If you’re a company with significant (or just very important) toll free traffic, you have three choices:
Place all your traffic with one provider:
A business could place all their toll free traffic with one provider, like Lumen/CenturyLink, AT&T or Verizon, and pay a predetermined rate per minute for incoming calls and monthly rate for toll free phone numbers. (We see this all of the time!) Typically, the business commits to a certain volume of minutes to buy down their per minute rate. But a lot can change in three years and a good rate at the inception of an agreement might not be so wonderful in year three. Also, if the carrier has an outage, incoming customer calls will go unanswered which impacts revenues, lowers customer satisfaction, and hurts brand image/loyalty.
Become a RespOrg:
If you know the meaning of RespOrg, then you might know that any organization that uses a toll-free number can become its own RespOrg. Your organization is required to complete a ten page service establishment form, pay a deposit (average deposit is $4000) and pass a certification exam.
Factoring in an employee’s salary (the one who’s managing the toll free traffic), the cost of being your own RespOrg can be substantially higher than simply working through a third-party RespOrg service provider. Also, should the employee managing your company’s RespOrg decide to leave, your company would need to go through the time and expense to retrain and certify another employee.
Use an Independent 3rd Party RespOrg Service Provider:
A third-party RespOrg service provider can facilitate Least Cost Routing and Disaster Recovery along with other crucial services related to toll free. They utilize your algorithms and mapping to help you take advantage of the best possible pricing. They allow a company to route calls to dual or multiple carriers continually, at different times of the day, and you can take advantage of providers that offer low rates in a specific regions of the country. Additionally, you’re able allocate your toll free calls based on percentages.
A RespOrg Service Provider can help a company utilize Least Cost Routing and still remain in compliance with a term or revenue commitment from your current toll free service provider.
RespOrg Service Providers specialize in Disaster Recovery. In the event of a disaster that causes your toll free carrier to go down, you’re able to log into the portal and within minutes, can have your toll free traffic rerouted to a secondary carrier. We definitely recommend having a “split traffic” configuration where a portion of your toll free usage is going to two carriers. That way, in the event of an outage, you’ve already been “testing” the secondary carrier with live traffic. For the best leverage, we really like the idea of splitting your usage and sending it to two different carriers.
Summary:
For companies with important toll free traffic, CarrierBid HIGHLY recommends a 3rd-Party RespOrg Service Provider. The fee’s are very low, (typically $500 per month) and this small monthly amount can easily be made up by the savings they deliver with Least Cost Routing and from the potential lost revenue their services prevent. We’ve vetted many suppliers in this space and will be happy to help quote and recommend the best solution for your specific situation and needs. Further, there is NO CHARGE for our services.
3rd Party RespOrg Benefits:
CarrierBid will be with you through the entire process of moving to a toll free RespOrg service provider. We don’t charge a fee or ask for a split of your savings. Please call us or fill out the webform at the bottom of this page.
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