Having a toll free number is probably a good thing to have if you serve a large geographical area with different area cods, even different states. That's not a problem for me, however. Yesterday I drove from downtown Honolulu to the North shore in 30 minutes. Same area code, same state. Heck, same island. The waves were fantastic. The sun was shining. the breeze is balmy, and the temperature was about 80 degrees I know, stop bragging where you live. Wim -----Original Message----- From: Dean May <deanmay at pianorebuilders.com> To: pianotech <pianotech at ptg.org> Sent: Tue, Jan 25, 2011 4:55 pm Subject: [pianotech] Toll Free Numbers More on vanity numbers from www.tollfreenumbers.com When I checked on my number, 888-DEAN-MAY, I saw that it was available. I did not even use tollfreenumbers, I contacted Power Net Global who I had my long distance service through and they snagged the number for me at no charge and put it into service. For my brother's carpet cleaning business, 877-MARK-MAY, was not available. I paid a very reasonable fee, not sure how much it was now, and tollfreenumbers eventually was able to secure it for me. Once I had it, I then took it to Power Net Global and Power Net put it into service. A toll free number is just like a regular phone number that you choose a long distance phone service of your choice to take care of. They set it up to forward it to whatever phone number you tell them, your business line, your cell number, your home number, or some dedicated line. One caveat, when a call comes in, you really have no way of knowing if it is coming in on your toll free number or not, unless you have a dedicated line. No big deal for me. I do get a monthly report from Power Net Global that itemizes my toll free calls in retrospect. I don't get a lot of people using it but more than enough to justify it. I think one reason is a lot of people have unlimited long distance packages they use. But it is impressive to be able to have a toll free number listed on your card. It is also very handy when people want your number to just be able to tell them: 888-DEAN-MAY Dean Dean W May (812) 235-5272 PianoRebuilders.com (888) DEAN-MAY Terre Haute IN 47802 From: Dean May [mailto:deanmay at pianorebuilders.com] Sent: Tuesday, January 25, 2011 7:07 PM To: 'pianotech at ptg.org' Subject: RE: [pianotech] Where do new customers come from? Yes, I ported both my business number and my home phone number over. Between both numbers we are saving well over $100/month by ditching Verizon and going with phonepower.com. Porting your number to Phone Power or to a cell phone will enable you to keep ownership of your business number no matter where you move. I also have a vanity toll free number, 888-DEAN-MAY, that is serviced by a third party, Power Net Global. Phone Power could do it, but I think Power Net Global's pricing was a little better and they had already been servicing it for several years, so I didn't want to switch it. Toll free numbers are cheap, cheap, cheap. You only pay a small monthly service chg and a per minute usage fee, something around 5 cents/minute. My toll free monthly bill is usually only 8 or 9 dollars. Go to www.tollfreenumbers.com to find a vanity number. It's how I got mine. Dean Dean W May (812) 235-5272 PianoRebuilders.com (888) DEAN-MAY Terre Haute IN 47802 From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Al Guecia/Allied PianoCraft Sent: Tuesday, January 25, 2011 5:25 PM To: pianotech at ptg.org Subject: Re: [pianotech] Where do new customers come from? Sound interesting Dean. Can you keep your existing number? Al - High Point, NC On Jan 25, 2011, at 4:38 PM, Dean May wrote: www.phonepower.com is cheaper. I've had it for 2 years now. Prepay and you can get 2 years for about $240 w/taxes and fees, that is $10 per month. You get two lines with one number (if one line is busy, calls can come in or go out on the other line), automatic roll over, caller ID on steroids, phone logs managed from the web site, call blocking, power forwarding (I have it ring the land line and my cell phone simultaneously), free long distance. It is pretty amazing. Dean Dean W May (812) 235-5272 PianoRebuilders.com (888) DEAN-MAY Terre Haute IN 47802 From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of David M. Porritt Sent: Tuesday, January 25, 2011 2:39 PM To: pianotech at ptg.org Subject: Re: [pianotech] Where do new customers come from? Alan: If you get a Vonage VOIP line you can get it to use your old number and still get that number portability. I moved 5 tears ago and kept my old number and have added a virtual number for my new area. It is cheap and convenient. dave Sent from my BlackBerry® From: Alan Eder <reggaepass at aol.com> Sender: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2011 14:26:12 -0500 (EST) To: <pianotech at ptg.org> ReplyTo: pianotech at ptg.org Subject: Re: [pianotech] Where do new customers come from? Well, I might be the proverbial "lone voice in the wilderness" on this one, but FWIW, I get much more than 3.5% of my new customers from the Yellow Pages. In fact, I recently relocated within the same general area, but far enough away from my former abode that my business phone number could not migrate with me as an installed line. Since that phone number is what Mrs. Smith will likely call when her Courier spinet is ready for it's "once every ten years tuning, whether it needs it or not!", I dare not change it (it now forwards directly to my cell, for a fee, of course). Business had slowed down over the last two years (compared to the previous twenty!), but is now showing signs of picking up. Much of the up-tick has been repeat offenders, but many are calling from my single line listing in the Yellow Pages. If not for those two considerations, I would have gone to Magic Jack, with it's number portability and "can't-touch-this" low price. I, too, get referrals form the PTG website, but not as many as from the YP. Go figure, Alan Eder ----Original Message----- rom: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf f Wally Scherer ent: Monday, January 24, 2011 6:28 PM o: pianotech at ptg.org ubject: [pianotech] Where do new customers come from? Each new year I go over my customer files and find out where my new ustomers came from. (I don't want to be spending money on advertising if it oesn't work.) Even though 2010 brought in fewer new customers than any previous year since started keeping track (just over half as much as my highest year), the ross income for 2010 was actually a bit higher than 2009. Here's the breakdown for 2010, if anyone is interested. Internet search - 31.6%, Customer referrals - 22.8%, Teacher referrals - 5.8%, Car sign - 12.3%, Social contacts - 7%, Store referrals - 3.5%, ellow pages - 3.5%, All others - 3.5%. (Rounded off) One remarkable trend is the % of new customers coming from my Yellow Pages isting. In 2005, 2006, and 2008, the YP listing brought in the HIGHEST umber of new customers. In 2004 it was the second highest, and in 2006 and 009 it was the third highest. In 2010 YP was among the LOWEST! Wally Scherer A FINE TUNE - Piano Tuning & Repairs allace T. Scherer, piano technician, music educator 5020 Canal Drive, Lake orth, Florida, 33463-8014 elephone: 561-432-4121 eb page: http://aftune.angelfire.com acebook: ttp://www.facebook.com/pages/A-FINE-TUNE-PIANO-TUNING-REPAIRS/1298450103661 5 ----------------------------------------------- REE TICKETS: http://aftune.angelfire.com/freetics.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20110125/c53a7bdb/attachment.htm>
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC