“I absolutely love what I do,” he told us, “but it’s incredibly stressful at times. When I’m in the middle of a big project, I have so much information coming at me. Clients are sending requests, things are changing on the fly… it’s insane.”

Scott explained that creative projects are continually in motion – budgets expand and contract, ideas are discarded and re-invented, and sometimes whole campaigns switch directions mid-stream.

Translation? Scott receives a whole lot of phone calls.

“My phone rings off the hook during a busy photo shoot or an ad campaign,” he says. “I don’t have the luxury of waiting hours or days to check my messages – which often means that I have to excuse myself from the room, check my messages, and return. It’s so annoying.”

Now that he has Ribbit Mobile, Scott gets his voicemail as text messages – no more dialing into voicemail. He can incorporate changes and requests more smoothly to keep a project moving along.

“Time is money,” Scott says, “which is why Ribbit Mobile is so valuable for people in creative services.” Hey, it may not be as exciting as gorgeous models and jetsetting, but we’ll take it.

Hear Scott tell his story:

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I think he is still drying it out…

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But then you find out that there’s more than one company with their hat in the ring.  Which do you choose? I mean, how different can they really be? The answer: very different. If you’ve done any research on voicemail transcription services, you’ve undoubtedly seen that some of these services are quite costly.  Others only transcribe a portion of your message and then charge you more to get the rest.

More important to me than cost, though, is accuracy.  When you get a voicemail as a text or email and read it, shouldn’t it say the same thing as the original voice message?  Shouldn’t it at least resemble the original message?  This is where Ribbit Mobile excels.  Ribbit Mobile offers users two options for transcription: a fully automated voice-to-text transcription service, or human-assisted transcriptions for greater accuracy.  If certain words can’t be confidently identified, the transcription service will suggest what it thinks the correct word or phrase is, then set it apart in parentheses.

But I’m not the only fan of Ribbit Mobile transcription.  This comment recently appeared on Twitter:

“Ribbit Mobile converted my distant, un-humanly recognizable voicemail into text w/85% accuracy. I’m impressed!”

If you have to spend more time trying to decipher the transcription than it would take to dial in and listen to the voicemail, then what good is the service?  While Ribbit Mobile isn’t perfect every time, one user describes it as “scary good.”

If the accuracy of your messages matters to you, and if you want to save the time and hassle of dialing into voicemail, then the quality of Ribbit Mobile transcriptions can make all the difference.

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“Compared to the webmail-like interface of Google Voice and to Phonebooth’s minimalist approach, Ribbit Mobile offers a more dynamic and colorful user experience. Its Web page is laid out like a virtual desktop. You can click on various widgets, such as a voice mail in-box and a phone dialing pad, and rearrange them to your liking. All of this is powered by Adobe Flash.

Ribbit Mobile’s strength is its Web phone calling, which lets you make and receive calls directly through the Web page, using your computer itself as a phone. Incoming calls can also be routed to your Web-phone accounts, including Skype, Google Talk or MSN Messenger.”

You may read the whole article here, and if you are interested in testing Ribbit Mobile yourself, you may request an invite here.

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Talking on the phone in public has become an acceptable habit – but there are limits to what is appropriate and what is not. Answering a call to quickly say, “I’m on my way” in a low volume is reasonable.  Yammering on for 40 loud minutes about your doctor visit? Not so much.  If you weren’t talking on the phone… you probably wouldn’t announce this information to everyone on the train.

There are numerous places and situations where talking on a mobile phone would be “poor form.”  One such place is on the workout floor of the gym.  Most gyms I’ve been in prohibit mobile phone use in both the locker rooms and on the gym floor, yet there is inevitably someone who thinks that the rule doesn’t apply to him or her.

Case in point:  I was toiling away on the treadmill the other day, along with several others.  Behind us was a small row of recumbent bikes, also occupied.  We were all going about our merry sweaty way when something jolted us all out of our endorphin-laced bliss – RING, RING.  It became more insistent – RING, RING!  And then, to my horror, “HELLO?”  The minutes that followed filled my unwilling ears with details of a day spent at Fisherman’s Wharf, a mediocre dinner, and the internal aftermath of said dinner.  When another frustrated exerciser politely asked the offender to end her call or take it outside, the oversharer responded, “But that was my daughter, I didn’t want to miss her call.”

There’s a time to talk and a time to be discreet.  Most of us (I hope) have mastered the art of putting our phones (and ourselves) on silent mode when appropriate.  When you’re in a no-mobile-phone zone, you don’t have to worry about missing important calls - Ribbit Mobile will take your voicemail message and transcribe it to text – minutes later, you’ll be reading it as a text message and email.  You’re getting the information you need without disturbing everyone around you.  It’s a win-win, and trust me - we thank you for it.

Photo credit: Cayusa

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We’re flourishing because of you.  Thanks so much for using Ribbit Mobile and offering your support over the past few months.  We’re taking all of your ideas and suggestions into consideration to deliver the communications service YOU want.  Stay tuned for updates and highlights from the Ribbit Mobile team.

—–

Your Happiness Is Contagious

You’ve put a spring in our step with the wonderful things you’ve said about your experience with Ribbit Mobile!  We’d like to share a few of your enthusiastic comments:

• “A great, reliable voice mail service that will make your life a lot easier”
• “Makes conference calls from home or on the fly easy”
• “Accuracy of transcriptions is scary good”

Want to share your thoughts? Leave a comment here, or follow us on Twitter and tell us what’s on your mind!

—–

Calling All iPhone Users

The Ribbit Mobile iPhone App makes it easier than ever to read, manage, and share your voicemail directly on your iPhone. Have you tried it yet?  Get the iPhone app.

—–

Look Who’s a Fan of Ribbit Mobile

The word is out — CNN’s HLN Money Expert Clark Howard has spiritedly described Ribbit Mobile as “absolutely neat.”  Mr. Howard strongly encourages his viewers to check out the “fanciest voicemail system ever” and to experience the features Ribbit Mobile has to offer.  Thanks for the kind words and support, Clark! Check out the CNN segment here.

—–

We’re excited to have you as an integral part of our community, and we’d love to include more people you know.  Spread the word about Ribbit Mobile.  Invite a friend – there are 3 free invites in your Ribbit Mobile account.  Don’t keep something this good to yourself!

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Ring, ring.  Click.  “Hello, you’ve reached Jane Doe.  I’m not available to take your call right now.  Please leave your name, number, and a brief message, and I will get back to you as soon as I can.  Thank you and have a great day.” Beep.

YAWN!  How many times have you heard this message?  Well, maybe not this exact one, but a reasonable facsimile.  Just substitute any number of names, and you have the standard voicemail greeting. While there must be some sense of uniformity in many business practices, is there really any good reason to have an outgoing message that puts your clients to sleep?  Worse yet, is there any reason to have such a bland message on your personal voicemail?  In a world where everything you say, post, or tweet tells everyone who you are and what’s on your mind, why would you resort to a generic, uninspired, easy-way-out message?

I must admit that I am guilty of having used the automated she-bot voicemail message that records my name and takes care of the rest. I did it because I was lazy.  But is that the impression I want to give my callers?  While mulling over this depersonalized message epidemic, I was alerted to this little gem, featuring a creatively appropriate outgoing message.  The man behind this makes some great points about gearing your message toward the image and attitude of your company.

As for your personal voicemail, why not give your callers a little taste of your personality?  That’s not to say that you should record a lengthy, badly-acted scenario with a barely identifiable audio track in the background.  That’s just annoying.  But you can explore your creativity in 10 seconds or less.

So, you’ve come up with a perfect outgoing message that is quintessentially you.  You’ve recorded it, gotten numerous compliments, and now think: “I’m never changing this message.”  Until something comes up.  Maybe you are going on vacation and need to alert callers.  Maybe you’re involved in a project that you need to leave special information about.  If only you could save your fantastic message to use again later…

Ribbit Mobile allows you to record and store different voicemail greetings for future use.  Now you don’t have to record the same things over and over, and having these greetings at your fingertips certainly makes life easier when you’re on the go.  Which gives you more time to think up your next great recording!

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Thanks Clark. Appreciate the nod. Want to try Ribbit Mobile? Request an account now.

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I don’t have a personal hatred of voicemail or anything, but sometimes it’s just really inconvenient to dial in and listen.  My old office had the absolute worst mobile signal, so I could see that someone was calling, but couldn’t answer the call. I could receive text messages, but couldn’t dial out.  And so it began. I’d have to wait until I could go out and take a walk (far enough away from the building to get service) to listen to a message that may or may not have been important.  It took 15 minutes to listen to a 15 second message. Who has time for that?

So, yes, I was that person. You know, the one who never gets your messages, takes forever to call you back, and makes you feel like you are being ignored. The world is full of those people, people who just have a complicated relationship with voicemail. You probably even know some.  Want to help them out? Invite them to try Ribbit Mobile. They’ll be able to read their messages when listening isn’t an option, and they’ll no longer have excuses for ignoring your call.

To invite your friends to Ribbit Mobile, just log into your account, find the Invite a Friend section on the bottom right side of the page, and enter your friends’ email addresses.  We’ll take it from there.  Of course, if you want to tell people what a wonderful effect Ribbit Mobile has had on your mobile life and encourage them to sign up, we won’t stop you.

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From their post:

RIBBIT MOBILE: A good choice for VoIP fans, Ribbit Mobile can also route calls to services like Skype. You can make Web calls using your Ribbit account. Ribbit’s transcriptions, which are checked by people, were the most accurate of the bunch. COST: Currently in free beta

Nice.

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