By: Jason Kay
Submitted: 2010-04-21 03:22:13 | Word Count: 514
It has become common for businesses of all sizes, from a one man affiliate marketer to giant corporate giants to use an 800 number services. As with most service providers, many people are always looking for the best affordable 800 services. Unfortunately, determining which services are the best affordable option may not be as easy as it first seams. In order to determine which ones are the best to fit your needs, it becomes a balancing act between features and price.
It is a rare occasion that the absolute best 800 number services are never going to be the most affordable. This means that you will need to decide which features are important to you and then determine which services are the best and most affordable.
[ advertisement ]
The most affordable 800 number services are often not mainstream phone companies, but rather 3rd party service providers that leverage their specialization to provide reasonable rates. Most of the these services will have pre set monthly rates as well as per minute billing. The per minute rates can range from 2 cents to 10 cents a minute.
In order to decide what the best affordable 800 number service for you company is, it is important to know what the number will be primarily used for. Since there are a number of variables that will determine what you pay on an annual basis, you need to know how often the number will be used on a monthly basis, how many minutes each call averages, and where the calls are coming from.
Some of the most common features that business look for include:
Call Blocking – While initially, most people would wonder why a business would want to stop incoming calls, there are several reasons. The most common reason is that they call originates from outside the coverage area, which would increase the per minute fees. They also block calls that originate from certain sources, such as pay phones.
Accounting Codes – If you only want certain people to be able to use the 800 number, then you can create access codes. These codes must be entered before the call can be completed.
DNIS – DNIS, or Dialed Number Identification Service, is normally only needed if you have several 800 numbers and need to track which ones are being called. This is often a strategy that is used to track marketing campaign effectiveness. By placing a different number with each campaign, you can easily track which marketing campaigns are creating interest and worth continuing.
ANI – ANI lets you know who is calling. It is exactly the same as the caller ID that you have at home.
In order to determine which 800 number service is the best, most affordable option for you, it is important to identify which features are worth paying for and which ones are not. After determining which features you need, the next most important factor is your monthly plan. Your monthly plan allots you a certain number of minutes, and going over your alloted minutes can get expensive quickly. If you have a plan that doesn t have enough minutes, your affordable plan will quickly become an expensive one.
