 | Todd Crandell
has been in the Yellow Pages and Telecommunications industries since 1982 having worked for Verizon, Brite Voice Systems and others. Currently he is with StandardCall, Inc. a company that provides call measurement services in local markets. He is a graduate of Purdue University and resides with his family in Frisco, TX. You may contact Todd at (214) 618-4507. |
Communications
2003-04-01 05:59:00
What's up with 'RCF'?
ANSWER: The old technology of Remote Call Forwarding or RCF allowed you to establish a local phone number in another city, and have all calls to that number automatically forwarded to a different number. The calls that are forwarded from the remote location will ring on your phone just like any other call. It used to be that each call had to be 'looped' through a maze of equipment outside of the market (as far away as Canada) in order to accomplish the mission. Recently, this technology has been re-developed so it does not have to leave the market, consequently it is much more efficient affordable. With this new affordability comes a lot of other uses. This 're-development' actually occurred within the last few months and was 're-fitted' for the Yellow Pages industry. There are only a handful of companies that have this new 're-developed' technology. Here's how it works:A 'virgin' number (one that has never been used in a given market) is placed in a Yellow Pages ad. This number terminates to the advertiser's regular phone number. Any call coming in to the 'virgin' number is tracked. Information such as caller ID, the caller's address, phone number, time of call, length of call, how many rings occurred before the call was answered, whether the call came from a business or a residence, and how far the caller was from the advertiser. One of these companies has taken this new 're-developed' technology to new heights with 'geo tracking' and providing up to 2,000 data points of qualitative information about the caller. 'Geo tracking' is not only reporting how far the caller is from an advertiser, but also plotting the caller on a map of the trade area. The qualitative information they make available to the advertiser about the callers of an ad is 'jaw dropping'. Much of this information is gathered in 'real time', meaning simultaneous or within a few seconds of the time of the call. The rest of the information is reported minutes or even as long as a couple of days later. This new 're-developed' technology is now available to advertisers to use in media other than the Yellow Pages (i.e. TV, Radio, Outdoor, Direct Mail, Newspaper, Magazine, Specialty Advertising, etc.). Advertisers now have the ability to place a special 'virgin' number on an advertising campaign (one that may incorporate all types of media) to check the effectiveness and efficiency of it as compared to other campaigns, OR place a special 'virgin' number in each media, to find which media is most effective and efficient.Automatic customer satisfaction surveys and other special features are all part of the best of this new 're-developed' technology.If a business buys a piece of equipment, it is guaranteed to work by the vendor. Advertising may well be moving in that direction.
