800 numbers can be routed anywhere in the world. A common example of toll free call forwarding is 1 800 numbers that connect a caller to a tech support team or service department in another country such as India or the Philippines. Understanding the telegeography of the international toll-free market and toll free call forwarding can be quite helpful in growing your business at home and abroad.

But what exactly is a telecommunications route? Simply put, it is the route a call takes to its final destination. And, with many 800 numbers that is often a bordering country. So even though you are a caller in the US, your 1 800 call might be answered in Canada. In other words, the toll free call is forwarded to a phone in Canada.

One of the most consistent trends seen in toll free call forwarding is countries bordering each other will typically have 800 numbers routed to one another. For instance, in the US, more 800 numbers are routed to Canada or Mexico than any other countries in the world. Similarly, Russia and the Ukraine share the largest telecommunication routes, ie more numbers are diverted from Russia to phones in the Ukraine and vice-versa. Countries neighboring one another quite often divert the largest volume of calls from their home country to landlines, cell phones or IP addresses in the country next door. Like a trade route, a telecommunications route is quite often a well-traveled path.

When studying the telegeography of telecommunications routing, some countries repeatedly appear throughout a region where they are trying to establish a presence. For instance, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman have more calls diverted to India than any other country, so India represents the largest telecommunication route for these countries.

In Europe, Germany is the most popular telecommunication route destination for several countries including Austria, France, Italy, Poland, Switzerland, Turkey, the Netherlands, the UK and the US, diverting more calls and 1 800 numbers to Germany than any other country in Europe.

Where do you need to establish a presence in the world? Where do you need your calls or your 1 800 numbers to be routed from and to? Understanding a bit about telecommunications routing and the telegeography of toll free call forwarding can help you increase your international business or your presence in a market that you need to develop and grow.

Another form of Enhanced Toll-Free Routing is Criteria-based routing.  While I have never seen an exact definition of criteria-based routing, it usually means that call disposition is handled differently based on some caller characteristic whether it be phone number, area code, time of day, or some information that the customer inputs.  In many cases it is very similar to geographic routing or time of day routing.

I’ll try to illustrate by giving an example:

Say an airline has set up a call center with an IVR (interactive voice response) system.  Let’s say the airline has two different classes of customers, in this case, Regular and VIP whom they treat differently, with the VIP customers getting special treatment.  Now, let’s say a Regular customer calls in at the same time a VIP customer does.  The two calls get handled differently based on pre-set treatment rules. 

The company’s PBX system captures the caller’s ANI/originating phone number and matches it against the existing CRM database.  If it is a Regular customer, he goes into the general queue and is taken by the next available agent (he may be put on hold or instructed to input more information by the IVR).  If it is a VIP customer she is directed to a live agent immediately through a separate queue as the airline recognizes that the VIP customer will look to fly first class and thus spend more money with the airline (and the airline wants to reward the VIP customers for their loyalty).

Of course, more complex IVRs can be designed to route calls based on input by the caller as most of us are familiar with this from past experience.

For instance, a cable provider might play a message that prompts the caller to:

• Press 1 for cable service
• Press 2 for internet service
• Press 3 for phone service, etc.

And then each option may have a sub-menu.  For instance, if the caller presses 1 for cable service, the sub-menu may present the following options:

• Press 1 for billing questions
• Press 2 to report a service outage, etc.

By receiving information from the customer, the company can then route the call to the correct department or queue.  Call disposition is thus based on some established criteria.

800 Number Time-of-Day Routing

All businesses have regular business hours – but what happens with those after-hours calls? ‘Time-of-day Routing’ of toll free calls can be a very effective tool for managing these types of free phone calls.  An office or a call center could route toll free calls to a specific number or perhaps an overnight call center.  This enhances customer service by ensuring that a customer has ‘live’ interaction with your business instead of leaving a voice mail or simply listening to a message directing them to call back the next day during regular business hours.

Further, evening toll-free calls could be routed by department depending on the type of customer or call:

• Sales
• Tech support
• VIP Assistance

800 Number Follow the Sun, 24-hour Toll Free Service

Another scenario that is common is the routing of toll free calls to maximize customer service and ensure calls are fielded live 24-hours a day. This service is known as ‘Follow the Sun’. Here’s how it works – if a company has offices in Los Angeles, London and Melbourne, the calls could be routed in 8-hour shifts so there would always be an office fielding calls.  No matter what time zone or location a customer is calling from, he would always get in touch with a live representative.

A simpler example might be a company that has offices on both the east and west coast of the US. Early morning calls in the west could be routed to a New York office. While calls in the east after 5pm in New York could be routed to a Los Angeles office.  The advantages of this are maximizing the coverage of live interaction with customers and extending the ‘regular office hours’ of operation without any additional staff hours.

The end goal of toll-free number ‘time-of-day routing’ is to make sure the maximum amount of calls are handled by live operators. You want to interact with your customers whenever possible. Time-of-day routing is the perfect tool to accomplish this.

Next up: Enhance toll-free routing, Part 3: Criteria-Based Routing

Time of Day Routing Demo.