Like most car dealerships, Maroone Honda of Hollywood, Fla., wanted to generate more business in its showroom. So the distributor added a catchy, easy-to-remember phone number to its ongoing print and radio advertising campaign. Maroone was soon inundated with an additional thousand phone calls from prospective buyers each month and enough additional sales to make him one of the top 10 Honda sellers in the country.

“The reason we got this number is simple: if someone in the South Florida area wants a Honda, all they need to know or remember to call is 1 800 NEW HONDA,” says general manager Bobby Yoxall. The company added the powder room number three years ago. “Other (local) dealers are just mad that they didn’t think of it first,” says Yoxall.

Toll-free, easy-to-remember numbers like Maroone’s are a “cash register” for businesses, especially “custom numbers” that use a word associated with the business or its service, says Judith Oppenheimer, an industry analyst and President of ICB Toll. -Free consulting in New York. But with the toll-free 800 number pool nearly depleted, and illegal phone numbers being bought and sold, snagging a memorable number can be an exercise in futility. There are a few tricks that can help small businesses find a magic number, despite the competition.

touching the cash register

Personalized numbers like 800-FLOWERS and 800 CALL ATT have been known to generate a minimum of 40 percent more calls than non-memorable numbers, says Oppenheimer, who believes the average is much higher.

The pool of 800 numbers available to businesses is quite small at any given time. Telephone operators have tried to adapt to the growing demand by introducing other free prefixes. But those prefixes (888, 877, 866) usually produce less traffic. “Some will tell you that 877 and 866 are fine. They’re not,” says Oppenheimer.

Few studies have been done, but plenty of anecdotal evidence supports that claim. Oppenheimer points out to a client that he included his 877 toll-free number in a series of radio advertisements. He also owned the 800 version of the same number, but did not include it in the ad. But the 800 number received more than twice as many calls as the 877 number.

Why? Consumers tend to remember vanity numbers as “800,” regardless of the prefix. “It’s not about knowing that 888 or 877 are free prefixes,” says Oppenheimer. “It’s whether those numbers have been marked in your mind in a way that makes you respond.” So when a business uses an 888 or some other toll-free non-800 prefix, a lot of their calls, maybe 40 percent, end up going to whoever has the 800 version of the number, who may very well be a competitor, he says. he. .

There are other reasons to expect an 800 prefix. “Generally, when people call a vanity number, they’re raising their hand to buy,” says Oppenheimer. “They’re not tire kickers. When you’re marking a word, there’s a different mindset and behavioral process.” People are ready to buy at that point, he says.

Yoxall won’t reveal how many more cars he’s selling under the number. But the dealership has gone from the list of the top 20 Honda dealers in the country to the top 10 over the past three years. Yoxall attributes much of that success to the addition of an easy-to-remember phone number.

Shared use

In 1997, the Federal Communications Commission ruled that the buying and selling of phone numbers is illegal and strengthened its ruling last December. The thinking, in part, is that phone numbers themselves shouldn’t be profit-making commodities bought and sold on the open market. But while getting your own 800 number can be next to impossible, sharing one is a much more likely, cheaper, and legal alternative.

Next page: Pick a number, any number.

Here’s how it works: Businesses typically receive a list of all the phone numbers that dial their 800 number. If most of their business is in a limited region, they can agree to share your number with another business outside of their region. The phone company sets things up so that incoming calls are detected by area code and routed to the proper company.

It’s the same technology that big players like Pizza Hut use to direct customers to the nearest store when they call 800 PIZZA HUT. So the recycling team in New Jersey, which receives mostly local calls, can share with the surf shop in Los Angeles that sells to the West Coast and the boot maker in Dallas, all of whom need the same digits to spell their custom number.

Maroone Honda shares its number with Honda dealers in other parts of Florida that do not compete for the same buyers. How much should a company pay for luxury? The price can be very reasonable, says Oppenheimer. “You could pay anywhere from $40 to $200 a month,” she says. “Or the company that owns the number could charge per minute or $1 per call.” They usually charge a little more than you pay per call, plus a monthly fee.

Small businesses can begin their search by contacting a company that specializes in doing these number sharing matches, such as Dial800 and Response Marketing, who set up the agreement and then allow customers to track the number of calls, peak hours of traffic and other online data. Or just call the number you want and negotiate with the current owner, says Oppenheimer.

If all else fails, a local custom number might be appropriate. If you own a pizzeria in New York and most of your business comes from the 212 area code, (212) JOES PIZZA could be a profitable phone number.

Another option for some businesses might include getting a number with easy-to-remember digits, such as 654-4321. The most obvious and easy-to-remember numbers are likely to be taken, but they’re worth asking for, says Oppenheimer. The best thing for phone operators is to make business customers happy.

hide your cards

In any case, don’t tilt your hand, says Oppenheimer. Phone companies have been known to reserve those numbers for larger corporations with large advertising budgets. They know that the number is likely to generate more traffic and therefore more profit for the telephone operator itself. Revealing the actual personal number, whether local or not, can alert the phone company that it’s a good number for another business.

“Never ask them for a vanity number. Tell them the actual number you want (using numerical digits),” says Oppenheimer. And if AT&T says it doesn’t have the number, go to MCI, Sprint, or other carriers, including wireless and cable carriers.

What is considered a good number? The personalized number should reflect the brand of the company, if it is well known, or if not, the product or service itself. And numbers with more than seven digits after the 800 prefix won’t work from cell phones.