Voice Mail 2.0

PREV 1 | 2

New York City-based SimulScribe takes another approach. It uses software to transcribe voice messages into text files, which are e-mailed to you--so you can read your voice mail on a BlackBerry while, say, you sit in a meeting. Other services, including GotVoice, Pinger, and Jott, help you send messages to a large group of staff or clients. Jott users dial a number and record a message. The message is transcribed in India and delivered via e-mail and text message, usually within four to five minutes.

Another company is trying to end the era of multiple phone numbers. GrandCentral, based in Fremont, California, lets you consolidate all your phone numbers--your home, work, and cellular lines--into one new number provided by GrandCentral. When messages come into the voice mail box on one of your old lines, they're forwarded to your new GrandCentral number and kept as audio files in an online mailbox for easy access. But the service has a major downside: To use all of GrandCentral's features, your contacts have to switch to the new number.

Many of these products are in public beta formats and the vendors are still working out kinks. Because of some glitches with GrandCentral, for example, some customers canceled the service and had to tell all their friends and clients they were changing their numbers back. And SimulScribe's transcription software can miss some words, though the company says the transcriptions are about 90 percent accurate.

Despite these glitches, voice mail 2.0 tools have already changed the way some entrepreneurs do business. Before using SimulScribe, Jason Weissman, the 28-year-old founder of Boston Realty Advisors, a commercial and residential real estate firm, was inundated by up to 50 voice mail messages a day on his office phone and another 15 to 20 on his cell phone. For Weissman and his brokers, a missed call can mean a missed sale. "Getting back to someone quickly is absolutely everything in this business," says Weissman.

Weissman recently hooked up SimulScribe for all 30 of his real estate brokers. Because SimulScribe stores all of their voice mails online, Weissman's brokers never have to search for that lost phone number scrawled on a napkin. They can also sift through their online SimulScribe boxes, which retain all incoming messages, for sales leads.

Compared with his $30,000 to $40,000 annual bill for phone, fax, and BlackBerry, Weissman says his SimulScribe investment of about $15 per user per month is relatively small. Even though he says the service struggles to translate some words, Weissman expects to see the results of his new investment reflected in his company's bottom line soon. "It's definitely a paradigm shift in terms of the way I operate," says Weissman. "I really believe this creates an efficiency for our agents and gives us an edge over the competition."

PREV 1 | 2

Try a RISK-FREE Issue of Inc. Today!

Renew | Contact Us | Current Issue

Select Services