I recently an article on TechCrunch talking about a young company called PhoneTag.com that converts voice mails into text so that you can read your voice mail messages instead of having to step out of the room to listen to them. This feature would be great for business professionals who are constantly getting calls and messages while in meetings and office scenarios, not to mention that most of us can read much faster than they can listen.
I also found out that the service supports GrandCentral, which I am a big fan of, so I went to the site to try it out. I discovered to my dismay that the service is not free, as I’ve come to love and frankly expect of all great internet based applications (which extends to my phone as well). So, rather than fork over $29.95 a month, I decided to write the company at info@phonetag.com to let them know they should offer it to free. I didn’t really expect a response, or a free service, but I have trouble not letting people know that their business is doomed if I think they have an easy change available.
I got a response from James Siminoff, Founder of PhoneTag.com. I am reprinting the email correspondence below. Please note where James says that he wouldn’t want to be a part of companies that ‘make a lot more money’ than he does. Why not?? He didn’t get into the guns he’s sticking to or the reasons for doing so, but I suspect foul play.
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My Original Email:
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I use Grand Central and was interested in using your product with my voicemails, until I saw that it cost money. I just wanted to write and suggest you figure out a way to monetize differently and not charge for your service.
Someone will offer this for free soon if they don’t already and building the network seems like the most important thing to me.
Just my two cents,
Dan Graham
Managing Director
BuildASign.com
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James Siminoff’s Reply
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Dan,
Thanks but in the end someone has to charge money for a service… We strongly believe in building a profitable business from the start and that is why we have launched our business with a subscription based model.
I have seen a lot of people make a lot more money than I have doing businesses that use alternative funding sources to provide free products, I personally would just not want to be part of any of them.
Thanks for taking the time to send the comment,
Jamie
James Siminoff, Founder
PhoneTag
I agree with Jamie; Mr. Dan, you are clearly not clear on how clear marketplaces work: you want something, they have something you want, you exchange. All your fancy-dancy four dollar words and your “business strategies” aren’t going to change the fact that all successful businesses come from hard work with founders who stay the course. Good-day sir!
I think it’s a pretty safe guess that grandcentral will have transcription. Let’s just hope grandcentral isn’t going to outsource transcriptions to India like phonetag.
Dan,
I am absolutely blown away by your post. You write to me that you want “free service” which is just not what we do. Can I get free signs from your company? Why do you charge for your product?
I sent you back a very nice and open email about why we charge for service. I was even honest enough to tell you that I have seen people with free services like GrandCentral bought by Google for big bucks but myself I just am not a person who wants to be in a company that does not charge for a product. I understand both sides, but as the founder and owner I have the right to make decisions about how I want the business to be run.
I am always nice to customers but you are an asshole. You have taken a nice email that I sent back to you and tried to spin it into something it was not. The sad thing is that my email was not laughing at you at all. It had nothing to do with you, it was just about why we charge for our service.
If you want to make it up to me you can figure out how to make signs for free and give them away to create a “important network” until then I suggest you keep your advice to yourself.
Jamie
Jamie,
I’m sorry you took my post so badly. I think you have a great product and I am just expressing my opinion about the monetization choice made, and my confusion at you turning away what you recognize could be larger amount of money.
As a side note, I would love to hear ideas you or anyone has on how to make more money by giving away signs at no cost.
Dan:
As a subscriber to Phonetag I can appreciate the value derived from the business model Jamie Siminoff decided upon when forming this company: I get a quality, unencumbered, product for the price.
Contrariwise, if Jamie had elected to go the route of a “free service”, I and all his other subscribers would probably be bombarded with advertisements to recover the costs to setup and operate the service. If this was the case I wouldn’t be a customer; the concept of saving my time by subscribing to his service would be eliminated by having to listen to some “bs” advertisement before I hear an important message.
Lastly, relating to those people who think everything (okay…maybe just some things) should be free - get real! Either on the front-end or back-end of a transaction someone is monetizing the experience.
Re,
Duke
Duke,
I agree almost completely, although I disagree with you that a bombardment of ads would be the best way to monetize the phonetag.com service. Check out Mint.com: they have a very clever and easy way to monetize their free service using subtle offers for financial services that fit nicely with their model.
And as someone who uses, grandcentral (free), gmail (free), wordpress (free) and many many other free well functioning services that don’t bombard me with ads, I would disagree with you that believing things can be free isn’t being unrealistic.
Dan:
I have to admit this conversation is going in a funny direction!
Based upon your desire to go exclusively with free services (wordpress charges for some services though) you’re within a consumer segment who’s willing to give up your privacy; given Google collects valuable marketable data points from your communications to use for their own purposes and/or sell to others. In this situation your cost is your privacy and that’s your decision.
In the case of phonetag, I (and many others) give money in exchange for a product I expect will be delivered to me as promised. I’m not going to be getting unprofessional advertisements on the top/bottom of my transcribed messages and they won’t be data mining my confidential communications to sell to third parties. I have generated a hands-tying agreement with Phonetag to provide a service as promised. However, in the case of a free service I risk them shuttering the site at anytime, leaving me without service, and/or selling my confidential information.
This a pretty simple concept - i’m not sure why you even initiated this request with Phonetag. Do you also send a letter to Michael Dell when you think his $1k PC should be $100 because someone else is selling one for that amount(rhetorical)?
[Conversation over]
Only two cents Dan? People pay upwards of $100K for business educations like the one you’re giving here, Dan. Why so cheap?
Let me give you my two cents: If you tried their service for a month, I think your perspective might change.
@Karni, I appreciate the compliment on your view of the value of my opinion =) and to answer your question, I guess I was just feeling generous.
@Duke, I think you bring up a good point about privacy and I definitely do put myself in the consumer camp of people who are ok sharing more and more personal/private information in exchange for cheaper and better targeted services. I do, however, understand the viewpoint of paying more for sheltered access to services.
I think Dan’s bigger point here is being lost. There are other companies, popular companies, doing speech-to-text in big ways, like Jott. James, you clearly have a product that Dan, and other people are interested in. In some cases, interested enough to pay you for it. I think the bigger point rests in who the world is. I think we’re finding that the world is moving away from the old commerce model where I make you a widget, and you pay me for it.
People, in general, will go for free when it is available, even when there are better, less ad-ridden, more secure places to get that same product for a small price. Tons of Web 2.0 companies have been showing us this for a couple of years now.
Perhaps you have different ideals than Dan does, and that’s understandable. I would argue, however, that most companies out there are driven primarily by money. Whether it’s to have the most market share, to be bought by a larger company like Google, or whatever, we’re all here in business for that.
Someone is going to do what you’re doing for free. It’s inevitable. I think what Dan is saying is that it would be a shame to see an idea as great PhoneTag go under, when there is the clear potential for it to be huge, if it could only be monetized in a different way.
I would guess in our lifetimes we will see cell phone service become internet based and free, actually probably in the next few years for tech-savy people. If an industry of that size with players that substantial is moving in that direction, why would you not consider it? I am genuinely just trying to understand the motive, ethical, religious, or otherwise.
I know this thread originated to talk about PhoneTag.com’s pricing model. I choose to stay out of this; however, I do feel compelled to comment on Mint.com. I signed up for Mint.com because I had heard rumblings from other enthusiasts. Sadly, they have gotten it wrong with me. My financial information never seems to be accurate – and despite writing to them on several occasions to sort out the glitch or have them close my account, there has been no resolution. I still get updates from them and wished I had never signed up. The concept is great – but the follow-through is poor.
@Michael, wow that’s terrible. I haven’t had any trouble with my account yet, but maybe I’ll start watching it more closely.
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