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Though we all know that our phone number is private and important to us, as an individual or a business, there is something seemingly arbitrary about giving it out to someone, especially in the unassuming environment of the Internet. It’s getting more and more difficult to keep our personal phone number to ourselves, but with a few key steps, you can protect it from the spammers and scammers. Don’t give out your phone number. This is rule #1. We’re all on the defense against unwanted calls, but where are they coming from? How did they get your phone number? Somewhere along the line, you gave it to some organization or business, whether consciously or unbeknownst to you. When you are filling out a web form for anything online, just don’t include your phone number unless it’s for a reputable organization that actually needs it. Even then, be sure to read …

They used to start with letters. Up until about the 1950s, phone numbers were alphanumeric, eventually settling on a 2-letter, 5-number system that usually identified the region of the phone number and also aimed to make it more memorable. This system had to be done away with for a few reasons, one of which was due to the confusion that arose from telling someone letters that sounded like other letters, causing people to get the wrong number. Another reason was simply because you just couldn’t make as many combinations using the letters, as you could by using digits—then they had to add even more digits with the introduction of area codes. The most expensive phone number. (866) 666-6666 currently belongs to a limousine service in New York City, and to register this sought-after number must not have been any small feat. Not long ago, the cellphone number 666-6666 (area code …

For most of us, there’s not much science to it; we pick up the phone, we start talking. Even if you have a naturally soothing voice that reassures and delights everyone who hears it, you can still benefit from the techniques and suggestions below, for not only the tone that you use, but also for your choice of words—and even your timing. Tone Even & Calm If you can manage to keep your voice calm, clear, and even at all times, this is at the core of achieving a professional tone and attitude. It’s what people expect from someone who is representing a business. Additionally, keeping an even tone of voice is one of your best weapons for handling a customer who is upset. Polite & Patient, yet Confident It’s basically the Holy Grail for a customer support representative: The ability to be always polite to the customer, no matter …

You would think that we would all respect each other’s space, not to mention time, and refrain from calling other people when the call is not welcome. Sadly, though, we all get those unwanted calls from telemarketers, identity thieves, scam artists, and even unruly customers, leaving us desperate for a way to stop them. Fortunately, there are systems in place, and measures you can take to stop these disturbances to yourself and your business. Take advantage of these 4 solutions to prevent those irritating calls from disrupting your day from now, on. 1. Block the phone number. The first and most obvious solution, simply blocking a phone number may take care of the problem; however, due to the multiple phone numbers that they tend to use, you may end up constantly blocking numbers. Most cell phones have an internal blocking function on the device, and if yours doesn’t have this …

    One of the most common questions we get at Talkroute is, how long should we let our phones ring? And the real question behind this is, of course: How long will it take for our customers to hang up? The obvious answer is that the caller should have to wait for as few rings as possible before someone answers, but there are just a few factors to consider.   What should the caller hear while they are holding? Whatever your customer hears before you answer should keep them happy while they wait. You know when you call your phone company, you listen to the menu options, press “0” to speak to a person, and then you hear some elevator music and an occasional voice insisting that, “Your call is very important to us”–that whole thing? Then, all of a sudden, the elevator music stops and it starts to …

When you have multiple employees in various departments, you’re probably going to want to give each of those employees their own extension. The extension numbers assigned to employees is not something that a business usually spends very much time considering, but there actually is some method, and even a little science to choosing the right number for each extension. Whether you decide to use 1, 2, 3, or 4-digit extensions, you can optimize them for memorability and consistency using the techniques described below. Tips for helping people to remember your extensions. A study published in the British Journal of Psychiatry to determine what types of numbers are the easiest to remember, in which a group of 500 test subjects participated, concluded that there are four categories of numbers that people find easiest to memorize. In order of memorability, the categories are as follows: 1. Single-digit numbers 2. Teen numbers (10-19) …

As recently as a few years ago, speech-to-text was nowhere near as capable as it is now. It was highly unreliable and barely considered for voicemail transcription. Now, as the technology advances and speech recognition becomes more accurate, speech-to-text is used for a variety of different applications, including voicemail transcription offered by some telecom providers. You see it in action all the time when your device lets you use your voice to type on your computer, speak your text messages using dictation, so that you can keep your eyes on the road (which we all do, of course), and even tell an automated voice what menu option you want when you call a business, rather than press any numbers. We just posted an article that goes into more depth about how Automatic Speech Recognition works with the IVR on a phone system, which you can find here: Automatic Speech Recognition …

The first time companies began using Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) to direct callers through their automated menus, callers were constantly becoming frustrated because in the beginning, speech recognition was crude and very limited in its capability. Though it is vastly improved from the original versions and used by more businesses all the time, there is still some debate as to whether it is effective, or not. In fact, most callers who are forced to interact with it would probably tell you that they would rather never hear that automated customer service robot again. How has speech recognition improved? ASR now uses advanced algorithms to process data it compiles from your voice, filters out background noise, and can even learn your voice patterns in real time, all of which allow the program to understand what you’re saying with far greater accuracy than the original versions. Speech recognition programs are also making …