Costs of Voice Broadcasting

One of the most important considerations in doing business is on costs. Every business owner will always look into this aspect. This article provides introduction to the costs of voice broadcasting and how it can it an advantage to your business.

Pay Per Minute

In terms of costs, this is a very unpredictable method and is not advisable unless you can go around the problems that it can cause.
Here are some problem areas:

- What increments will be used to time each call?
- Number of digits to manipulate the billed cost.
- Provision for the rounding up of each call cost. This can be a problem area if not established between you and the voice broadcast vendor.
- Will the call time include dial and ringing time or just when the call is answered?
Unless the variables stated above are cleared then there is no point resorting to this type of payment determination scheme with your voice broadcast provider.

Pay Per Live Transfer

An amount or fee is charged to you by the broadcast vendor for every call that is transferred to you as a result of the client pressing “1” in response to the recorded message. It does not matter if the call is transferred immediately or if response will be a bit delayed. The length of time with the client is not also a variable. This cost is the most practical and is the one resorted to by most business owners.

The disadvantage of this pay per transfer method is it cannot be utilized for the delivery of messages to an answering machine. This voice broadcast method is only for messages delivered to a live number only.

Pay Per Delivery

Like the Pay Per Transfer cost, a set amount is charged for each message delivered. This can work both for live answered calls and answer machine delivered voice broadcasts. If you plan to have an answering machine too especially during after office hours then this is the plan for you.

The downside of this payment method is that some voice broadcast vendors charge on a “per dial” or “per connect”. You should watch out for this in your terms of service. You should not pay for calls that do not result in actual delivery of messages.

It is best to keep the agreement simple with your voice broadcast vendor and charge you for every delivered message.

The best way to assess which one is most economical for your need is to do a test campaign. Always ask for a report, a simple one, from the voice broadcast provider so you can check and do calculations yourself. Do not fall for complicated statistical reports that you do not really need. Let the voice broadcast provider submit one that you can understand immediately. Also see to it that the provider agrees that you can change your payment option or plan without any penalty or lock in period.