Telephone Tricks
Free 411
One of the many changes that has taken place in the telephone industry in the last few decades is that while phone companies once generally provided their local customers with free directory assistance (via the 411 phone number), in most cases telephone customers are now charged a fee (typically $1.00 or more) for each directory assistance call. Despite the charges, U.S. consumers continue to use the 411 directory assistance service, placing about 6 billion such calls per year. Now, however, an outfit called Jingle Networks is providing an alternative directory assistance service and it's free. Users who call the toll-free number 1-800-FREE411 (or 1-800-373-3411) can navigate a nifty automated voice recognition system that asks for a location (city and state), type of listing (business, government, or residential), and name. Once the service has located an entry for the requested number, it reads the information aloud and offers the caller the option of connecting to the number by pressing a single number on his telephone keypad. So how can Free-411 afford to offer free directory assistance service? Well, it uses a similar process that commercial radio and television businesses deploy, in that sponsors pay a fee to present their advertisements to customers. As with Free-411, users of the service listen to brief audio advertisements within the requested yellow pages category. This advertising model allows businesses to acquire new customers over the phone, cost effectively, with little or no risk. Meanwhile callers get free directory assistance, potentially saving each of them thousands of dollars per year. The way it works in practice is that a caller who requests a business number is first presented with a short (about 12 seconds) audio advertisement for a sponsor who operates a competing business in that area; the caller is then given the option of being connected to either that competitor or the business he or she originally requested. If no sponsor operates a local competing business, then the caller hears no advertisement at all. (In the latter case, if the caller accepts the option to connect to the desired number, the business receiving the call hears a short message at the beginning advising them that the call was placed via Free-411, and a Free-411 salesman may follow up with them a few days later to solicit them as a potential advertiser). However, Free-411 users may be concerned that by taking advantage of the service it will entail potentially giving out their phone numbers to telemarketers; however, this can be mitigated by listing their numbers (cell phone and/or land line) with the National Do Not Call registry website: https://www.donotcall.gov/ |
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