Toll-Free Messaging

Yes! All toll-free numbers need to be verified in order to achieve their maximum throughput.

The process for submitting for Toll-free Verification is very cumbersome today for customers. Our toll-free verification API takes the cumbersome process and allows customers to programmatically submit and hear back about the status of their toll-free numbers for verification.

Many businesses utilize toll-free messaging in order to send and receive high-throughput SMS messages to their customers, without all the extra carrier surcharges, with information like:

• Shipping notifications: Notifications from retail factories about your purchase, like: still in production/packaging, has shipped, or been delivered.
• Appointment reminders: Doctors offices sending you confirmation or appointment reminders about your upcoming visit.
• Service updates: Maintenance workers sending you any updates, including what time an employee will be at your house, the status of the work order if unfinished and some options on times to come back, or a completion update.
• School/Office alerts: School, universities, offices sending out weather advisories, emergency situations, important technology “down-time” alerts.

Toll-free messaging works best when your use case involves personalized messaging; meaning both the sender and the recipient are having a conversation via text message. Since consumers prefer to communicate through text messaging instead of taking the time to make a call, (especially if they think they’ll have to sit on hold or hunt through menus), text messaging helps businesses pave the way for a better customer/user experience. By maintaining a more personalized relationship with customers and providing a chance for them to respond back with any questions or concerns, toll-free messaging is a scalable “easy button” for businesses to leverage text messaging today, on a number they probably already pay for.

Toll-free numbers vary in price depending on country location and service providers. In the United States, toll-free numbers are very reasonable, and start at around $1 to a few dollars per number.

Toll-free messaging is priced per message sent and/or received. At Bandwidth, toll-free message pricing starts at $.0065 per message for both inbound and outbound messaging. Customers are billed monthly for messages sent and received by the business, and a small fee for the toll-free number itself.

Businesses looking to get started sending toll-free messages can get started in a variety of ways depending on what technology tools you may need along the way. Bandwidth’s Messaging API platform lets you get started developing applications or software platforms with toll-free messaging in just minutes. Businesses may also enable any existing toll-free numbers they have for texting with Bandwidth and use them to send critical alerts and notifications to their customers via text message. This allows for a more personalized touch, since they are utilizing the same number their customers already know to call.

Yes! If you already have a toll-free number that you are using for your contact center or sales line, it’s easy to enable your number for texting using Bandwidth’s Hosted Messaging feature so you won’t have to ride out an existing voice contract.

Toll-free messaging is still somewhat new for businesses, and it’s a great feature for businesses looking to communicate with their customers. Just like toll-free numbers are the expected business phone number for voice, toll-free is quickly becoming the expected and preferred business phone number for messaging. Studies show that the average consumer prefers to be communicated with via text, so toll-free messaging is becoming an increasingly important customer success and sales tool.

If your messaging feature is for customer support or sales, toll-free is a fantastic option for you because it allows customers to call your business back on the same phone number you are texting from. However, because toll-free numbers can support a higher throughput of messages per phone number than traditional ten-digit numbers, some developers choose to use toll-free numbers for one-way communications like alerts and notifications, too. Choosing toll-free also makes responding to those notifications possible.

Short codes are great for mass messaging use cases like pin codes, two-factor authentication, SMS marketing, and more. If you’ve ever cast a vote for American Idol or donated via text to the Red Cross then you’ve used a short code. But some short code messages may be better sent using a toll-free number. Why?

Here are a few reasons:

• A toll-free number can be provisioned and ready for use in the snap of a finger. Short codes require carrier approvals that can take weeks or even months to provision.
• Toll-free numbers can be both voice and text-enabled, which opens the door for your customers to text and call you from the same number. The end result is additional flexibility for your customers and potential cost savings for you.
• You likely already have a toll-free number that you’re promoting, so why get a new number for customers to remember? Leverage your existing toll-free number for both voice and texting.
• Toll-free numbers will save you money, and can cost as little as $1 per number. Short codes cost between $500 to $1000 per month in lease fees to the Short Code Registry, and that cost is unavoidable.

Looking ahead, toll-free messaging is an ideal alternative for mass business text messaging when you include cost savings, ease of use, ease of implementation, and a better customer experience.