Toll Free Cellular is rapidly building a profitable business by marketing its #800 number service to the businesses cellular users want most to but are least likely to call because of airtime charges.
The Seattle-based company introduced its #800 number service in the greater Seattle area last autumn, with 230 initial #800 number customers. Business has more than doubled to 515 #800 numbers in February.
Like traditional 800 number services, #800 numbers are sold to companies that pay a standard airtime rate on incoming calls. Restaurants, hotels, travel agents, financial services companies, automotive sales and services and rental car companies are among Toll Free’s major clients. A Toll Free #800 number costs a business a small monthly service fee and a standard airtime rate on incoming calls, said Lazar. The rate varies by volume.
Any company “that generates a lot of their business from the telephone and for whom the cellular customer is an important demographic,” is a target for Toll Free, said Mark Lazar, president and chief executive officer. What Toll Free found through market research is that cellular customers are likely to place calls involving their work and family, but “reluctant to make personal business calls, particularly where they are likely going to be put on hold,” said Lazar.
As a result, carriers benefit from the incremental minutes of use generated by #800, airtime that otherwise may not have been used. Carries also like the #800 service because it is an attractive new product to offer their customers, said the company. And while Toll Free won’t honor exclusivity, the first carrier offering service in a market is situated to gain a competitive advantage.
Both Seattle cellular providers, AT&T Wireless Services Inc. and U S West Cellular Inc., provide Toll Free’s service, which operates from AG Communications Systems’ line of INgage intelligent network services. Toll Free has three-year exclusive rights in the toll-free calling industry to AGCS’ software.
Carriers deploy the AGCS intelligent network technology in their SS7 switches. When a caller dials a #800 number, the carrier receives routing instructions from the AGCS software. For each #800 dialed there is a one-time change in the carrier’s network, after which routing is automatic. The carrier completes the call.
Lazar said a number of Toll Free’s carrier clients intend to begin service in several of their markets second quarter. AT&T Wireless Services is testing Toll Free’s service for potential nationwide rollout, said Bob Ratliffe, AT&T Wireless Services senior vice president of communication.
Included in Toll Free’s service is #800-MENU, a number customers dial to reach an operator who can refer #800 numbers. This service generates about 60 calls a day, said Toll Free.
Forty percent of Seattle’s cellular customers are aware #800 numbers are available and 6 percent have placed an #800 call, according to research by Cascade Strategies.
