Elan

Using the phone to crowdsource crises management

The Chicago Sun-Times featured an article today about how IfByPhone technology gives voice to Kenyan citizen journalists. The article details how Ushahdi (meaning "Testimony" in Swahili), is using Ifbyphone's asterisk hosting platform to enable contributors to the grass roots Ushahidi network to call in and broadcast voice reports of violence in Kenya.

The Call Tracking software industry, and why you should get on board.

Last week Andrew Miller interviewed 3 Call Tracking companies for a Call Tracking Roundtable, and I wanted to elaborate a little bit more on our own blog.

Are You Making The Same Marketing Mistake As Salesforce.com?

In his book Behind the Cloud: The untold story of how salesforce.com went from an idea to a billion-dollar company--and revolutionized an industry, CEO Marc Benioff shares the following story on pages 44-45:

Average Direct Marketing Response Rates in 2010

According to the DMA's 2010 Response Rate Trend Report, here are the average direct marketing response rates in 2010 for telemarketing, email, direct mail, catalogs and paid search.

Key Findings:

4 Creative IVR Applications

While I hate getting stuck in poorly designed IVR phone menus just as much as you do, here are 4 examples of using IVR to create a "wow, that's cool" customer experience.

1. Don't press any buttons. The Moshi IVR Alarm Clock recognizes what you say. Not ideal for sleep talkers.

Groupon API Phone Mashup For Deal of the Day By Phone

Groupon is a startup based in our own backyard so when they recently released their API we figured we'd give it a try. The mashup is pretty simple. You can call (312) 469-0907 and you'll hear Groupon Chicago's deal of the day.

You can download the code here.

How To Track Phone Calls From Your Website

Wondering how to track phone calls from your website? While traditional web analytics tools don't track offline conversions, there are in fact a number tools for website call tracking.

3 Blog Posts About Website Call Tracking:

One Phone Number For Everything

Does your business want one phone number for multiple phones? At Ifbyphone, we can make that a reality.

By using our suite of phone applications, you can advertise just one number for everything your business needs but still route calls to an unlimited number of phones or people. Here's some examples:

1. Find Me - Simultaneously forward the call to you office, cell and home phone.

Phone Call Tracking In Google Analytics Application Gallery

Ifbyphone's Call Tracking Software is one of the first applications to be featured in today's debut of the Google Analytics Application Gallery.

A Double Header In San Francisco

This week we'll be at two telco industry conferences in San Francisco.

Tomorrow, Ifbyphone's Director of Cloudvox Services Troy Davis will be presenting a demo entitled "Toward Painless, Free, Open Phone Data" at eComm.

Introducing Flexible Speech-To-Text Transcription

Today we're announcing Ifbyphone's rollout of Speech-To-Text Transcription, which enables your company to translate audio message into text. Here are a few reasons it is really cool and, more importantly, useful for business.

Think With Google, Non-Line Analytics, and Call Tracking

Avinash Kaushik, in a session about "Nonline Driven Analytics" at the "think with Google" summit, recently said, "When people come to your website using different strategies, you can show them a different phone number to actually track if people are taking the call to action that you desire. Quantify the value of those calls to action because that is where promotions come from.

VoteByPhone To Win A $100 Gift Card

We're down to the Final Four, and we want to find out who you think will become the Men's NCAA Basketball Champion by using our new VoteByPhone application for real-time polls over the phone.

In fact, we're so curious we're going to give away a $100 gift card to a voter.

Here's the contest:

7 Essential Phone Applications For Lead Generation Companies

In the spirit of LeadsCon 2010, here are 7 examples of how lead generation companies are gaining a competitive edge by using phone applications to track, qualify and route phone leads.

1. Call Tracking
When prospects prefer making a phone call to filling out a web form, use Call Tracking to accurately measure phone leads, not just web form submissions.

New Developer API Documentation

We've revamped our API Documentation. The static PDF has been replaced by interactive API documentation that includes a Developer Guide and Test Panel. Here are some highlights:

Call Tracking For Advertising Video

Ifbyphone Sessions At ITEXPO EAST 2010

Ifbyphone CEO Irv Shapiro will be speaking at two sessions at next week's big Telecom industry event, ITEXPO East 2010. Here are the details:

Cloud Communications Summit: Communication Enabled Business Process Track
Jan 20th, Wednesday
11:00 am

Webinar: Boosting Phone Call Conversions by 42%

WiderFunnel.com, a leading Online Marketing Optimization firm, is running an exciting webinar on January 13 called "Boosting AdWords Landing Page Phone Call Conversions by 42%". The webinar is about how WiderFunnel used Ifbyphone's Call Tracking Numbers to accurately measure phone call leads and boost landing page conversion rates for their client.

3 New Features For Virtual Call Center

We’re excited to announce the release of three new beta features for our Virtual Call Center technology.

1. Call Notes
2. Custom Caller ID
3. Call Distributor Summary Report

Here are more details about each feature:

Call Notes
Using Call Notes, call center managers can create a custom web form so that agents can make notes (about contact info, lead source, call quality, etc.) for each call directly in the agent panel.

Let Us Save You $240,000 Too

We LOVE saving customers money, and today we're sharing a top of the line success story.

We recently helped DiabetesAmerica, a health center with 17 locations across Arizona and Texas, save $240,000 per year by using our Virtual Call Center and IVR technology. They made the switch in under 2 weeks with no upfront costs, and improved their customer service in the process. What did they have to say?

Look The Part When Choosing Your Phone Number

Your phone number says a lot about you. For example, are you a local business or a national one? When you buy phone numbers, it is important to consider the pros and cons of using toll-free v. local phone numbers.

3 Reasons To Choose Local Numbers

• Project a local image, even if you are national
• Cheaper than toll-free numbers and toll-free minutes
• Customers are more likely to answer your calls

Ifbyphone Named Tech Awards Circle Gold Medal Winner For SMB Software

Ifbyphone today announced that it has been selected as a winner of the Tech Awards Circle, taking Gold in the SMB Software and Service category. Winners were selected by an independent circle of publication reviewers/journalists from nominations based on a broad range of achievements – from product and technology innovations to talented executive leadership and engineering innovators.

How The iPhone Voice Broadcast App Helps Teacher Save Time

In addition to classroom time, teachers spend many hours each week preparing lessons, grading assignments and communicating with parents. Since we love helping our customers save time at work, we were excited to read the following story.

Super Excited For SUPERCOMM

We're super excited for SUPERCOMM this Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. It should be another great industry event in our own backyard.

We're looking to meet telecom carriers & service providers that want to white-label and resell telephone applications to broaden their service offering, increase stickiness, and ultimately grow revenue.

Will you be at the show? Use the links below to learn a little more about us, and then stop by booth 3112.

Blog Post Roundup - July to September 2009

Here are some of my favorite posts from the past 3 months, July - September 2009:

Triple Crown of Telephony - Ifbyphone Receives 3 Awards

Three is better than one, especially when it comes to awards. Today, we're excited to announce that we've just received three distinct industry awards. Here they are:

AdTech Chicago 2009 Podcast With Ifbyphone CEO Irv Shapiro

Want to learn a little more about Ifbyphone? Listen to this WebMasterRadio.FM interview with Ifbyphone CEO Irv Shapiro.

Phone Call Recording Law Resources

Ifbyphone's Find Me, IVR, Store Locator & Call Distributor all enable you to record phone calls. Since many of our customers choose to record calls, we've put together a call recording guide outlining laws that pertain to recording phone calls.

Back To School

It's that time of year again. Students across the country are headed back to school, but that doesn't mean business people can't learn something new too.

In the "Back To School" spirit, we recently developed a new "curriculum" of Screencasts-- step-by-step video tutorials--to help you learn how to configure Ifbyphone's applications.

Now that students are back in school, why not take a few minutes to learn a new application?

Media Advisory For New September 2009 Voice Broadcasting Laws

Are you a looking to interview experts about the FTC's new Telemarketing Sales Rule Voice Broadcasting requirements? Ifbyphone CEO Irv Shapiro is available to answer your questions. Here are the details from our Media Advisory:

How 2 Small Franchise Businesses Save $1000 Per Month

Yesterday Ifbyphone announced that two Weed Man franchisees are saving almost $1000 / month using Ifbyphone's Voice Broadcasting Solution.

Irv Shapiro To Speak 3 Times At ITExpo West 2009

ITExpo West is coming up on September 1, 2009. Ifbyphone CEO Irv Shapiro will be speaking at three different sessions.

How To VoIP: Numerous Options, Critical Choices

Tuesday 9/01/09, 9:00 - 9:45am

ClueCon 2009 - Here We Come

ClueCon is an Open Source Telephony Developers Conference that takes place in our own backyard, at the Wyndham in Chicago, IL.

ClueCon 2009 begins tomorrow, and there is a jam-packed schedule of speakers, including Ifbyphone's CEO Irv Shapiro who will be speaking about "Cloud Telephony".

Call Tracking For SEM

Ifbyphone provides a powerful suite of call tracking tools for SEM (Search Engine Marketing). Yesterday, we announced that ClickFuel, a leader in Search Engine Marketing, chose our platform for their client's SEM call tracking needs.

Unique Phone Numbers For Tracking Calls

A big challenge in online marketing is how to track offline conversions. These days, web analytics tools make it very easy to measure the exact effectiveness of your website, but not everyone's call-to-action is a click. If you're in a service oriented business, there is a good chance you're hoping visitors to your website will call you. 

Call Distributor Press

A range of publications wrote about our Call Distributor announcement this week:

Speech Tech Magazine - Ifbyphone Unveils Virtual Call Center Service

Focus - Ifbyphone Introduces Hosted "Cloud" Call Center

Your Office Phone System Is Down - Now What?

Your office's phone system is down. Now what?

One of the most common disruptions to befall a business is a temporary disruption of their phone service due to a break in the lines to the office. The phone numbers still work, but until the connection is fixed, as far as customers and prospects are concerned, you are closed. 

How do you eliminate the risk of phone downtime?

The Starbucks of Telecom

In a blog post on TMCnet.com late yesterday, Peter Radizeski of RAD-INFO cited a Twitter Exchange he had with Alex Balashov of Evariste Systems. They discussed everything "from long distance to calling card to SIP trunking" on Twitter, then Peter recapped the discussion in a blog post.

4 Ways To Track Phone Calls From Twitter

A hot topic lately has been how to track and analyze traffic from social media, and more specifically from Twitter. I want to address how to track phone calls, or phone leads, your business receives by using Twitter, or any other social media tool. As you go down the list, each example gets a little more interesting.

Our Core Values

As a company, we live by four core values. Now, we've published them for everyone to see in a new core values page in the About Us section of our website. As you consider working with Ifbyphone, feel free to visit the page to read what we're all about.

ClueCon 2009

ClueCon is an annual 3-Day Telephony User and Developer Conference bringing together the entire spectrum of Telephony from TDM circuits to VoIP and everything in between. The best part is that it is located in our backyard, downtown Chicago.

Yesterday the ClueCon blog announced that Irv Shapiro, Ifbyphone's CEO, will be presenting. Here is a description of the session:

Joomla 1.5 Click To Call Module Is Now Available

Virtual Phone Numbers - Everything You Need To Know

I'm going to share answers to the most common questions about virtual phone numbers.

What is a virtual phone number?
A virtual phone number, also referred to as just a virtual number, is a telephone number whose routing you can change since it isn’t connected to a specific telephone line.

We're growing and we're hiring

We're looking for a few new talented people to join our rapidly growing team. Here is some info about our company and the open positions:

Connect with us on Twitter

Are you on Twitter? Send us a tweet. We love to follow our customers! http://twitter.com/ifbyphone

Have a story you want us to share? Talk to us about getting featured on our blog. 

Scrubbing Your Call Lists for More Efficient Voice Broadcasting

Voice Broadcasting is about reaching the most people to get your message across. After all, when you're marketing, you can't promote your service or product if there isn't an audience. In the Voice Broadcasting world, a call list with disconnected numbers is the enemy, and here at Ifbyphone we have added a way to remove these malicious numbers from your call list. The best part? You don't need to do a thing, and it won't cost you a penny.

Ifbyphone Enables Softswitch-Equiped CLEC, ILEC, Hosted PBX & MSO Companies To Expand Service Offering

We're making a big announcement this week. Here is a preview of our press release:

Blog posts about saving money and improving efficiency

I wanted to share these recent blog posts that contain tips for leveraging ifbyphone to save money and improve efficiency:

Using Automated Calls For Appointment Confirmation

We're Hiring A Channel Sales Manager

We're hiring. Here are the details: 

eComm 2009 Presentation on YouTube

Ifbyphone recently led a session at eComm 2009 on how to build an Ifbyphone-to-iPhone App. We've uploaded the session to YouTube. You can find it on the Ifbyphone YouTube Channel, and I've also listed the URLs for the 7 parts below:

Freebie Friday - Test Drive Some Ifbyphone Phone Applications

What's Freebie Friday? We're simply inviting you to sign-up & test drive some of our basic phone applications.

All accounts include 100 Free monthly minutes: 

Phone-Me-Now Account - Basic Click-to-Call functionality

10 Top Features of a Find Me Call Forwarding Service

Here are 10 Find Me Call Forwarding features that you should consider: 

Forwarding By Schedule - Easily set up & update a schedule online for how to forward calls.

Simultaneous Forwarding –  Forward a call to multiple numbers at the same time. For example, a phone call forwards to your office & cell at the same time.

3 Ways To Reduce Costs & Save Money Using The Phone

Times are tough. How do you reduce costs?
Here are three ways your business can save money:

3 Phone Mashups Examples

I wanted to link back to some Phone Mashups examples we've featured on the blog. One is fun, one is practical, and one is actually being used by a few customers.

FUN: Yelp.com Phone Mashup - Get reviews over the phone.

Voice Broadcasting Service To Make Automated Phone Calls To A List Of People

Are you looking for a way to easily and automatically call a list of people? Maybe you are planning an event and want to call everyone reminding them to RSVP. Maybe you are a coach reminding your team about the time and location of the next game. Or perhaps, you have a list of prospects you want to call and invite to transfer back to you if they are interested in your service.

PPPC - What's the extra P for?

In online advertising lingo, one of the most commonly used three letter acronyms is PPC, meaning pay-per-click. While the pay-per-click model is great for ecommerce websites, or website that ask you to fill out a form for a free white paper / ebook / subscription / etc., the PPC model is broken for plumbers, lawyers, other other service professionals that rely on phone calls.

With that thought in mind, I'd like to introduce another acronym for online advertising and lead generation called PPPC, or Pay-Per-Phone-Call.

Let me explain how you can use this model. . .

8 Favorite Posts

Here are 8 posts I've written that I think are worth taking another look at . . .

Voice Broadcasting: 17 Questions To Ask Before Choosing A Provider

Store Locator Helps Franchise Route & Track Phone Calls

Today Batteries Plus & Ifbyphone announced a new and innovative way for franchises to route phone calls based on geography. Here is the press release:

IFBYPHONE APPLICATION GIVES BATTERIES PLUS A JOLT

Store Locator Solution Helps Battery Retailer Improve Customer Service

100% On-Time Delivery Guarantee For Voice Broadcasting

IFBYPHONE DELIVERS VOICE BROADCAST SERVICE GUARANTEE

Irv Shapiro Presenting At ITEXPO 2009

Ifbyphone CEO Irv Shapiro will be presenting on the topic of "Contact Centers in a Web 2.0 World" at ITEXPO on February 4, 2009, alongside Thomas Howe, Shai Berger & Albert Chu.

Voice Broadcasting: 17 Questions To Ask Your Service Provider

Are you shopping around for a solution to automatically send outbound calls to customers or prospects?

Whether you call it Voice Broadcasting, Phone Broadcasting, Voice Mail / Message Broadcasting, Robo Calling, or just automated calling, here are 17 questions you should consider asking before you choose your provider:

Ifbyphone's New YouTube Channel

We've recently opened up a YouTube channel. The channel includes our demo videos about conference calling on the iPhone, virtual receptionist, sales & marketing, trackable phone numbers, & voice broadcasting.

Ifbyphone Highlighted As Big VoIP Story of 2008

Alec Saunders wrote an article yesterday sharing his thoughts on the future of VoIP. The article mentioned Ifbyphone as one of the big VoIP stories of 2008. Here is the excerpt:

Ifbyphone On Twitter

Are you on Twitter?

Yes? Follow Ifbyphone On Twitter.

No? You can sign up for Twitter.

Then, read this neat post on an Ifbyphone / Twitter Phone Call Mashup.

Top 10 Cool & Free Text Message & Toll Free Services For Your Cell Phone

Here are 10 of our favorite Free SMS or Toll-Free services that help you access information from your phone. Have an idea for a new one? We'll show you how to use Ifbyphone's phone mashup technology to create your own toll-free information service. Create it for yourself, your friends, or your business.

10. TellMe - Call 800-555-Tell to get info on sports, news, weather, stocks, and horoscopes.

Preferred Telephony Solution For Ad Agencies and Web Designers

For a while now we've been saying that Ifbyphone makes developing telephony solutions as easy as building websites. The idea is that anyone who can develop a website can easily and quickly develop a custom telephony solution to integrate voice into advertising and marketing campaigns.

Presenting at Search Engine Strategies 2008 - Chicago

Todd Curry, Ifbyphone's VP of Marketing, will be presenting on Tuesday December 9 at the Chicago Search Engine Strategies 2008 Conference & Expo.

Cut Costs & Increase Revenues During Tough Times

While small business owners are looking to cut costs given the current economic conditions, SmallBusinessTechnology.com recently featured an article about how "technology can help small companies cut expenses, boost sales, save time, and work more efficiently", including Ifbyphone in the mix of solutions. Here is the excerpt:

Search-word optimization with Ifbyphone

TechCrunch Crunchies Best Enterprise Award - Help Nominate Ifbyphone

We’re asking Ifbyphone customers, fans and blog readers to help nominate Ifbyphone for TechCrunch’s 2008 Crunchies "Best Enterprise Award". You can vote 1 time per day per IP address through December 10. Please click on the banner and vote!

Venturing Forward: Interview With Ifbyphone CEO Irv Shapiro

MidwestBusiness.com featured an interview today with Ifbyphone CEO Irv Shapiro. You can read the full interview here.

You can also check out two other interviews from earlier this year:

TelephonyOnline.com Interview

Ifbyphone Raises $4.6 Million

Another piece of exciting Ifbyphone news rolled in today, as we officially announced a $4.6 Million round of financing.

Introducing Ifbyphone's 2nd iPhone App: Conference Call

With the help of the iPhone, Ifbyphone is giving a whole new meaning to the phrase, "Don't call us, we'll call you". Today we announced the release of our iPhone Conference Call app, which joins our Voice Broadcast app on the iTunes app store. Here is a video demo of the app:

Ifbyphone Receives Honorable Mention at ad:tech New York

Ifbyphone just received an honorable mention in AdRANTs.com's ad:tech Booth Schwag Award for 2008, for giving away cool Ifbyphone branded red light-up yo-yos.

iPhone Voice Broadcast App For Soccer Coaches

One of the Ifbyphone team members coaches his daughter's soccer team. Every week, he had to email parents about the upcoming game time and location. Every week, at least one parent would miss the email.

New Find Me Option: Simultaneous Call Forwarding

Ifbyphone is excited to announce the release of a new Find Me Call Forwarding option. Our customers can now use the simultaneous calls options to ring multiple phone numbers at the same time.

Joe The Plumber: 3 Phone Features To Help His Business

Joe the Plumber has been all over the news, and surely this coverage is overwhelming his business.

An Ifbyphone New Features Update

Over the past few months Ifbyphone has released a number of new features. Here's a list of some of the goods:

Cool Open Source Telephony Technology at Web 2.0 Expo

Serdar Yegulalp at InformationWeek recently wrote,

"the award for Single Coolest Thing Done With Open Source at the Web 2.0 show has to go to Ifbyphone."

What is the "Coolest Thing" they are referring to? Well, as the article puts it:

iPhone App Development Platform Podcast

Yesterday Ifbyphone CEO Irv Shapiro participated in a discussion with Truphone's James Body and Martin Rosinski of Palringo on Alex Saunder's Squawkbox about the iPhone Development Platform.

Automated Phone Polling Using Voice Broadcast & Hosted IVR

Now that the 2008 Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates have all been announced, let's briefly look at an emerging phone technology in the political polling space.

Ifbyphone Store Locator - Route Calls By Location

Ifbyphone recently announced the Ifbyphone Store Locator, yet another business solution in our suite of instant phone applications. Store Locator routes incoming calls to a business phone number to the location nearest to the caller. For example, a franchise can advertise one number nationally.

Introducing The Ifbyphone Lead Distributor

Just a few days after launching the Ifbyphone Voice Broadcast app for the iPhone, today we are introducing the Ifbyphone Lead Distributor.

Basically, the Ifbyphone Lead Distributor allows Ifbyphone customers to establish a virtual call center without any start-up expense.

As an excerpt from our press release states,

Ifbphone's New Plugins & Press Pages

Ifbyphone has recently added 2 new pages to our website, and we invite you to take a look.

1. A Press Page: Features recent articles, press releases, & blog entries about us.
2. A Plugins Page: Ifbyphone is now displaying our iPhone App, Facebook App, Joomla Module, Yahoo Widget, and sev
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Ifbyphone's Virtual Receptionist To The Rescue (Part II)

The ifbyphone success story continues... "Popcorn retailer finds ingredients to success".

Here is an excerpt from today's San Antonio Business Journal:

Reduce e-commerce Credit Card Fraud Via Phone With Verify-Me-Now

This week Ifbyphone is exhibiting at ISPCON, where we announced the launch of a new API solution called Verify-Me-Now. Basically, Verify-Me-Now enables ISPs and any e-commerce or SAAS site to slash fraud rates by combining the power of the Web with the telephone. More specifically, here is how Verify-Me-Now can reduce credit card fraud: