Whether you operate a small business from a shop or a business out of your home, establishing credibility with your target market can be challenging. People are generally cynical of businesses they've never dealt with before, especially if the business is small. Most consumers have had at least one situation when dealing with a business that robbed them of some of their hard-earned money, or where they've been unsatisfied with the product or service they received from a home based business and it is situations like these that has created a general level of mistrust toward the small business.

Improve Your Accessibility and Customer Service

You undoubtedly know the famous old saying, "the customer is always right". What this saying basically means is that a business must always go out of their way to provide exceptional customer service. In fact, businesses that routinely exceed the expectations of the customer for providing quality customer service become the most successful. As a small business owner or home based business owner, one of the best opportunities to grow your business can be found in the level of customer service you offer.

How can you improve your customer service? First of all, make it as easy as possible for the customer to contact you. Do you think a customer will be willing to spend money on a long distance call to phone you? Probably not. Do you think a customer wants to leave message after message on voicemail, because you spend most of your time traveling around to fulfill the needs of your business? Chances are, the prospective customer is going to give up calling and call a business that has someone available to take the call.

This doesn't mean you need to employ a full time answering service! With a virtual toll free number, you could make it possible for your customers and prospects to call you without cost, no matter where they are located, and also use the "follow me" feature to have calls forwarded from the toll free number to the phone(s) of your choice. For example, if you have to work outside the office regularly, setting up the follow me feature will allow any incoming calls on your toll free number to forward directly to your cell phone or other designated line. With caller ID, you'll be able to decide whether or not the call should be taken right then, or whether it's ok to send it to voicemail and respond later.

The moment you start providing a free way for consumers to call you, and the ability to accept more calls live than sending to voicemail is the moment you start improving your customer service.

Competition and Credibility

A toll free number makes it possible for the small or home based business owner to compete with larger businesses because you are no longer stuck with marketing in your local area code. Having a toll free number automatically creates a higher sense of credibility in the consumer's mind - after all, a business with a toll free number must be more serious than the business who takes business calls on the home phone, right?

Improving your customer service, becoming more accessible to your prospects, competing with larger companies and establishing better credibility is all possible with the simple addition of a toll free phone number.