I don’t have any hard numerical data to confirm that having a 1-800 number increases leads, sales or revenue, but there are clear indications that it does.

One example that comes to mind is that local partners and clients alike who initially called us on our regular number, over time migrated on their own to our 1-800 for future calls.

And local potential clients tend to reach us via our 1-800 even though both numbers are clearly provided on the “contact us” page of our website.
(More recently we included the 1-800 on all pages to maximize the effect)

As for having to hire new staff to handle the call volume, this is not a problem in our industry as our services cater to other businesses looking to advertise their brands, products or services. I can see how this might become problematic for businesses operating within a B2C framework.

If a 1800 number doesn’t work out, you can walk away from it and at least you’ll know it simply wasn’t right for you. If it does work out, that could mean more orders, more satisfied customers, etc. — and that’s worth the relatively minor investment of time and money it takes to give it a try.

I’d say shop these services around, there are a lot of quality providers out there that can give you a good deal. You can always check us out at FreedomVOICE: http://www.freedomvoice.com.

Our experience with 1-800 numbers has been that they absolutely increase credibility and people have a tendency of using them more often.

I think that even though long distance plans make long distance calling much more affordable (or even free) 1-800 numbers have been ingrained in the minds of consumers for so long that they will naturally look for them and call them more often than with a regular number.

So much so that even local existing and potential clients call us by default on our 1-800 numbers. This was the case even when we featured our regular number more prominently. We’ve since done the reverse and now make sure our 1-800 number is more visible.

All that said, you make a valid point about not using a 1-800 number if you are trying to reduce call volume because the use of one will usually have the opposite effect.

In other words, a short call to a regular number might be better than a long call to a toll-free number, depending on the results of the call. I would have no problem with someone saying “I’m trying to fix this, but it might take a while. How are you doing on minutes this month? Would you like to move this to e-mail?”

One thing that really gets to me is being in a call queue and not getting something like “our current estimated wait time is approximately seven minutes”. When a company’s call queue tells me about the wait, I can decide whether to hang up and try back later.

Sort of off-topic: I was getting all sorts of automated calls on my (new) mobile number. Because of the plan, I figured out that one company had cost me about $16. So when they called again, I was hot. I waited for a real person, then I let the guy have it. Afterwards, I thought I should have been nicer, but at least his company stopped calling me.

So I’d say if you’re getting more call volume than you can handle, a toll-free number is still essential. If I can call your business and immediately speak to a real human who will be able to help me with my problem, I guess you’re right that a toll-free number isn’t as essential as it once was. (Although still preferred.)