Re: [asterisk-users] Managing the spiralling costs
Vikas wrote: I have been using the inbound 800 services from vitelity. Slowly the usage has been rising and in the month of Jan the bill was for $650. I am currently on a 1.9 cents a minute plan. Am I paying too much ? Some suggestions my team generated to reduce the toll free incoming call bill were: 1. When people call in on the 800 number take the local number they are calling from and then call them back from our unlimited outgoing account from broadvoice. 2. Find a vendor with a better rate. Any idea what we can do to better manage the 800 cost. Thanks for your time, Vikas As far as a better rate, that really depends where your callers are coming from. If they're calling in primarily from off-net areas, you'll find that $0.019/min as a blended rate is actually fairly competitive and your provider is probably losing money on your business! If they're calling in from on-net areas, you may find another provider willing to give you a better per min rate, but my experience has been that the monthly revenue commitment usually starts in around the $5k/month range before the rate comes down below what you're already paying. All that being said, before you go seeking a better rate, make sure you've done a good amount of due dilligence on a different provider to make sure that you're still going to receive the best level of service even though you may have a better rate. -- Bird's The Word Technologies, Inc. http://www.btwtech.com/ ___ -- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com -- asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Re: [asterisk-users] Managing the spiralling costs
hi in argentina we have 810 you pay only the long distant and the caller pay the local rate. if the caller is in your same city you dont pay anything. David 2009/2/24 Vikas topg...@gmail.com I have been using the inbound 800 services from vitelity. Slowly the usage has been rising and in the month of Jan the bill was for $650. I am currently on a 1.9 cents a minute plan. Am I paying too much ? Some suggestions my team generated to reduce the toll free incoming call bill were: 1. When people call in on the 800 number take the local number they are calling from and then call them back from our unlimited outgoing account from broadvoice. 2. Find a vendor with a better rate. Any idea what we can do to better manage the 800 cost. Thanks for your time, Vikas ___ -- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com -- asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users -- (\__/) (='.'=)This is Bunny. Copy and paste bunny into your ()_()signature to help him gain world domination. ___ -- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com -- asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Re: [asterisk-users] Managing the spiralling costs
On Mon, 23 Feb 2009, Vikas wrote: I have been using the inbound 800 services from vitelity. Slowly the usage has been rising and in the month of Jan the bill was for $650. I am currently on a 1.9 cents a minute plan. Am I paying too much ? Some suggestions my team generated to reduce the toll free incoming call bill were: 1. When people call in on the 800 number take the local number they are calling from and then call them back from our unlimited outgoing account from broadvoice. 2. Find a vendor with a better rate. Any idea what we can do to better manage the 800 cost. If your customers are concentrated in certain areas you might consider getting a batch of DID numbers in their local areas. That should be cheaper, and most are unlimited inbound calling. j ___ -- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com -- asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Re: [asterisk-users] Managing the spiralling costs
Wow that's crazy, 1.9 is pretty much as good as your going to get. I would find out where were the most of your traffic is coming from and get local numbers in those areas. When the person calls your 1800 number check if there is a local number for them to use if so play the message with the local number. -Original Message- From: asterisk-users-boun...@lists.digium.com [mailto:asterisk-users-boun...@lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Vikas Sent: Monday, February 23, 2009 8:10 PM To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion Subject: [asterisk-users] Managing the spiralling costs I have been using the inbound 800 services from vitelity. Slowly the usage has been rising and in the month of Jan the bill was for $650. I am currently on a 1.9 cents a minute plan. Am I paying too much ? Some suggestions my team generated to reduce the toll free incoming call bill were: 1. When people call in on the 800 number take the local number they are calling from and then call them back from our unlimited outgoing account from broadvoice. 2. Find a vendor with a better rate. Any idea what we can do to better manage the 800 cost. Thanks for your time, Vikas ___ -- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com -- asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.0.237 / Virus Database: 270.11.2/1965 - Release Date: 02/23/09 18:22:00 ___ -- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com -- asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Re: [asterisk-users] Managing the spiralling costs
On Mon, Feb 23, 2009 at 9:10 PM, Vikas topg...@gmail.com wrote: 1. When people call in on the 800 number take the local number they are calling from and then call them back from our unlimited outgoing account from broadvoice. I would recommend IVR-ing this as an option, on the premise that there is a slight wait right now, would you prefer to have us call you back when we're ready to help you? That removes the diplomatic issue of hanging up on a caller, and puts it in their hands. What are your callers doing with their talk time? If you don't know, it's too early to force that on them as the only choice. If it's mostly sitting on hold, give them a button out of the hold to leave a voicemail or a callback number. ___ -- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com -- asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Re: [asterisk-users] Managing the spiralling costs
On Mon, 23 Feb 2009, Vikas wrote: I have been using the inbound 800 services from vitelity. Slowly the usage has been rising and in the month of Jan the bill was for $650. I am currently on a 1.9 cents a minute plan. Am I paying too much ? Some suggestions my team generated to reduce the toll free incoming call bill were: 1. When people call in on the 800 number take the local number they are calling from and then call them back from our unlimited outgoing account from broadvoice. This depends on your customer: 1) Will they put up with it? I was always taught Once you have a fish on the line, never let go. 2) Do you get 100% caller ID delivery and accuracy? I set my caller ID to my cell so my customers can always reach me. 2. Find a vendor with a better rate. 1.9 sounds pretty good to me. Last time I looked, T1 PRI wasn't much better per minute. On Mon, 23 Feb 2009, Craig Van Ham top-posted: Wow that's crazy, 1.9 is pretty much as good as your going to get. I would find out where were the most of your traffic is coming from and get local numbers in those areas. When the person calls your 1800 number check if there is a local number for them to use if so play the message with the local number. Again, will the customer put up with it. I wouldn't unless I'm really motivated. And the impression it gives customers is that you're so cheap that saving a couple of pennies is more important than their time. I wish that I had so many customers that inbound 800 was a significant expense :) Thanks in advance, Steve Edwards sedwa...@sedwards.com Voice: +1-760-468-3867 PST Newline Fax: +1-760-731-3000 ___ -- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com -- asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Re: [asterisk-users] Managing the spiralling costs
On Mon, Feb 23, 2009 at 9:10 PM, Vikas topg...@gmail.com wrote: I have been using the inbound 800 services from vitelity. Slowly the usage has been rising and in the month of Jan the bill was for $650. I am currently on a 1.9 cents a minute plan. Am I paying too much ? I don't pay the bill, so I could be wrong about this, but I believe we're on a 1.7 minute plan for inbound tollfree. But we negotiated that with historicals that are about 15 times your calltime; and we have about three-hundred toll-frees. $580 versus $650 isn't a huge savings, and we pay a lot of base rate for having lots of lines and lots of numbers pointed at those lines. Let's assume that you can hire another phone person at US minimum wage, in a low wage state, in an effort to get more simultaneous people on, to reduce your hold time. They would cost more than your phone bill. If there's any way to have your customers answer their own questions, perhaps using a phone-based touch-tone IVR, that would help, then encourage people to use a website that does the same thing. ___ -- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com -- asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
