billbenson
11-15-2010, 10:05 PM
I frequently start work at about 11am. I usually work until after midnight. When I start work in the morning I will have at least several phone messages. 15 or 20 isn't unusual. I don't use call waiting as I don't like interrupting a customer I am talking to.
So the first thing I do is check phone messages most mornings. I then call the ones that most likely have money attached to them. It takes a while to check all the messages. I type the messages into a text file I have. Frequently I need to listen to a message twice to be sure I have the information correct.
All of the above can be time consuming. And all I am doing is transcribing information from messages. BTW, I can get 40 incoming calls on a busy day. If I am on the phone, a lot of those will end up being voice mails
I use Vonage for my business line. I also have a second line from my local ISP. Vonage has good service. Not perfect. You have to talk to India every now and then. One thing they excel at is getting and managing messages online. They also email you the caller ID info for every message.
They have a fairly new service which I just tried for the first time today. They transcribe each message and send you an email with the text of the message as well as a WAV file with the message. The charge for this service is 25 cents a message or free if you go to a premium plan.
Its pretty slick. I only had about 10 messages today, but they all were quite accurate. Phone numbers give in the message were all correct and only two misspellings today. This looks like something that can really same me a lot of time - and tedious time at that. I pay $25 per month right now. The package that includes the free transcription is $35.
So the first thing I do is check phone messages most mornings. I then call the ones that most likely have money attached to them. It takes a while to check all the messages. I type the messages into a text file I have. Frequently I need to listen to a message twice to be sure I have the information correct.
All of the above can be time consuming. And all I am doing is transcribing information from messages. BTW, I can get 40 incoming calls on a busy day. If I am on the phone, a lot of those will end up being voice mails
I use Vonage for my business line. I also have a second line from my local ISP. Vonage has good service. Not perfect. You have to talk to India every now and then. One thing they excel at is getting and managing messages online. They also email you the caller ID info for every message.
They have a fairly new service which I just tried for the first time today. They transcribe each message and send you an email with the text of the message as well as a WAV file with the message. The charge for this service is 25 cents a message or free if you go to a premium plan.
Its pretty slick. I only had about 10 messages today, but they all were quite accurate. Phone numbers give in the message were all correct and only two misspellings today. This looks like something that can really same me a lot of time - and tedious time at that. I pay $25 per month right now. The package that includes the free transcription is $35.