Title: It's nice to
share: shared-use vanity lines ring in high response for small businesses.
Date: 5/15/1999; Publication: Direct; Author: Oser, Kris
To hear Ben Owens, Jr. tell it, the calls pour in with the force and promise of a summer rain. The Dallas attorney, a partner at Rubin, Gugenheim & Owens, subscribes to the shared-use vanity line 1-800-DIVORCE. "It's been phenomenal," he says.
"The response on it is everything I'd hoped it would be. I'm sure someone could come in with 100-grand a month in advertising and do better than me, but they can't compete with this phone number."
The number is shared by 85 lawyers in 35 states whose callers, like all those who ring up these lines, are connected when the telephone system matches up the caller's area code or local prefix with the attorney nearest the caller.
These vanity lines differ from one centralized business with many outlets to which calls are shepherded. Shared use lets many subscribers who have similar businesses use the same number. Each subscriber gets exclusive rights to the customers calling into his or her region.
Shared-use vanity providers, such as the 1-800-DIVORCE outfit, Legal Marketing Systems Ltd., Riverside, CA, set up the clients' systems, find or create the vanity numbers, and sometimes offer value-added services such as marketing advice, billing breakdowns, coop advertising and client networking forums. Many, such as Response Marketing Group, Burlington, VT, which stocks numeric combinations using the words, "new" and "next," have nearly endless numbers available.
Subscribers "tend to be small businesses contractors who can't afford to have an ad agency run their ads for them on TV commercials," says Karen Crawford of Crawford & Associates, Lafayette, CA. "They do it for the marketing value."
Shared-use vanity lines with memory joggers like 1-800-DIVORCE can be a windfall for small businesses. Owens kick-started his firm's divorce practice marketing with 1-800-DIVORCE six months ago. The number enabled the 12-attorney general practice firm to sell well on radio, Owens says.
The lines are relatively inexpensive. 1-800-DIVORCE clients pay from 850 to 82,000, depending on the volume of calls to each attorney.
"It's very, very cost-effective and pays for itself," asserts David Baum, president, The 800 Marketing Group, Clifton, NJ, a toll-free provider and consultancy.
"Let's say a used car dealer is paying $200 a month for 1-800-GETACAR," says Baum. "It costs him $2,400 a year, plus the phone bill. For $2,400, all he's got to do is sell two cars. But everyone knows his phone number and it gives the dealer presence and recognition in the marketplace."
Consumers are quick to dial toll-free numbers, says Peter O'Hanlan, owner of Legal Marketing. He acquired use of the number in 1985, but it wasn't until 1989 that he found out that his reach was nationwide - and turned it on across the country.
Immediately, without having done a lick of advertising, "the calls just flooded in," he recalls. "It was a great day. They just called the number because they figured it was a way to get a divorce."
Not everyone is as lucky as O'Hanlan. Michael Levosky found that out the hard way in 1994, when he requested the use of 1-800-FOR-LEAS[E] to set up a shared-use real estate business from long-distance carrier Worldcom, a Responsible Organization. (RespOrgs are authorized by the FCC to manage marketers' toll-free records.)
According to documents on file with the U.S. District of Court for the District of Massachusetts, Worldcom confirmed the number would be obtained for Levosky, but never connected it to his business, Play Time inc. Eventually, Worldcom assigned the number to another real estate company for shared-use purposes. Levosky sued and won $150,000. Worldcom appealed and lost. Levosky's lawyer, Kenneth L. Kimmell, partner at Bernstein, Cushner & Kimmell PC, Boston, says he won because he proved his client ordered the number first. Kimmel says Worldcom's situation was inadvertent, and not bad intent.
Tell that to Loren Stocker, managing partner, San Diego-based Vanity International. He certified his marketing consultancy as a RespOrg to avoid having to deal with large carriers. Like many in the industry, he harbors suspicion toward the large carriers. "There's certainly an incentive [for the marketer] to go to an independent RespOrg. I can't rely on the phone companies to provide first-come, first-serve. They are not obligated to do that."
A problem of particular concern to small businesses that subscribe to a shared-use vanity line is receiving wrong numbers. A small business could sink under the weight of toll-free calls pouring in from someone else's customers. The number may work fine in other area codes, but be close enough to another number in your area that customers call your firm by mistake.
Stocker, who received 1,400 wrong numbers one month when he activated a number similar to a national ticket-ordering line, says that before subscribing, it's important to ensure that the provider will issue credit for wrong numbers.
This document provided by HighBeam Research at http://www.highbeam.com