Save me from making 60 calls

June 18, 2008 6:18 AM

Asking for a co-worker: Is there a service, web-based or otherwise, that will record a message from me, then call a list of phone numbers I provide and play it back to them?

This is not cold calling, in fact it's not telemarketing at all. This is for our church which is hosting a summer camp next week. The recording contains last minute details and other reminders about camp (including the implicit "remember, camp is next week!" message.)

All the recipients will welcome the information and the phone call, so there's nothing even remotely "spammy" about this, it would just save me the actual labor of making 60 calls.

Yes, I've googled, but all the hits are either preventing telemarketing or selling you hardware, which I'm not interested in since this is a one-time deal. Yes, I saw this, but it's also not really applicable. This was promising, but I need voice calls, not faxes.

posted by mysterious1der to technology (13 comments total)

Phonevite? I have not used personally.
posted by sharkfu at 7:34 AM on June 18

Are you sure this is the best way of going about this? Isn't there any way you could contact them via email or postal mail? Because my first impulse upon hearing a prerecorded message (and I seem to get quite a few of them) would be to put the phone down immediately, before the message can get past hello.
posted by peacheater at 7:35 AM on June 18

I'm assuming your church is a local thing - so a week is plenty of time for a posted letter to arrive, surely?
Like peacheater, I hang up on pre-recorded messages before they can get past 'hello'. If this information is really important then I wouldnt rely on a pre-recorded phone message.
posted by missmagenta at 7:40 AM on June 18

less expensive:
InfoLink

high end:
Boxpilot

Sorry I do not know exact prices and this may be too expensive for what you are looking for but I have colleagues who have used these services.
I have names and contact numbers if you are interested, just email me.
posted by doorsfan at 8:40 AM on June 18

You can't get, say, 10 volunteers to make 6 calls each?
posted by dnash at 9:08 AM on June 18

We use RingClear at work... if I remember correctly, it was cheap enough that my boss is paying for it out of pocket for the times we use it and being reimbursed.. i.e. it's something like <$100 for over 100 people on the dial list.
posted by niteHawk at 9:13 AM on June 18 [1 favorite]

Thanks to all, especially sharkfu, doorsfan, and niteHawk for linking to actual services.

peacheater, missmagenta, I sympathize, but again, this question was for a friend; I don't really have any control over their methods. Sorry if my OP should have been more explicit that I wasn't looking for warnings.

dnash, yep, volunteers sound smart to me as well, but again, not my call (and I think time is a tad short.)
posted by mysterious1der at 9:35 AM on June 18

I have used Phonevite that Sharkfu mentioned and can attest that it's a great service. It used to be free when I used it, but they don't charge that much money for it now.
posted by lockle at 9:42 AM on June 18

If email (with voice recording attachment) and/or mobile phone text message will do, try Jott. Free and quite simple.
posted by bartleby at 11:30 AM on June 18

Another one that you might try is CallingPost. For the highest account it's $.10 per phone number for 60 seconds.
posted by Deflagro at 1:31 PM on June 18

Thanks, bartleby, very neat idea. I hadn't thought of Jott.
posted by mysterious1der at 1:55 PM on June 18

You might want to try a product called Quick Call, by a Canadian company, Ivrnet.

I've used them in the past to send political related messages to members of political parties.

The price is very reasonable. Also considering they provide a great little web interface to manage your call lists, and recorded messages, I highly recommend them.

Msg me if you need any more info...
posted by canuck at 9:04 PM on June 18

There is a service called iPing (formerly Mr. Wakeup). I don't know how much it costs, but it is set up to do this. I think you may have a choice of recording your own message or sending a voice-synthesized message from text.

If you can get away with text messaging your group, then look at Joopz. Dunno about pricing, but it's kind of like what you're asking for.
posted by DanYHKim at 10:59 AM on June 19