How to Test and Monitor International Toll Numbers

International toll-free numbers (ITFN) or the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) alternative, the Universal International Freephone Numbering (UIFN), are perfect for organisations with a global customer base. These services also show a company’s commitment to their valued customers. However, all the customer service benefits of an international toll-free number can be destroyed if the line does not connect, or if the quality of the audio is bad. That is why it is essential to proactively monitor and test international toll numbers.

1. What is International Toll-free Number Testing?

Toll-free number testing usually involves dialing the number from in-country servers. The process to test an international toll-free number is similar, except the test is performed by dialing the ITFN or UIFN from different geographical locations to ensure it is connecting properly from all required countries.

Basic international toll-free number testing will help a company determine whether a certain international toll-free number is working correctly, but companies can make this process so much further by also using toll-free number testing to determine the quality of service the line is providing their customers.

2. Why do You Need to Test your International Toll-free Number?

The whole idea of having an international toll-free number is so that businesses can enable their customers to reach them easily from anywhere in the world. It makes sense for an international business to have an ITFN or UIFN number, especially when you consider that a survey done by Huff Industrial Marketing, KoMarketing, and BuyerZone found that 44% of respondents indicated they would leave a website if no contact information or phone number was visible.

A ITFN or UIFN number enables international companies to build trust and goodwill by prominently displaying these numbers on their website and marketing media. In addition, toll-free numbers show a business’ commitment to their valued customers. But this initial trust-building block can crumble if the number does not function properly. In fact, a non-functional or poor quality line could cause more harm than not having the number at all. For this reason, it is essential that you perform regular international toll-free number testing; in fact all your phone lines should be proactively tested and monitored, not just your toll-free ones.

3. What are the Benefits of International Toll-free Number Testing?

There are many benefits of international toll-free number testing and monitoring. As previously mentioned, other than ensuring your toll-free line is up and working, toll-free number testing can also help improve the quality of your customer experience. When you test your international toll-free numbers you are able to identify any problems that your customers might experience when they try to call your business. This enables you to fix any issues to ensure you provide your customers with a good experience when they call your business.

As explained earlier, when you test international toll numbers it involves the phone number being dialled directly; this gives you an opportunity to further evaluate the quality of your customer service.

4. How can you use Toll-free Number Testing to Evaluate the Quality of your Customer Experience?

Instead of just confirming the phone connects, you can check a variety of other factors such as audio quality, latency, and even things such as your agent response times. For example, when testing your line, you could also check things such as the following:

• Did the call connect?
• Did we navigate correctly through the IVR?
• Was the call answered within a certain time period?
• Was the call answered by an agent or did it go to voicemail?
• Was the correct information presented to the test caller on their phone?
• Was the information available to the agent on their CRM?

By checking, monitoring, and verifying these details during a phone number test, you are not only ensuring the line is up and working, but that the planned customer journey is routed correctly. If there is a failure at any of these points, it can negatively affect the customer’s experience.

This is especially important today as many businesses use dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) or Interactive Voice Response (IVR) on their phone lines. By regularly testing and proactively monitoring these aspects, you help prevent the customer from experiencing any unexpected and unanticipated problems; Thus preventing the customer from having an unnecessarily bad experience. This is highlighted even further by studies that show 98% of people try to bypass IVR in order to speak directly to a human.

With this in mind, ensuring your DTMF and IVR systems are functioning correctly when you test your lines becomes essential in order to avoid customer frustration.

This might already seem a huge help, but with the right platform, you can take even this a step further…

5. A Smarter more Intuitive Way to Test International Toll Numbers

You can test international toll numbers manually, but this requires time and access to multiple numbers in different countries to ensure the same experience from every location. The smarter, more intuitive way to do international toll free number testing is to utilise a dedicated service.

Utilising a dedicated service means:

• You don’t have to invest in telephone numbers in multiple locations just for testing;
• It saves you the expense of having to employ individuals in each location to run the tests and record the results;

A dedicated platform for toll-free number testing should provide the following options as a standard:

• Set tests to run immediately or automatically at intervals you choose;
• Run tests from a wide choice of locations or countries;
• Record all results for immediate or later analysing;
• Receive results and alerts immediately;

6. Benchmarking – The Extra Step to Smarter Toll Number Testing

But to really take your testing to the next level, choose a platform, such as the one provided by Spearline, which gives you the option to benchmark your results against competitors. This enables you to find hidden problem areas which you can improve in order to provide the best possible customer experience.