Thursday, April 23, 2009

Is Google Voice a Threat?

I don't know if you have seen Google Voice but it is the new, improved Grand Central with some really cool features. For example, Switch phones in the middle of a call; visual voicemail; voicemail to text; call recording; call blocking; and simult ring. Why are these such unique features?

Irv Shapiro, the CEO and the CTO of IfByPhone, an IVR company, writes, "So what is a CLEC to do? It is well accepted in the world of business that it is less expensive to keep an existing customer than to find a new one. The CLEC community needs to maintain account control and expand the services they deliver to existing customers. They can do this by utilizing SIP trunking to drive down long distance rates and Cloud Telephony to deliver new features to existing customers."

I have a few CLEC clients that are thinking way outside the box with some stuff. That's fantastic. Meanwhile, a majority of ISP's, CLEC's, and VoIP providers are doing the same stuff for the last 5 years - with no change. Why not? There are companies with some cool ideas. IfByVoice has a PPPC app too. Read about Pay-Per-Phone-Call here.

Maybe you need to stop reading the listservs and go read the Think Big Manifesto, then set aside 1 hour to dream about what you could deliver to your best customers. If that doesn't work, you can hire me for an hour to run through the process to start you thinking about ways you can add revenue streams to your business while also providing your clients with extras.

No comments: