Fonolo's deep dialer gets call recording, shortcuts

Fonolo, the Web service that helps you reach the inner depths of even the largest company telephone directories, has put out a big update that adds new tools for users and companies alike.

The biggest new feature of the bunch is call recording, something I pined for in previous looks at the service. You're now able to record the entire call for playback later, something that can be helpful when citing good or bad customer service experiences. It's honestly one of the most fantastic features I've used in a long time.

The best part is that call recording is free and does not require any special phone equipment. To record any call you're on, you can just hit a big red button as soon as it's connected. It then saves it to the cloud where you can either listen to it in your browser, or download it as an MP3.

Earlier this morning I did it with a call to Amazon.com, and it connected me three levels of phone menus deep to the right person. The only downside was that they such a strong accent, listing off my personal information became a game of trying to remember letters in the NATO phonetic alphabet.

You can now save customer service calls and listen to them in your browser or download them.

(Credit: CNET)

Along with call recordings, Fonolo has another new trick up its sleeve called Quick Tones. This is basically autofill, but for phone menus. So say you know you're calling Comcast; you can add any account, order, or phone numbers into Fonolo's system as bookmarks. Then, when you're on the call, you can choose to dial one of those bits of information into the call, without having to do it all on your phone. Honestly, this is only helpful for frequent users, but if you anticipate having to enter a lot of that information, saving it once can mean not having to enter it on future calls.

For companies, there's also a new way to embed their own phone trees on their site using a special widget. This lets users peruse the entire directory, then make a call without having to register with Fonolo. After the call is done it pops up with a customer service questionnaire that asks how their call was, which the company can then monitor back on Fonolo's site.

Fonolo is still only available on the Web and on Android phones and limited to around 500 North American companies. There's not yet a version for iPhone, Symbian, or Windows Mobile handsets, but the service has a way to add Fonolo quick call links to a company's mobile site that will let users jump to that part of a phone directory without having to use Fonolo proper.

[Regulator7]

Did you inform the Amazon rep that you'd be recording the conversation? Because if not, what you did *may* have been illegal. In some states, it is illegal to record a phone conversation if *both* parties are not made aware that the call is being recorded. Thus the reason that on most C/S calls you're told "this recording may be used for training purposes". They're covering their behind. A user in a particular state may need to do precisely the same thing.

I'm not saying I agree with such laws, but People need to be aware of the laws they may be breaking by using such an application.

[Josh.Lowensohn]

I did in fact inform the rep as per California's recording laws which require all participants to be aware recordings are being made. You also have to agree to Fonolo's recording EULA before the option is flipped on, and they're pretty clear about what you can and cannot do (http://fonolo.com/consumer/recordingterms).

I should have mentioned that though. :)

[stuporglue]

"Did you inform the Amazon rep that you'd be recording the conversation?" -- Doesn't almost every call to a company start with the message "this call may be recorded"? Sounds like permission, or at least ample warning to me.

[Josh.Lowensohn]

Certain states (like California) require that both parties agree to the recording, whereas others only require one (the company) to make note of this prior to connecting a conversation.

[4score20]

Sounds interesting but I'm only allowed to have all of my recorded calls on Google's servers and I think they'd get mad if they found out I was cheating on them with Fonolo.

[Josh.Lowensohn]

That's the interesting thing about this one--because you're technically calling out, whereas Google Voice can only record incoming calls. It also tells both people on the line that recording is beginning and ending.

[Patrick_Botz]

I enjoyed reading your article Josh and each of the follow-up comments posted.

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TMC?s Customer Interaction Solutions magazine recognized VPI as the winner of its IP Contact Center Technology Pioneer Award for 2009 for its advanced IP call recording software. VPI CAPTURE PRO (http://www.VPI-corp.com/CAPTURE-PRO) provides many value added features and built-in real-time analytical capabilities, including:

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- Ability to tag valuable data, values and events from your employees' desktop applications (i.e. Sales Amount, Cancelled Order, sensitive PCI compliance information enclosed) to your calls with VPI Fact Finder - an innovative desktop screen analytics tool. This helps you quickly find, listen to, evaluate and coach on high value calls.
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You can read more about VPI at http://www.VPI-corp.com