Archive for April, 2009

Don’t listen to us…listen to them.

Wednesday, April 29th, 2009 | located in Beta | No Comments »

We recently asked a handful of folks who are in the middle of the BT Ribbit for Mobile beta what their thoughts were so far on the service, here’s what they had to say:

• Adam Green: It’s like a web portal for your phone.  You can set it up in a number of ways - I have it so that calls come to my mobile first, after that it will forward it to all the numbers I have listed on the service, including Skype and my computer.
• Dave Gibson: If you use email a lot, it’s good to receive messages left on your phone (as they show up) in your email (especially if your mobile phone is turned off most of the time).
• Keith McKnight: Gives you more control of your mobile experience - manage your mobile calls on your own terms.
• Scott Boorman: A good speech to text voicemail service with excellent call routing.

Are you having similar experiences? We would love to hear from you! We welcome more comments from you as you dig into the beta release as knowing how people are using Ribbit is way better than us simply guessing. :)  Tell us. Please.

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Your feedback is extremely important to us. Reach out. It’s ok. We don’t bite.

One Ribbit feature saved me 2.5 hours a week

Tuesday, April 7th, 2009 | located in Beta, Features | 2 Comments »

Always trying to squeeze more time out of my work week, I recently calculated the number of minutes I spend calling into my voice mail box to retrieve messages from missed calls (for the record, it is fair to say I get quite a few calls *and* I miss quite a few calls).

I averaged out the results over a two week period and was floored.  I was investing almost three hours a week on dialing into my mailbox, listening to the messages, then [sometimes] having to call or email someone else to pass the verbal message on as they were the person who should have received the call in the first place.  That was three hours a week I could have spent doing something else. Three hours!!!

This little ‘experiment’ confirmed I needed to rethink the way I interacted with my phone, and how I processed my messages. I had to find a way to free up those three hours a week so I could invest them in other ways (whether personally or professionally).

Enter Ribbit. You should know I am a fairly new addition to the staff here. I am also a big believer of the ‘eat our own dogfood‘ way of thought.  The order for my business cards had not even been processed yet when I dove in and set up my new account.

It is interesting to note the change in my behavior began immediately upon receipt of my first voicemail funneling through the Ribbit service. As a recent example shows (see below) I am sent an email that had a transcription of the voicemail, an option to listen to the voice mail by using a standard call in number *and* an .mp3 of the voice mail I could click and listen to from within the email.  A service that gives me options in how I interact with it. Nice.

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The best part of getting this message was being able to email this contact back (I knew his email address) to set an interview time. This took me less than 15 seconds from start to finish, including confirming his response (in email form). Calling him back and having a discussion or calling him back and missing him so I would have to leave him a voicemail would have taken twice that amount of time…if not more.

Don’t get me wrong. I love human interaction, but some things should be done quickly and without much effort. This message was a perfect example of that, especially as my phone was ringing again with more items to address. Yes, I think it is time to change my number…but I digress.

I spent two weeks interacting with my voicemail via Ribbit and found it produced an average time savings of 2.5 hours per week.  That is 2.5 hours I got back in my week to invest elsewhere, say…maybe for a trip (or three) to the gym. Just think, I can become a healthier Kristie and I have Ribbit to thank for it. Ha. Might seem silly to some, but it is these ‘little’ things that make a difference.

Bonus: Having my voicemails come to me in an email means I now have an easily searchable archive of my messages. Woot.

Disclosure: Individual results may differ based on your personal voicemail activity. As I mentioned, I get a few calls. Ok, I get a lot of calls. While the number of calls has not subsided, the amount of time I spend processing them has significantly been reduced. You may not save 2.5 hours in a week - but what if you could save 1/2 hour? That is still awesome…right?