How to Secure Your Toll Free Number

Is your toll free number safe? With toll free numbers being one of the most important tools for any business and perhaps the most valuable branding element, companies simply can’t afford to jeopardize their security and continuity.

Imagine after building a huge amount of equity in a brand and toll free number over several years only to lose the number to the competition who can instantly capitalize on all of your hard work…not to mention the resources you invested. It can happen and it has even happened to government agencies.

How can you ensure this doesn’t happen to you? There are three main threats to the security of your toll free number. The first is making sure that your business phone numbers are routed and forwarded correctly. Some phone giant has a rather notorious reputation for accidentally sending your precious inbound leads to someone else.

The second and perhaps most serious threat to the security of your toll free numbers is letting them expire and allowing someone else to grab them from you. Again, this happens all the time. This is mainly because often times firms get caught up in all the urgent daily tasks and forget to renew them. Today’s leading toll free service providers usually offer month-to-month contract options. However, this leaves a lot of risk when it comes to the continuity of your income.

Perhaps it is smarter to reverse your toll free numbers for a longer term up front, just like your Internet domain name. You should be able to go out as far as 10 years and get a discount for doing so. If you choose not to do this at least set yourself solid reminders and watch out for expiring credit cards which can leave you open to losing your valuable and credible vanity numbers.

Lastly, if your competition can’t snag your toll free number they will at least go after all of the popular variations of it, including your number, using the other toll free prefixes and common alternate spellings of your vanity numbers. The moral of the story here? Reserve as many of these as you can to protect your business.