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I am building a SaaS app, it's a pure search and download data type of app so I am not expecting much customer interaction other than site usage and I am wrestling with the question of weather I need a 1-800 number or can I just have my customers contact me through email? I will have an easy to use contacts page, FAQ page and a separate Help Guide Section and I was thinking this might be enough, not to mention I could eliminate another monthly expense by not having to pay for a 800 number.

I would appreciate your thoughts.

Thanks, Tim- VA

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4 Answers

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Sometimes a phone number in place, even if hardly used, can make a big difference to people feeling more at ease with using a service and of course if you happen to be taking payment.

If you have potential customers while you are in the build stage you could contact them to see what they think whether a phone number is important to them but when asking them about things like this, dont try to steer their answer in the direction that is best for you, you might find out that customers would feel more comfortable knowing that they can call if necessary.

Consider not only whether you should have a working phone number in place but also can you provide someone to be ready to pick up the phone, that might be yourself, a virtual assistant or other employee and will it be just during office hours or 24/7 and national or international.

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You know, that's a really good point. I am taking payments so having a contact number with a human being on the other line will go towards making my customers feel more at ease knowing there is a person ready to help solve any issue that may come up. – Tim Mar 20 '12 at 20:35
I can totally understand you wanting to keep costs down because that is what i would be thinking too in your position, but as you are very aware theres so much benefit from the phone number, it might greatly increase the amount of business generated, its also great if you have a phone number and your competitors dont, also you or your employee get to talk to them which can bring you more very useful feedback. – user14718 Mar 20 '12 at 20:57
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That's exactly right, I was focusing on the burden rather than the benefit it could bring. I believe, based on this, the number is justified and worth it. Thanks John. – Tim Mar 20 '12 at 21:07
up vote 4 down vote

A lot depends on the type of customer (business or consumer) and cost of the service.

As a general rule the more ways you can engage your customers or prospective customers the better but the actual cost of the number is minimal compared to the cost of the time answering the calls that will come in.

If you can't afford to field the phone calls then it's almost always better to not publish a number... some customers may be put off by needing to use email instead of phone but not as many as will be put off by not having their phone call answered.

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That's a good point about the actual time used by the answering of calls which will eat into the day and cause more of an expense. – Tim Mar 19 '12 at 17:29
up vote 0 down vote

There are at least two conditions where you may be required to have a phone number:

(1) If you're doing a service where customers can upload content (which probably means any service), you will likely want to go through the steps to get the DMCA safe-harbor in case somebody uploads content that infringes somebody else's copyright. One of the requirements of the safe harbor is that you have to have a "DMCA Agent" to get DMCA complaints, and the agent's address and phone number have to be on the website. (See 17 USC 512(c)(2)).

(2) If you expect contact with children, you may need to copy with the rules under the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) which, among other things, require a phone number to be posted as part of the service's privacy policy.

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Neither of these conditions apply to my service, thanks for the info. – Tim Mar 20 '12 at 16:44
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With our startup we've found it invaluable. We put it on the top right of every page. It's used way less then our email or chat support, but the people that use it love us for it. In our case it's a differentiator from our competition.

Another upside... when you get a customer on the phone you can take advantage of that opportunity by getting their feedback on any number of things that go beyond their support issue that you've hopefully solved quickly.

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