Jan, 2009 : HostGator Offers Clients Toll-Free Numbers

📅 January 14, 2009 - Adding yet another enhancement to its business hosting plan, shared, reseller and dedicated web hosting company HostGator (hostgator.com 👉 Total Reviews: 57
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According to the company's announcement Wednesday, each toll-free number, supplied through voice-over-IP provider VOIPo (voipo.com), includes 100 free minutes of usage per month with additional minutes available for 4.9 cents each. Customers can view their toll-free number's call history online in real-time.

Adding a toll-free number to its business-oriented shared hosting plan will complement HostGator's flagship plan, according to the company. The business plan already lets users host unlimited websites and includes a free private SSL certificate and dedicated IP address as well as unlimited disk space and bandwidth.

"Late last year, we set a new industry standard by including a free SSL certificate and dedicated IP address with our Business hosting plan," HostGator founder and chief executive officer Brent Oxley said in a statement. "Now, we're taking it a step further and giving those same customers a toll-free number at no charge."

HostGator marketing director Chad Bean notes that customers tend to trust businesses that can post a toll-free number online.

"It's no mystery that having a toll-free number on your website can drastically improve conversion rates and further establish trust with your site's visitors," Bean said in a statement. "By providing toll-free numbers for free, we're adding another service to our growing roster of free add-ons and helping to give our web hosting customers the competitive edge in the increasingly competitive hosting market."

The toll-free phone number service is provided and managed by Houston-based VOIPo, which was founded by a former HostGator executive in 2006.

Having added 4,500 free web design templates for customers just over a year ago, adding freebies has been a successful strategy for HostGator, which was named the 21st fastest growing private company in the US according to Inc. Magazine's August 2008 report.