I've been using Google Voice for a few months now, and for the most part I am fairly pleased with the service.
Google Voice, for those that may not know, provides users with a phone number (new, free, and your choice) that you can use to tie in all of your phones. This means that you can give out one number to family, clients, and friends, and depending on your settings you could have all calls associated with that number transferred directly to your cell, office, home or any other phone you might own. In addition, Google voice offers some pretty neat features such as a digital voicemail box and the ability to transcribe voicemails to text and email.
As cool as the service is though; I do have 5 suggestions that I'd like to share in which I believe would make the service better.
Day-Parting Features
I think it would be really great if Google Voice had day-parting features. A day-parting feature would allow users the ability to outline basic rules for how they would like Google to handle their calls. For example, while I am home for most nights and weekends, I do put in 40+ hours of work a week at the office. It would be great if I could program Google Voice so that during those "work hours" it transfers all calls associated with my number to my "work phone". Additionally, I'd want Google to transfer calls to my cell, home phone, and my voicemail during other specific day and time slots. How awesome would that be!
Caller ID Rules
I may be on an island with this idea, but I think it would be fantastic if I could create individual rules for how Google is to handle calls from specific numbers. For example, I'd like to have all calls from those individuals on my "A" list (close friends and family) to be transferred directly to my cell. Meanwhile, I'd like to have all calls from those individuals on my "B" list (my bosses, co-workers, and clients – jokes) to be transferred directly to my digital voicemail. Lastly, I'd like to have all calls from those pesky people in my life who can't seem to take a hint to be transferred nowhere - let it ring on their end, and do not notify me of any missed calls.
Usage Analytics
I'd like to preface this idea by letting you all know that I am a person that is really big into tracking and analytics. With that said, I think it would be great if Google Voice featured a reporting section that shared basic usage stats such as the total number of calls your Google number has received, a breakdown of how those calls were transferred throughout your numbers, the average call time, and other basic stats.
Multiple Voicemail Messages
While this is a feature that is said to already be included with the Google Voice service, I have yet to discover exactly how to utilize it. In any event, I'd like to be able to create multiple voicemail messages that can be applied to specific groups of callers. For example, I'd like a custom message that only my friends would hear. In addition, I'd also like one created for my family, one for my clients, and one for others. I should probably consult a technician or a help file, but in the event this isn't a feature, it definitely should be.
Voice Translation
While this feature is very cool in theory, I believe that it still needs a little work as many of the voice messages that were transcribed for me were in fact way off. I originally thought this was a one time issue or a mumbling caller issue, but it seems to happen quite a bit.
Labels: internet-marketing
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