Voice Mail 2.0

New tools for small businesses.

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For big-wave surfers around the world, it's the one call they don't want to miss: the word from Jeff Clark that the Mavericks Surf Contest is about to begin. Clark is founder of Mavericks Surf Ventures, a company named after the legendary beach in Half Moon Bay, California, where surfers convene from around the world to test their skills against towering swells that can top 50 feet. Mavericks is a fickle spot, delivering those massive breakers only about five times each winter. So when the surf is up, the athletes need to know. And Clark needs to notify them because his company earns most of its revenue from the competition's sponsors, such as Ask.com.

For most of the company's three-year history, Clark and his staff have spent hours every week in winter calling two dozen surfers scattered across several continents, as well as corporate sponsors, caterers, media outlets, and volunteers, to update them on surf conditions. This year, however, he found a new voice messaging tool called Pinger, which allows him to send instant voice mails to large groups of people without actually calling them. He dials Pinger's number and records a message, which is automatically forwarded to everyone he needs to reach--this year, more than 600 people at once. "When I see something in the waves, I have to be able to get the message out now," says Clark. "The competitors are stoked to get the updates."

Digital technology has changed nearly everything about the way we communicate--except voice mail. Which is to say that keeping up with voice mail is still the royal pain it's always been. That's especially true today, when nearly everyone has multiple phone numbers and voice mail boxes. Checking all of those accounts means entering PIN numbers and listening to messages in the order in which they were received. But what if you could listen to that urgent message from a client before that drawn-out message from your aunt? Or merge all your voice mail accounts into a single location? Or read voice mail messages off your BlackBerry?

Some of these voice mail 2.0 services have long been available at large companies with big communications budgets. Now start-ups such as Pinger, SimulScribe, GotVoice, Jott, and GrandCentral, all of which have launched their products in the past few years, are giving small-business and consumer voice mail a much-needed technological overhaul. They take slightly different approaches. GotVoice, based in Kirkland, Washington, uses an automatic dialing system to log in to each of your voice mail accounts. It records the messages and e-mails them to you as MP3 files. "Voice mail is usually just drudgery," says Bruce Peterson, co-founder of GotVoice. "Our service is for anyone who's busy, can't miss a call, and hates to check messages."

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