GAWK Takes Foothold in Toll-Free Marketplace

Call now! Toll-free! These snippets have long been associated with infomercials and attempts at getting potential customers to call in on a potential order. It's no surprise that the toll-free number market has been gaining by leaps and bounds as businesses take away one significant potential impediment to making phone calls, and now, GAWK has joined in with a new entry in its product line.

GAWK has long been known for its contact center tools, and based on word from CEO Scott Kettle, its customers—both long-term and otherwise—have been frequently asking for new toll-free options to incorporate into the lineup. When customers ask for something in sufficient numbers, it's hard for a business to run the risks associated with passing up, so GAWK established a new connection with a “carrier independent network”, and allowed the company to offer up new services, including toll-free services.

Historically, the toll-free concept has been slow to adapt to a market that's increasingly seeing deregulation, as well as increased competition in the field. Despite the sheer numbers of toll-free calling users already in place, some reports suggest that this market could be ready for “explosive growth,” and so getting a position in place could be the vital next step toward ensuring long-term profitability.

The numbers bear this concept out; there are over 49 million such toll-free numbers operating in the United States, so demand is clearly on the table for more toll-free services to come into play. That's especially the case for voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) tools like those offered by GAWK, so for GAWK to start adding toll-free capability to its lineup is a smart idea. It would be an even smarter idea if the community hadn't been so clearly asking for it, but it doesn't really matter in the end from whence inspiration comes. It would have been a more visionary move to offer these services before huge numbers of customers started asking; such a move becomes little more than a move to restrict competition by denying the rest of the field a clear edge.

Still, in the end, GAWK is offering up a major new service that its customers clearly want. That seldom goes awry, and in the end, represents a new value users need and that a company can get ahead by offering. With so many businesses eager to admonish customer calling, and make it easy on the customer by offering to pick up the tab for the call, offering toll-free services is a great way to get those business customers in the door.

Edited by Maurice Nagle