ARTICLES| Article ID:0032 Publish Date:11/1/2007 | | WHAT IS THE COST OF FREE?.... |
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| There has been a buzz lately among some Telecom Managers about how they can save money by using “free” Directory Assistance (DA) calling services. The assumption is that since the call is free, directing all calls to these services saves some big bucks on the telephone bills. But this view could easily be shortsighted, not considering the actual call cost to the company. | | Let’s evaluate this based on a block of 100 calls. First, “free” systems use a forced automation platform with advertising, sometimes before and after the call. These are not “once and out” automation systems, but those that require you to repeat your selections. Calls on these platforms can require the caller to be on the call for an average of one and a half minutes. Second, the databases used in these services often do not contain the most current data, and are not always optimized for retrieval, such as standardization for localities. Often, this leads to a successful find rate of about 60%. | | So, in our 100-call evaluation, if you have a loaded labor rate of $18/hour, and your employees can find 60 of the numbers they are looking for, at one and a half minutes per search, that cost you $27. But what about the other calls? Well, if they call the LEC, at a rate of $1.25 per call, and they spend 30 seconds on each of these calls, that now has cost an additional $56. But wait, for the 40 calls to the LEC, they also spent one and a half minutes per call to not get the number for “free,” at an additional cost of $18. So now your 100 “free” calls have cost you $101, or about $1 per call. | | If, instead, you use a qualified DA service provider, each employee will be on the phone about half a minute, for a labor cost of about $15. And, assuming you pay your provider, at most, $0.45 per call, these same 100 calls cost you $60. That’s a $40 saving per 100 calls! | | So when you are thinking about “free,” keep all your costs in mind, not just those that are in front of you. For more information on DA services, visit www.corporatetel.com, or call us at 215-793-4880. | | | | | | | |
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