 800-prefix toll-free numbers are spoken for or that you have to pay an exorbitant amount for a good one. The key is to know which toll-free numbers will serve your needs best and how you can gain access to them at a cost that makes sound business sense. The following article will address some common concerns and give you the facts.

The Service Management System, commonly known as SMS/800, provides the oversight of all toll-free numbers in North America. Companies that have access to SMS/800 are known as RespOrgs, a portmanteau of “Responsible + Organization”. SMS/800 was created as a result of a 1991 FCC ruling that allows companies to port their toll-free numbers from one RespOrg to another starting in 1993, much like you can now move your cellular telephone number from one carrier to another. According to Wikipedia: “Every individual ten-digit toll-free telephone number is managed by a RespOrg. A RespOrg can be a long distance company, reseller, end user or an independent that offers an outsourced service. There are approximately 350 RespOrg service providers, and range in size from huge to companies that control only a few numbers.”

While it is true that all of the 800-prefix toll-free numbers are taken, there are numbers available with the prefixes that were introduced later, including a limited amount of 866, 877 and 888 as evidenced by the statistics below:

Source: SMS/800â: Bulletin Number NUM-10-26 dated June 28, 2010.

The problem for direct marketers, however, is that 800-prefix numbers deliver significantly higher numbers of inbound leads, even when compared to the other prefixes, not just on TV and radio, but in print and on the Internet. Studies have shown that the difference can be 20, 30, even 40 percent or more. There are several factors that may contribute to this phenomenon that include:

· The fact that the 800-prefix, introduced in 1967, had a 26-year head start on the next prefix, 888, which was introduced in 1993.

· Consumers show evidence of equating the term “toll-free” with “1-800-“ and misdial the other prefixes with alarming frequency.

· Based upon the principle of memory theory known as “chunking”, the term “Eight-hundred”, represents a single block of information, whereas the other toll-free prefixes such as “Eight-seven-seven” are longer and may require more than one chunk of memory.

Businesses can still take advantage of 800-prefix toll-free numbers by working with a RespOrg such as Dial 800 that provide toll-free numbers with the 800-prefix. The cost of such a service, of course, only makes sense if the incremental lead count and commensurate sales are significant enough to warrant the expense. However, more memorable toll-free numbers, when combined with intelligent call routing and other optimization tools that today’s savvy direct marketer can avail themselves of are changing the way that toll-free numbers are being employed to gain marketplace advantage.