Privacy Manager Telephone Feature

[Morticia]

I guess it just comes down to your values. If you are just starting out and need every penny to make it, then you put up with the crap. If you don't need the money and value your sanity, then you do what works for you. I find that people who need instant gratifications often tend to be the PITAs, so this system works for me.

My business has been in place for 22 years, so not a startup. I still need every penny to get by. More importantly, I want this to be a painless experience for the guest. Fill out a form to request a reservation? No. Too much work. Click the button and book? Yes. Easy as can be. Fill out a form in order for an email to reach its destination? No. Too much work. Identify myself as a 'valid' caller in order to give someone my hard-earned cash for a vacation? Not gonna happen. Take my call or don't, but someone else will be happy to answer the phone without making me jump thru hoops.
Guests who call while on the elevator (it's happened) or on lunch break or even sitting in the comfort of their own home with all the time in the world do not want to be treated like telemarketers. Same for guests who are emailing questions. With my one friend, I had to reply back to every email I sent to her identifying myself to her spam filter. It was a pain and made me think twice about whether or not what I had to say was worth the effort.
I don't live in a state that has a high telemarketer rate. I feel for those who do. The 1-2 calls I get/day irritate, especially if I am busy at the time, on a ladder, elbow-deep in laundry or whatever. But they don't grate so much that I will put a system into place to add another layer between a guest getting thru and a guest moving on to a place that takes their calls immediately.
However, if oceans is getting so many calls that his guests can't get thru, then it may just work for him. As long as the requirements on the guest's side are not onerous. Now, if you can program that feature to say something like, 'Press One for reservations and guest inquiries,' no one will know it is screening out robocallers. Better still, if it can be programmed to say, 'Press 2 for the business office, manager, owner, person in charge of charitable contributions,' and then hangs up when a live telemarketer does that, even better.

 

[SweetiePie]

I guess it just comes down to your values. If you are just starting out and need every penny to make it, then you put up with the crap. If you don't need the money and value your time and sanity, then you do what works for you. I find that people who need instant gratification often tend to be the PITAs, so this system works for me.

 

[JunieBJones (JBJ)]

I was on the phone when a telemarketer called and I was taking credit card details today. 2-4 beep 7-6 beep...I took the call so I could hear her #. I saw who it was and told them to take a flying leap and never call back ever. They will. Probably tomorrow.
I get calls every single day for owners who were here 6 years ago, I have no flippin' idea what list they were on, but I tell you, like Oceans I am about to go nuts! They drive me nuts!

 

[scrambled_eggs]

If I had the option for that I would sign up. We get the same calls day in and day out. They waste so much of my time..

If I had the option for that I would sign up. We get the same calls day in and day out. They waste so much of my time.

Who is your phone company where you are located? I thought everyone was on AT & T now for land lines. We used to be Pacific Bell, then SBC and now AT & T.

 

[Samster]

If I had the option for that I would sign up. We get the same calls day in and day out. They waste so much of my time..

If I had the option for that I would sign up. We get the same calls day in and day out. They waste so much of my time.

Who is your phone company where you are located? I thought everyone was on AT & T now for land lines. We used to be Pacific Bell, then SBC and now AT & T.
.

Our land line is through our cable company. Lots of folks are going that direction. Or, VOIP phone systems.

 

[scrambled_eggs]

If I had the option for that I would sign up. We get the same calls day in and day out. They waste so much of my time..

If I had the option for that I would sign up. We get the same calls day in and day out. They waste so much of my time.

Who is your phone company where you are located? I thought everyone was on AT & T now for land lines. We used to be Pacific Bell, then SBC and now AT & T.
.

Our land line is through our cable company. Lots of folks are going that direction. Or, VOIP phone systems.
.

Our land line is through our cable company. Lots of folks are going that direction. Or, VOIP phone systems.

How do you like it? Is there any difference in quality of sound?

 

[Morticia]

If I had the option for that I would sign up. We get the same calls day in and day out. They waste so much of my time..

If I had the option for that I would sign up. We get the same calls day in and day out. They waste so much of my time.

Who is your phone company where you are located? I thought everyone was on AT & T now for land lines. We used to be Pacific Bell, then SBC and now AT & T.
.

FairPoint, God help me. One inn here has been without internet service for 2 weeks, some companies have gone 6 weeks with no internet. Everyday there is an ad in the paper, 'Fed up with FairPoint? Get your phone and internet thru...'

 

[JunieBJones (JBJ)]

If I had the option for that I would sign up. We get the same calls day in and day out. They waste so much of my time..

If I had the option for that I would sign up. We get the same calls day in and day out. They waste so much of my time.

Who is your phone company where you are located? I thought everyone was on AT & T now for land lines. We used to be Pacific Bell, then SBC and now AT & T.
.

If I had the option for that I would sign up. We get the same calls day in and day out. They waste so much of my time.

Who is your phone company where you are located? I thought everyone was on AT & T now for land lines. We used to be Pacific Bell, then SBC and now AT & T.

Was Sprint, now it is Embarq

 

[JunieBJones (JBJ)]

If I had the option for that I would sign up. We get the same calls day in and day out. They waste so much of my time..

If I had the option for that I would sign up. We get the same calls day in and day out. They waste so much of my time.

Who is your phone company where you are located? I thought everyone was on AT & T now for land lines. We used to be Pacific Bell, then SBC and now AT & T.
.

Our land line is through our cable company. Lots of folks are going that direction. Or, VOIP phone systems.
.

Our land line is through our cable company. Lots of folks are going that direction. Or, VOIP phone systems.

Cable company just announced that this week! As well as being down for 8 hours here - and me losing bookins due to ti!
I am not rushing to go with them for all of that. As DH says REDUNDANCY.

 

[Morticia]

If I had the option for that I would sign up. We get the same calls day in and day out. They waste so much of my time..

If I had the option for that I would sign up. We get the same calls day in and day out. They waste so much of my time.

Who is your phone company where you are located? I thought everyone was on AT & T now for land lines. We used to be Pacific Bell, then SBC and now AT & T.
.

Our land line is through our cable company. Lots of folks are going that direction. Or, VOIP phone systems.
.

Our land line is through our cable company. Lots of folks are going that direction. Or, VOIP phone systems.

Cable company just announced that this week! As well as being down for 8 hours here - and me losing bookins due to ti!
I am not rushing to go with them for all of that. As DH says REDUNDANCY.
.

With all of the criticism of FairPoint here, there is an article at least once/week about how things are not as they should be. Supposedly all they did was take over from Verizon, all of the same people, equipment, etc. But just like buying an inn, there was a lot of deferred maint. The batteries that back up the system in case of power outages? Dead. 9-1-1? Not operational. Internet? Some have it and some don't. Email? Sporadic.

 

[Samster]

If I had the option for that I would sign up. We get the same calls day in and day out. They waste so much of my time..

If I had the option for that I would sign up. We get the same calls day in and day out. They waste so much of my time.

Who is your phone company where you are located? I thought everyone was on AT & T now for land lines. We used to be Pacific Bell, then SBC and now AT & T.
.

Our land line is through our cable company. Lots of folks are going that direction. Or, VOIP phone systems.
.

Our land line is through our cable company. Lots of folks are going that direction. Or, VOIP phone systems.

How do you like it? Is there any difference in quality of sound?
.

No sound problems because of the provider. We had some initial problems because of a nitwit installer but it's been fine every since that was resolved.

 

[Copperhead]

I guess it just comes down to your values. If you are just starting out and need every penny to make it, then you put up with the crap. If you don't need the money and value your time and sanity, then you do what works for you. I find that people who need instant gratification often tend to be the PITAs, so this system works for me..

I guess it just comes down to your values. If you are just starting out and need every penny to make it, then you put up with the crap. If you don't need the money and value your time and sanity, then you do what works for you. I find that people who need instant gratification often tend to be the PITAs, so this system works for me.

My business has been in place for 22 years, so not a startup. I still need every penny to get by. More importantly, I want this to be a painless experience for the guest. Fill out a form to request a reservation? No. Too much work. Click the button and book? Yes. Easy as can be. Fill out a form in order for an email to reach its destination? No. Too much work. Identify myself as a 'valid' caller in order to give someone my hard-earned cash for a vacation? Not gonna happen. Take my call or don't, but someone else will be happy to answer the phone without making me jump thru hoops.

I have been in business 10 years....I just believe that if I am in business I need to make every effort to make it easy for the guest to reach me...90% of the callers will only give me ONE opportunity to win their business or they will move on to the next guy...For me this is a business not a pass time.
I think that Bree and I both were trying to tell you how we would feel are as potential guests...I thought that you were asking us for our thoughts - Sorry I must have miss understood.