Archive for the ‘Communications’ Category

Telemarketing has changed a great deal over the past few years. With innovative technologies being released such as Spitfire predictive dialers and other call center software and products, your telemarketing team can now be more productive than ever. Computerized telemarketing tools and the recent integration between the Internet and telephone systems enable your telemarketers to spend less time dialing and more time actually giving their presentation to potential customers.

Below are some unique telemarketing services and products that have revolutionized the way telemarketers conduct their businesses.

Predictive Dialers

A predictive dialer was developed to dial phone numbers automatically and then monitor calls and the types of answers it receives when dialing. It then connects telemarketing agents to the call once it recognizes that a real person is on the line. Predictive dialers are used in many call centers today, and have helped thousands of telemarketers maximize their efforts and waste less time dialing non-responsive numbers.
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The number of advertisements on the internet and the magazines regarding calling cards today have made the decision making process a trifle confusing and complicated. Prepaid calling phone cards are designed to be used while you are out of your home city or town on a vacation or a business trip. They are made to facilitate calling from most phones easier and affordable by cutting down on stupendous charges or surcharges levied by hoteliers and other gamut of tourist attractions. Most times, the prepaid phone card calling rates are comparable to those imposed by Sprint, AT&T or MCI WorldCom. These companies charge anywhere between 69 to 89 cents a minute for long distance along with a surcharge, if not renewed monthly.

However, paying a monthly subscription cuts costs. A monthly fee of $1 to AT&T will cut the calling-card rate down to 25 cents a minute; a monthly fee of $2 to MCI will bring it down to 15 cents a minute. Sprint is offering dime-a-minute calling-card-calls for a monthly subscription of an extravagant $10.95. This is the main reason why prepaid phone-calling-cards with rates like a penny a minute are getting more and more popular by the day.

There are too many calling card companies that offer cheap rates owing to the deregulated environment. Moreover, since the industry is extremely competitive, many companies use marketing tricks for attracting customers. One need to be careful while choosing a phone card. The major challenge that is faced by people today is to choose the right card. Calculating the final cost of a call is the challenge and making a choice based on it is further across the ridge. A lowest call cost can get obliterated by surcharges most of the time.
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There was a time, before phone cards, when long distance and international calls – even to friends and relatives – required a good amount of preparations. Everyone making international calls had to back-calculate:

• How much money do I want to spend on this international call?
• How many minutes does it give me?
• And what do I need to talk for this many minutes?

Sound funny?

Yes it does in today’s world, where phone cards are making long distance and international calls cheaper day by day. Phone cards were first introduced to make long distance calling easy and convenient. One could make long distance and international calls from any phone using these cards. Then came the price war between the long distance operators and the cost of calling using phone cards started coming down significantly compared to post-paid phone connections.

Phone cards offered today come with different facilities and operating modes:

• Some need a PIN to activate.
• Some need a call to be placed from pre-registered numbers.
• Some need a call to be placed on a toll-free number first to dial long distance, or
• A combination of two of more of the above.
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Phone cards are an excellent way to stay in touch with family and friends without ending up with an astronomical phone bill at the end of the month. But before you choose the phone card that seems to be the cheapest available, be sure you know all the details of how that particular phone card works.

Some phone card companies have a service charge for each call you make using the card. That means that you’ll lose several minutes each time you use the card – typically anywhere from four minutes to eight or even ten. If you have a phone card company touting their “three-cent a minute” rates, be sure of their service charges. If you’re also losing an additional ten minutes for every connection you make, the rates go up considerably.

One gimmick used by phone card companies is that they give you a price “per unit” instead of “per minute.” The significance is that there are different costs for different phone calls. You may pay only a penny or two per unit, but you may find that you’re being charged several units per minute. For example, if you pay two cents per unit and you’re phone call costs ten units per minute, you’re paying twenty cents a minute – significantly higher than the many reputable phone cards. Per unit cards may very well be a good deal, but find out how many units you can expect to pay for phone calls before you shell out the money for one of these cards.

Rechargeable phone cards are sometimes an excellent deal because the additional minutes you purchase are often cheaper than the original cost of the card. If you think about it, it’s fairly easy to see why. Instead of buying another pieces of plastic, you’re simply buying the service – less cost to the company.
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