atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums General General Telephone & Systems Information Tip to save 411 phone fees for your business customers

Hello all,
I asked this site about this idea before posting. They suggested posting in the Private Installers area, but I don't think I have permissions to post there. I decided to post here, instead. If you like this idea, please feel free to post in other areas.

I wanted to pass along a FREE idea to save money for your business customers who either block 411 calls in their PBXs or who allow their employees to call 411, thereby incurring a fee of usually at least $1.50 per call (and sometimes as high as $3.00 per call).

For any US company whose phone systems can be configured to redirect/translate calls to a different number, you can now provide an easy way for these businesses to give their employees the freedom to call for telephone numbers and AVOID the fees for calling 411 – and the best part is that it would be completely FREE to the companies who choose to implement it. There are now a bunch of companies offering "free" directory assistance services, which you usually reach by dialing a toll-free number, instead of the traditional "411".

If businesses translate the 411 calls to 1-800-YellowPages (800-935-5697), which is one of the free services, these calls will no longer accrue charges for those businesses. Also, even if companies currently BLOCK calls to 411 from their PBXs, they could now allow them after all, but just route those 411 calls in their PBXs to 1-800-YellowPages.

I think this specific free directory assistance service would be best for this purpose, based on the following reasons.

First, it has automation, but also has operator back-up no matter where you are in the US, and no matter what time of day you call. (This provides the best quality of service for your business customers' employees.)

Second, callers can ask for all types of listings (not just business, but government and people, too) all across the US. (Some services only allow business lookups - this service provides your customers' employees the maximum flexibility to find all types of telephone numbers needed to conduct their business.)

Third, it only allows access to telephone numbers and not additional information services, so that employees do not spend time looking for movies or checking sports scores on this system while working.

I can't think of any cost to companies to do the translations in the PBX, other than the time to do the actual configuration. From your perspective, you might either charge a little something to implement this cost-saving tip, or just routinely provide this configuration as a way to provide a little extra for your customers - something they didn't necessarily realize about their phone bills.

If you haven’t already tried one of the free directory assistance phone services, go ahead and call 800-935-5697 to see how this one works. Try a couple of different requests. Look up your own home phone number (if you are not unlisted). Look up the phone number for one of your business customers. Look up a phone number by business category - like a florist, pizza restaurant, coffee shop, or locksmith in your home town. There's no cost to callers - like other such services, it is paid for by short audio advertisements during the call (typically 5-10 seconds).

Do you think this idea has merit? Is this something that your business customers would find valuable? Would they appreciate this type of cost-saving tip?

Thank you for your consideration and your feedback!

While calls to this (and these type) of service(s) don't appear on your phone bill, they also aren't exactly free. I have not come across such a service--including this one--that doesn't force you to listen to an advertisement before giving you the directory listing that you requested.

What's worse is that these advertisements are targeted toward the area code you are calling from. So if I call this service and ask for the local A.A. chapter in my area, I might first have to hear about the killer deal that my local flower shop is offering for Easter.

Most companies that I do call analysis for don't incur significant 411 costs. However, this service might be appropriate for the frugal resident.

More importantly...welcome to the board pinetrees10! Keep those great ideas coming!

Thanks for the welcome - I'm glad to be here!

You're right! I should have mentioned that the way most of the currently available "free" directory assistance services cover their costs is by playing audio ads. Some are shorter than others, but I think they are typically 5-10 seconds long. Also, you're right about the targeting - although some are more targeted than others, depending on the targeting capabilities of the service, and also on where you are in the overall service call flow. Examples of things that might be used to target the audio ad include the area code of the phone you're calling from, the city and state you requested, the time of day or day of the week that you called, the business category you requested (if you are looking for a business), and others.

I'm only aware of one service that doesn't play ads, but as far as I'm aware, you can't look up people, and they don't have operator back-up if the automation isn't working.

So, you make an excellent point - the business would need to consider whether the cost of an employee's time listening listening to audio ads and dealing with automated systems that can sometimes add a couple of seconds to a traditional 411 call is worth the trade-off of not paying $1.50-$3.00 per call. For the sake of argument, estimate that the extra time spent on "free" directory assistance calls compared to 411 calls might be 10-20 extra seconds. And while I do call free directory assistance more often now, there are also times when I'll pay for a regular 411 call, too! Grin!

Googles 411.

1-800-GOOG-411
(1-800-466-4411)

Free and no advertisements.

https://www.google.com/goog411/

You can also have it send you a TXT, or with an internet enabled phone MAP the location on Google Maps.

Good call there Tony! Thank you.

Touch Tone Tommy has since made me aware of 1-800-555-TELL, which also does not have ads. And like the one that Tony offered (MacOSX), things like driving directions are also available as part of the free service.

Thanks very much! Below is the list of all the free directory assistance services that I know about currently.

You're right - when it comes to free directory assistance (DA), you have a lot of choices. I obviously have my own favorite, but I'm very interested in what characteristics would make a free DA service useful specifically in this context - businesses who currently incur 411 fees or who block 411 calls from employees to avoid fees. For those businesses, would it make sense to redirect 411 calls to a free DA service? If so, my belief is that the best choice for this specific environment is 1-800-YellowPages. Do you agree or have a different favorite?

For other types of users, there could be reasons for choosing any one of the services below - they all differ in one way or another...and there are sure to be more changes over time as they compete for you and me. I have 2 of them stored in my mobile phone right now and I try them all out periodically to see what's new. :-)

1-800-YellowPages (800-935-5697)
1-800-555-Tell (800-555-8355)
1-800-Call-411 (800-225-5411)
1-800-Call-Dex (800-225-5339) ("beta" system)
1-800-Free-411 (800-373-3411)
1-800-Goog-411 (800-466-4411)
1-800-Info-Fast (800-463-6327)
1-800-San-Diego (800-726-3434) (for those in the San Diego area)
1-800-The-Info (800-843-4636)
SayHello Service (904-358-3333) (It's not a toll-free number, so check with your local phone company in the 904 area code in FL to see if it's free for you.)

Google's 411 is the best out there. The fact that they can text the number to you, connect you for free, give you other options, etc makes them so much better than the rest IMO. Every job site where I setup the LCR tables, I make 1411 and 411 go to the Google service.

Your feedback is very helpful. Some of the benefits you cite are things that seem like they'd be great for general callers, but were features that I was thinking that businesses would prefer NOT to offer. I could be wrong and am entirely open to all opinions on this.

I agree with you that the texting offered on a couple of the services is fantastic. I signed up to ALWAYS receive directory assistance info by text message to my mobile phone with my wireless carrier. However, it doesn't seem like that would be useful for people calling from their business/office phones. Wouldn't they just have to listen to a longer message for functionality they wouldn't be able to use from an office phone?

You have a great point on the free connection. I think that's a very helpful feature. I believe it's available on some, but maybe not all of the 800-YellowPages calls. I'll have to do more checking on that.

Regarding other options/services: would most businesses want their employees to be accessing other consumer services while at work? Or, from a work environment, would employers be more appreciative of a fast, direct service that focuses specifically on helping their employees find residential, business, or government numbers that will help them conduct their business?

This is where I believe 1-800-YellowPages shines. A couple of the free DA services are offered by traditional telephone companies, who have been focused on providing streamlined (fast, accurate, high availability, high quality) directory assistance service for many decades. I think they are most likely the services that businesses would want to point their employees to during the business day.

There are definitely differences between all of the available services, including some really neat features that would make some callers very passionate fans! Grin! Businesses are a different calling group and may value different characteristics.