What is a Toll-Free Number and how do you get one for your business
In today's competitive business landscape, providing exceptional customer service is crucial. One effective way to achieve this is by using a toll-free number. But what exactly is a toll-free number, and how can you get one for your business?
This comprehensive guide will cover everything you need to know about toll-free numbers, how to obtain one, and more.
What is a Toll-Free Number?
A toll-free number is a phone number that allows customers to contact businesses without incurring any charges. In India, it typically starts with the toll-free prefix “1800” followed by a six or seven-digit number. The number is free of charge if called from a mobile phone or a landline.
Toll-free numbers are widely used across various sectors for customer service, marketing, and other purposes. Departments such as customer service, marketing and sales, support services, etc. use the Toll-free service on a day-to-day basis.
Telecom companies, banking and financial services companies, insurance companies, and e-commerce and retail sectors frequently use toll-free numbers for customer service.
Additionally, toll-free numbers are essential for non-profit and government organizations, including charities, public health services, and emergency hotlines, to provide easy and cost-free communication for customers and clients.
Choosing a Toll-Free Number provider
When choosing a toll-free number provider, you have several options to consider. Look for a provider that offers affordable rates, reliable service, and excellent customer support.
Factors to consider when choosing a provider
- Cost: Compare the pricing plans of different providers to find the most cost-effective option.
- Features: Consider the features offered by each provider, such as call forwarding, voicemail, and call recording.
- Customer Support: Opt for a provider that offers 24/7 customer support to address any issues promptly.
Jio Toll-Free Number service for businesses
Today, toll-free services are offered with advanced technologies. JioBusiness provides a state-of-art, fully convergent IP Multimedia System (IMS) for toll-free numbers. This architecture connects the application, control and transport layers with a standardized phase.
Here’s how the IMS system works for enterprises:
- A customer dials the toll-free number.
- The customer's call is routed to the IMS network.
- The IMS network looks up the toll-free number and routes the call to the company's contact center.
- The contact center's Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) system routes the call to the next available agent.
- The agent answers the call and provides support to the customer.
Further, Jio uses an intelligent call routing system to customize business needs. For instance, a geographically spread business can opt for region-based routing. Businesses with high seasonal sales can get a load-based routing, strategically distributing call traffic to different locations and ensuring every customer query or demand is met. JioBusiness also offers:
- Time-based routing for specific periods of the day
- Combination routing logics to fully meet business requirements.
What are the services offered by a Toll-Free Number?
Common to most toll-free service providers are solutions like offering numbers for the business and essential solutions like call tracking. A more advanced solution provider goes beyond the basics to ensure these numbers bring the maximum uptime at low costs. Here are some features of Jio’s toll-free number for businesses:
- Standard routing: Default call distribution to multiple terminating numbers.
- Intelligent routing: Real-time call assignment based on specific business needs.
- Black/ White listing calls: Allowing or disallowing access to a toll-free number based on the call's origin.
- Vanity Number: Choosing an easy or unique number for better business recall.
- Digital self-care: The online portal with an easy interface to manage routing preferences, service lifecycle, etc.
Why Choose Jio for Tollfree Service?
- Geographic Redundancy: Jio stands out as the only Telco in India with a geographically redundant architecture for its IN platform. With routing details spread across 8 different regions, it ensures uninterrupted Tollfree services with 100% uptime.
- Cost-Effective Solution: Jio offers a unique per-second billing plan for Tollfree services. This means charges are incurred only for the actual call duration, significantly reducing cost for businesses.
- Digital Self-Care: Jio provides a user-friendly web interface, empowering businesses to efficiently manage call routing in real-time. This flexibility and control optimize the performance of toll-free numbers, enhancing customer experiences.
- Advanced Intelligent Routing: Jio offers a strategic approach to Tollfree through intelligent call routing. Calls can be directed according to geographical area, preferred language, operational hours, and more so that businesses can ensure that each caller reaches the most appropriate agent for their query, resulting in quicker issue resolution and higher customer satisfaction.
- Ease of Operations: With Jio, businesses can effortlessly terminate Tollfree calls on Jio mobile or any private operator fixed line number, streamlining operations and enhancing accessibility for customers.
During this process, you can keep a few things:
- Ensure your business needs align with the toll-free number services. JioBusiness offers exclusive customization support so that your number works for your growth.
- Choose your number for easy recall and support. With a vanity number, you can select the numbers for your business.
- If you are transitioning your toll-free number, keep both numbers active for three months and start advertising the new toll-free number in the welcome announcement and as the traffic moves to the new number, withdraw the old number.
Grow with JioBusiness
With JioBusiness, enterprises partner with a provider that has:
- Fully redundant core for maximum uptime, ensuring the business is running 24x7.
- Jio provides per-second billing, which helps reduce costs significantly.
- Largest presence in the country with 470 million users across the country.
- Largest future-ready network with 5G connectivity across 7,764 cities and towns.
How do you get a toll-free number for a business?
There are various toll-free service providers in India today. You must choose a service provider and follow a few simple steps to get these numbers for your business. With JioBusiness, all you need to do is:
- Register your interest by calling us at 1800 8899 555, filling out a form at https://www.jio.com/business or writing to us at business@jio.com.
- With our prompt callbacks, you can start customizing your call flows and routing systems.
- Once you are all set, you can publish the numbers and start getting calls for your business.
Contact us to book your toll-free number today!
