Wineries Can be Well-Prepared to Market Interstate with Kall8

SEATTLE, Wash. - December 10, 2004 - In anticipation of a victory for wineries in the U.S. Supreme Court case involving interstate wine sales, the hosted telephone service Kall8 offers an invaluable tool wineries can use to directly market wines to customers across state lines.

Kall8 is a hosted telephone service offering toll-free and local numbers that wineries can provide their customers for ordering wine or getting tour information. For as little as a $2 set-up fee and $2 a month service fee, wineries can establish a Kall8 number that will be toll-free for customers. There's no equipment to buy, no software to install, no contract to sign. All wineries need is a dial tone. With an existing Internet connection, they may self-manage their toll-free number online.

"Kall8's real value are the included features like advanced call management and call reporting," said Marketing Manager Bill Johnson.

With Kall8 service, wineries can limit from where they'll accept calls, Johnson said. Say a winery doesn't want to market beyond a set geographical area, it could establish and manage the geographical area by communities, by area codes, or by states.

"Wineries can even limit the calling area to their home states, if desired," Johnson added. "So, in the event the Supreme Court rules against interstate sales of wine, wineries can continue to use their Kall8 numbers to market in their home states. Alternatively, they can keep a toll-free number for tours or prerecorded messages, to be advertised nationwide."

By using the information they get with Kall8's call reporting, wineries can find out who is calling them and at what times, particularly when customers don't leave messages.

"A missed call doesn't necessarily have to equate to a lost sale," Johnson said.

And if wineries combine their call information with their sales data, they can come up with some insightful marketing reports that can help them increase sales or help them determine their best and most successful advertising venues, he added.

Wineries can also affordably add an auto attendant for a $50 service fee and $25 a month. The auto attendant not only lends wineries a professional sound, it also helps them extend their hours of operation by giving customers options when no one is available to answer their calls. Wineries can record messages with the days and hours their tasting rooms are open or when they are offering tours, so winery managers or sales associates have more time to deal with questions from customers about sales.

"Auto attendant, call reporting and advanced call management only scratches the surface when you look at everything that's included in the Kall8 service with a rate of 6.9 cents per minute," Johnson said. "Kall8 packs powerful tools for wineries of all sizes so they don't have to spend a small fortune on service fees, equipment and installation, and maintenance.

"Other companies offer toll-free numbers, and they may even have competitive per-minute rates," Johnson added, "but look at the fine print and you'll find they often provide dial tone only. Then they tack on expensive per-line service fees for the same features that make Kall8 such an incredible value.

"We know the Supreme Court has not come down with a decision yet, and we certainly don't claim to know how the justices will rule," he said. "But we see our company providing an invaluable marketing tool in toll-free service to wineries because of our 'One Service, One Solution, One Rate' offering."

"We're mentioning our services now because we want to give wineries the opportunity to check us out in the next few months, and see for themselves the kind of value we are talking about here," Johnson added. "Wineries that do so can have their Kall8 numbers well-established in their home states and ready to market to more customers when the Supreme Court rules in their favor, several months from now. And as we said before, even if the court doesn't rule in the wineries favor, wineries can continue to use our numbers to grow their business."

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