Make Every Call with VoIP

Make Every Call a Local Call with VoIP

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How Can Every Call Be Local?

Thinking about the present, then, you probably have a good handle on your telecom expenses. For core needs, you have your monthly line charges and long distance charges. The latter is highly variable, and may well be the big driver for VoIP. By now you should know that VoIP will pretty much eliminate domestic LD charges, and bring down the cost of international calls considerably. Add to that a lower monthly line charge and you have a pretty strong business case for moving to VoIP.

If this gets you excited, then I’m happy to tell you we’re only at the beginning of the VoIP story. These savings are attractive in their own right, but only represent what I would call “everyday value”; in other words, table stakes that do little more than replicate legacy service at a lower cost.

Over the course of this series, I’ve provided several examples of how VoIP has another layer of “hidden value” that goes beyond cost savings, and this is what makes VoIP a strategic investment for your business. This is a key part of how I’m trying to get you to think differently about telephony when considering VoIP – otherwise, that value may remain hidden.

Along those lines, I now want you to think differently to see yet another way VoIP can save you money. Whether or not you have a contact center, you probably have toll-free numbers to encourage customers to call for whatever reason. No doubt you view this as a routine cost of doing business, but when looking at your monthly phone bills, you may also wonder if the returns are really there.

Toll-free numbers remove the cost barrier for customers, but they can also create new barriers if the experience isn’t great. Most people equate toll-free numbers with sitting in a queue and waiting a long time to speak with a stranger who doesn’t even work for your company. Not only can this create stress for customers, but the longer they wait on hold, the more expensive this “free” call is for you.

VoIP provides an alternative that will likely save some money and make for a better customer experience. As noted above, VoIP calls don’t require a 10 digit number, but today this is how most calls are still placed. Without getting into detail, a key benefit of VoIP is being geography independent. While the PSTN is firmly rooted in using area codes physically wired to specific geography, that three digit area code is just part of the 10 digit string VoIP uses to route calls over a data network.

Most VoIP providers carry an inventory of phone numbers that can be activated for any area code. By thinking of telephony in IP terms – not legacy terms – you will quickly come to see the benefit here. Instead of offering one toll-free number for all your customers, you can offer specific numbers with local area codes for regions where most of your customers are based. In these cases, customers will have a local number to call your company, which comes across as being more personal not to mention free.

Conclusion

At your end, you don’t worry about how long they sit on hold since the cost is no longer variable. Overall, you may pay more to carry a series of these numbers instead of a single toll-free number, but if the latter cost is getting out of control, you may be better off with VoIP. Perhaps more importantly, customers will feel more special in having a local number to call, so that needs to be considered in the overall decision.

This is just one example of how you can make any call a local call with VoIP, and the ultimate benefit may not be related to saving money on expensive toll-free numbers. My main message is to show you something new with VoIP that you cannot do with legacy service, and when you start thinking of the possibilities, this aspect of VoIP’s hidden value will reveal itself in ways you may never have expected.

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