Insights For Success

Strategy, Innovation, Leadership and Security

Telephone Calling

Bypass that machine and speak to a human

GeneralEdward Kiledjian

Regardless of the sales pitch companies make, most self-service initiatives are to save the company money and not necessarily to improve the customer experience. Automated interactive voice support systems are no exception. Everyone dreads entering the maze of never-ending menus filled with frustration and annoyance.

There is a better way. What if you could bypass the machine and go straight to a living breathing human? Welcome to the salvation that is GetHuman.com. 

Let's say I want to call Bell Canada:

Go to GetHuman.com and search for the company

Then you choose the purpose of the call

Let's use cancel service

And here they try to sell you their service which is obviously annoying since the info was built by thousands of users when the site was firsts created (and was free by the way). This is immensely frustrating but there is a workaround.

Trick to get the information for free

Download the GetHuman app on IOS or Android and the information you seek will be provided for free.

Here is the Bell Canada information.

The middle box gives you all of the information you need to quickly navigate the Interactive Voice Response menu. Some listed companies are no longer in business because the free updates from customers stopped when they started pissing off users by trying to charge for everything but I still still find 85% of the info I need.

We don't know if the mobile apps will one day be updated and become for-pay also but use it now while you can. Great resource that has saved me a tone of time.

IOS 10.2 brings WI-FI Calling for Telus Customers

GeneralEdward Kiledjian

Without much fanfare or pre-announcement, the IOS 10.2 update released earlier today finally enabled WI-FI calling for Telus customers. 

After installing the update, the device rebooted. I then enabled WI-FI calling by:

Settings > Phone > WiFi Calling > Toggle ON

WI-FI calling means cellular calls could be routed via a WIFI network in areas with poor cellular coverage. When the phone detect low cellular connectivity (aka reception dots in the upper left hand corner), it will route inbound and outbound calls with WIFI. 

As soon as I enabled WI-FI calling, I received an email from Telus with this new "free" option automatically added to my line.

Telus support said VoLTE (Voice over LTE) is coming but couldn't give me a date.

Google deploying SPAM call protection to some Nexus devices

GeneralEdward Kiledjian

Nexus One image by closari used under Creative Commons License

Google's quest to squash SPAM isn't stopping with email. The sultan of search is now pushing an update to some Nexus and Google One devices to warn users when they receive a potentially SPAM call.

The feature allows you to block the number or report it. The Use caller ID & spam protection will be turned on by default. 

The feature was launched with a post on the Nexus Google+ forum.. Yes Google+... Yes THAT Google+.

“
Spam callers be gone! Today, we’re beginning to update your Google Phone app with spam protection on #Nexus and #AndroidOne devices to warn you about potential spam callers and give you the ability to block and report these numbers. If you already have Caller ID turned on, spam protection will be available on your phone once your app updates to the latest version.”
— Google

LinkNYC is the ultimate phonebooth replacement for modern cities and I want it

GeneralEdward Kiledjian

Image byEdward Blak used under creative commons license

See that sleek advertising billboard? It's actually a modern day replacement for the 1960's telephone booth. Meet LinkNYC. 

Each big beautiful device delivers 1 gigabit of glorious WIFI(serving hundreds of WIFI users simultaneously). To deliver this much high speed goodness, CityBridge is laying thousands of miles of fiber-optic cable).

 Since it is replacing the old style phone-booth's it's only fitting that the LinkNYC station also allow anyone to make free unlimited calls to anywhere in the US thanks to a deal with Vonage. Call's can be made via the built in speaker and mic or via your own headset (plugged in) . 

What if your device is dead? Are you out of luck? Not you're not. Each device has a power only USB plug which means you can use the station to charge your power-hungry smartphone or tablet. 

And each device has a touch screen tablet that can be used to browser the internet or lookup city services. 

There are over 200 LinkNYC stations currently deployed and more are on the way. I know some readers are freaking out. How can a city force tax-payers to subsidize something like this? Well they aren't. These kiosks are self funded through advertising and may even generate a little extra income for the city. The revenue is from advertising shown on both sides of the kiosks.

The solution is packaged by SideWalk Labs which is a wholy owned subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. 

And that my friends is how a modern tech savvy city does it. Democratizing technology while being cost neutral to the city.