“When Connected Planet recently asked me to write a two-part series about cloud-based services, the most difficult part was to narrow down the topic. In the end, I focused the first piece on cloud-based unified communications and the second piece on cloud-based security. Both stories focused on specialty service providers (many of them start-ups) that have all taken a bit of a different approach to the market.”

“The cloud-service market reminds me a lot of the early days of packaged software for personal computers, when a slew of start-up companies developed programs that could handle all sorts of specialized tasks, from creating floor plans to managing a stock portfolio. Many of those companies were eventually acquired by larger players, which merged multiple programs into a comprehensive software suite. Before long I expect we’ll see a similar pattern in the cloud services market.”

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FonGenie is an online service that serves as an online receptionist for your retail or small business. It lets business owners customize how phone calls are answered with greetings and menus. The company is so confident in its ability to increase your business’ sales that if it fails to deliver, it will pay you $500 in cash or an Amex gift certificate.

FonGenie let’s you add daily specials, offers, incentives, and discounts to your customized greetings to encourage callers to purchase products or services. According to the company, 35 percent of callers introduced to daily specials when calling a business using FonGenie have accepted an offer.

The service includes Caller ID 2.0 which gives real-time analytics on incoming calls such as who is calling and their specific call history and behavior. It also has a built-in CRM tool that allows custom tagging, appointment management and note taking to profile callers and identify important customers when they call again.

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The FonGenie telephony platform lets businesses script their own menu tree and capture caller information, all with no new investment in infrastructure.

Subscribing businesses use a Web interface to script greetings and set up menu options. The greeting can include an additional announcement about current specials or promotions.

After that, the caller hears a standard voicemail menu with whatever choices the business sets up — hours and location, ring through to specific people or departments, and so on. Customers can use an existing phone number or set up a new one supplied by FonGenie.

The service also offers CRM features, such as information about the caller, what messages they’ve heard, when they last called, and any notes from previous conversations, all of which are displayed to the call recipient before they answer.

The business can also access business intelligence about their call activity, such as how many calls come in each day, where they originate, and so on.

The service is only available in the U.S. so far. Pricing ranges from US$29.99 to $149.99 per month, depending on call volume, CRM and BI features included, and so on.

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Now out of private beta and open to all businesses, the FonGenie service lets SMBs establish their own telephone platform, complete with custom menus and caller information, without having to invest in their own infrastructure.

Businesses can bring their own phone numbers to FonGenie or use one supplied by the company. After establishing an account, they can use a Web interface to set up phone greetings and menu options. The greeting can include a customized announcement of current promotions, daily specials, or some other message that a caller will hear before getting the menu options. As with standard voice mail systems, the menu options can include preset announcements such as business hours, choices of departments to transfer the call to, and so on.

When the call gets transferred, the CRM features kick in. The recipient can see information about the caller, including phone number and location, what menu options and messages they’re already heard, how long it’s been since their last call, and notes from previous conversations. The service also provides post-call analytics, through which a company can learn how many calls they receive a day, how long they last, whether the callers listened to promotional messages, and more.

Plans range from $30/month for 300 minutes of phone service managing up to 20 customers and providing the basic set of CRM features, up to $150/month for 5,000 minutes, unlimited customers, and extra features such as call tracking and support for multiple locations. The company provides a simple online calculator for estimating increased revenue and cost savings, based on type and size of business, number of customers per day, and other factors. FonGenie also has a “Magic-Lamp Sales Challenge,” in which they promise to give $500 to a company if sales don’t increase in 30 days.

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FonGenie is a cloud-computing service that offers the merchants and small businesses a virtual telephone platform and business intelligence tools, announced it has upgraded from the private beta version after numerous months of end-user testing.

The company helps business owners to up-sell products and services to callers while gaining insights on customer calling behaviors.

According to James Im, founder and CEO of FonGenie, “I am so confident that FonGenie can make a difference to a small business’ bottom line that I’m putting my money where my mouth is. Just try FonGenie for 30 days – it is simple to setup and easy to use – and you’ll realize its benefits immediately from increased sales to cost savings. If it doesn’t, I’ll reimburse them for their time.”

The FonGenie service not only enables business owners to customize their telephone calls to boost sales and profits through an easy-to-use Web interface, but callers are also able to hear and interact with store directions, hours, promo, incentives, discount, upcoming events and more.

Company officials noted that up to 35 percent of callers introduced to daily specials when calling a business have accepted an offer. This conversion rate resulted in an average sales increase of more than 25 percent for the FonGenie customers.

In addition, Caller ID 2.0 included with FonGenie provides real-time business intelligence and analytics on all incoming calls such as identifying the caller, identifying the location of the caller, reason for the call, identifying the list of menus in which the caller listened to and engaged, and identifying specific call history and behavior of the caller.

Carolyn John is a Contributor to TMCnet. To read more of her articles, please visit their columnist page.

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