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Toll-free Vanity 800 Shared Use Definition & Overview
Introduction
Over the years, businesses have developed creative
methods for sending calls to distributors, franchisees, and affiliates,
using pre-programmed advanced routing features, touch-tone prompts
and pass codes entered by callers. Consequently, a single
number, or group of numbers, may serve as the telecommunications
gateway for access to a variety of people and/or services, while
facilitating advanced call processing, recordkeeping, and the detailed
analysis of calling patterns.
Shared Use and Bundled Toll-Free Services
Shared
Use and Bundled Toll Free Services are innovative
telecommunications technologies for advanced call processing,
developed to facilitate the provision of complex
routing arrangements. These features enable service providers to
optimize the use of scarce toll free numbers, while offering their
customers creative methods of meeting their specialized telecommunications
requirements.
Each Shared Use customer receives calls routed from
a dialed toll-free number based upon a predetermined
set of criteria. The basis for routing the calls among unrelated
business customers is typically geographical (e.g. area codes or
area code/exchange combination). Additionally, Shared Use customers
with interrelated remote locations can set other routing criteria
such as time of day or day of week; or customized based on the caller’s touchtone responses to
a series of voice prompts. For example, a group of automobile dealers
under common ownership may all advertise a single toll-free number,
and callers can then choose from a voice menu to reach any one of
the affiliated store locations. As a result, a single toll-free
number may simultaneously serve as the primary advertising response,
customer service, or technical support contact for hundreds of individual
businesses or business locations nationwide.
For many years businesses
have recognized the value of highly recognizable,
or “vanity,” phone
numbers in boosting advertising response (e.g.
1-800-FLOWERS), even as the supply of those numbers has been reduced
to near zero because of their overwhelming popularity. The introduction
of shared use services in the early 1990’s addressed the growing
demand for toll-free vanity numbers by following a practice common
among franchise operations and multi-location businesses. Using
geographic and other advanced call routing features, a single phone
number can now serve unrelated businesses having separate, unique
advertising markets. For example, a dentist in San Diego can market
her practice with 1-800-NEW-TEETH while another unrelated dentist
in Florida can use that same vanity number for his Miami practice.
Shared Use and Bundled Services are described in Sections 1.2 and
2.2.1 of the Guidelines for Toll Free Number
Administration (‘The
Guidelines’).
The Guidelines are maintained by the SMS/800
Number Administration Committee (SNAC) of the
Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) Ordering
and Billing Forum (OBF). They have been developed for the purpose
of providing the industry with a set of working principals for the
administration of toll free service.
800response
800response provides business customers with toll-free
long distance services bundled with advanced communications, messaging
and reporting features, in conjunction with shared mnemonic and
easily recallable vanity numbers. Since 1990, 800response has been
offering specialized toll free services, on a local and regional
basis, to businesses across the United States. The industry leader
in shared use services, 800response has the widest selection of
vanity 800 numbers available.
In addition, 800response offers value
added services such as real time online call
tracking reports, call recording, custom call routing arrangements,
consultation on the use of Custom 800 numbers in print and broadcast
media, and trademark licensing. We are continually looking for additional
complementary products and services to offer, either in-house, or
through strategic partnerships.
800response has been a significant
contributor to the SMS/800 Number Administration
Committee (SNAC), the primary participatory forum for the toll free
industry. 800 Response has also participated in other industry and
regulatory initiatives both directly, and as a founding member of
1-800 American Free Trade Association (1-800 AFTA), an industry
group formed to advocate for free and efficient telecommunications
markets and to promote the growth of shared use and bundled toll
free services in the United States.
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