How can an 800 number boost your online business?

Acquiring an 800 number has become archaic. Email, Skype, and customer service software have replaced it. Not saying an 800 number is worthless, however, there are more cost effective contemporary methods.

Not exactly related, but a benefit of having an 800 number is that they have ANI (Automatic Number Identification) which bypasses caller ID. So people can't block their phone number when calling a toll free number. That may or may not be useful to anyone, but I thought it was interesting.

Waw ok i love 800 numbers specially now that a lot of people are using more their mobile device they can just call .Here learn from the master!

When I was selling medical equipment online, adding a toll free number tripled my business, but it also tied me to answering a phone all day or hiring somebody to do it.

Well some people get frustrated with trying to contact customers support and such through the Internet alone, like email. They would rather just call and talk to a real person that can help solve their problem.

A certain quantity of people (especially older demographic.. You know.. People with MONEY) will always link a 800 number to at least some level of professionalism.

And, in order to "keep your hands free" you can just redirect them to a website of yours.

Maybe a squeeze-page, or a sales page?

There are lots of good reasons to get an 800 number. The more ways you give potential customers a way to contact you the more trust they'll have. When I do lead generation campaigns I like to use an 800 voice mail (recorded voice squeeze message) and a website squeeze page. In relation to what Joe Thio said, when people call your 800 number you'll get the caller ID of people that don't leave a message for whatever reason... doorbell rang, got disconnected, another call came in.... whatever. Just dial those numbers and let them know that you didn't get a message from them but wanted to make sure they got taken care of -- how can I help you? Just being helpful you can salvage many leads that others may discard.

I'd never want to do print advertising without one.

The service I use is 800link.com (no affiliation). The service has been quality, the prices are good and you can set it to forward or just use voice mail depending on what you want to accomplish.

800 Numbers are great. They can give anybody a professional face, and they're cheap to have. It gives you a number of things you can do, doesn't even have to be for customer service -it can be for sales as well.