Google Voice and Patlive
Good morning everyone
I have hit a bit of a snag with forwarding my Google Voice (GV) number to Patlive, and I’m hoping that someone on here has some ideas for me. Also, a search of BP yields very few results related to GV and Patlive so hopefully this will help someone in the future as well.
I recently sent out my second round of yellow letters, and decided to try Patlive since I missed most of the calls on my first round of mailings. I forwarded my existing GV number to my Patlive number, since my previous marketing used this number and I wanted to remain consistent.
Fast forward to yesterday and calls started coming in, but the issue is that the Patlive operators don’t pick them up quick enough and they are sent to GV’s Voicemail system. I get my email from Patlive, but instead of a summary of the call it just says that it was a hang up. So far, all my call backs have done this. Kind of defeats the purpose of having an answering service. I did a bunch of reading and it appears that there is no way to disable or delay GV’s voicemail, and this is one of their biggest complaints. You get what you pay for I guess.
I spoke with Patlive’s customer service and they said that this is a common problem with GV numbers; one representative said that only 60% of the calls that come in from a GV number are answered in time! Their recommendation is for me to port my number into their system. I have no emotional attachment to GV so I was about to go ahead with the port when my phone, sitting next to me, buzzed with a text message. “Oh yeah,” I thought, “my yellow letters say to call or text at my GV number.” I then confirmed with Patlive that if I port my number to their system, I will lose all SMS functionality. As an aside the text conversation that followed was very productive, so I do believe this is a viable means of initial contact.
So my questions are:
- Has anyone run into a similar issue and come up with a work around so that the GV does not send calls to voicemail before being answered by Patlive’s operators?
- Does anyone know of a service similar to GV that allows SMS texting, but also allows you to disable voicemail completely? I know there are a bunch of different systems out there, some paid and some free, but looking to see if anyone has used any with good results.
Thanks in advance for any feedback!
Most Popular Reply
If you're particularly attached to your GV number you can buy it from Google. I believe that the cost is around $5.00 or less. We then ported the number out and into At&t it's added as a flip phone to our plan and simply forwards to my live answering service.
***Disclosure: I own a live answering company***
I would also seriously question why it's taking Patlive so long to pick up?
According to my research... Google Voice will ring for 25 seconds before dumping over to a voicemail. This is about 5 rings.
In my experience, most consumers will wait about 30 seconds on a business and 45 seconds for a friend/family member before getting irritated. Do you want your prospects to be irritated when they get to talk to someone? I'd also be curious if they're getting a ringing sound, music, or any other "announcements" as all of this can affect your conversion of leads.
we had issues w GV as well once we decided to automate and scale up. We ended up getting numbers from callrail to use on our mailing. Wasn't crazy expensive and super easy to use with some extras that make everything easier.
Thanks for the feedback @Adrien C. I'll check them out!
Shawn
@Account Closed thanks for the reply. The issue isn't so much that Google Voice is not a "real" voicemail, but more so that I'd much prefer to have the calls answered rather than being sent to voicemail in the first place.
I have seen Ring Central, it looks like they have a lot to offer. Do you have experience with them? Any idea if voicemail can be either disable or delayed enough to give the operators time to answer?
Shawn
Great, thanks @Account Closed! I'll check them out as well.
Shawn
If you're particularly attached to your GV number you can buy it from Google. I believe that the cost is around $5.00 or less. We then ported the number out and into At&t it's added as a flip phone to our plan and simply forwards to my live answering service.
***Disclosure: I own a live answering company***
I would also seriously question why it's taking Patlive so long to pick up?
According to my research... Google Voice will ring for 25 seconds before dumping over to a voicemail. This is about 5 rings.
In my experience, most consumers will wait about 30 seconds on a business and 45 seconds for a friend/family member before getting irritated. Do you want your prospects to be irritated when they get to talk to someone? I'd also be curious if they're getting a ringing sound, music, or any other "announcements" as all of this can affect your conversion of leads.
@Ryan Dossey Thanks for the reply.
My only attachment to the GV number is that it's already out there in the first two batches of letters I sent out. While I have considered buying the number (I believe Google charges $3) and porting to Patlive, I would lose SMS text capability. I was looking to use a system similar to GV but one which would allow me to disable voicemail. I honestly didn't think of just adding the line to my cell service carrier, but that is a good thought which I will look into as well.
I agree that the length of time it takes them to pick up is a bit of a concern. There is an option within their system to have a recording play while waiting but I thought that may be more frustrating than just ringing. My intent is to get some feedback on that when I follow up with sellers, but I haven't been able to do so yet as none of the calls have actually been answered by the service yet.
That's unfortunate to hear. Gives me great ammo for the next client I speak with! I highly recommend porting to your carrier. I can text AND CALL directly from the # on my marketing but I don't have to handle any of the inbound leads. It's perfect.
With that long of a hold:
Disclaimer: Is gonna turn people off.
Music: Is going to make people think they're calling "corporate".
Ringing: Is going to get old.
I'd see if you can use a Hybrid. "Thanks for calling _______ we will be with you shortly. Ringing. Then rep."
That may be your best bet if you're trying to decrease your abandonment rate.
@Ryan Dossey Thanks for the additional feedback!
My understanding is that the recording option from Patlive is similar to your hybrid solution.
Shawn
You can turn off Google Voice voicemail for a forwarded phone.
https://support.google.com/voice/answer/165656?hl=en
That was one of the articles I came across in my research. One of the features GV allows you to do is to have a common voicemail box for all of your phones (i.e. work, home, cell, etc. all go to the same voicemail). That is was the article you linked to is referring to. The GV number still has its own distinct voicemail box that apparently cannot be disabled.
Just as a quick follow up to this it is worth noting that yesterday I received a call from one of Patlive's Account Executives in response to this thread. He explained the issue with GV and said that they have attempted to work with Google to come up with some sort of fix but they haven't had any luck as of yet. He also said that they have a VoIP service through one of their other companies with SMS capability, which looks similar to some of the other services mentioned earlier in this discussion.
I'm still a bit on the fence about which direction I want to go. I like the idea of porting my number to Verizon and just having another cell phone, but I'm struggling to justify the additional $20/month just to be able to receive text messages as an initial contact. Last night I mail merged my next set of letters that will go out next Monday so I just need to determine if my call to action will include texting as a method of contact before I hit print.
Great thread Shawn Loughman ! I am in a similar position, where I work full time as an engineer and am just getting into wholesaling now. I am about to launch my first direct mail campaign, but am worried that I will miss most of the calls due to my full time job keeping me so busy. I have a GV number which I have in all of my business info (websites, emails, letterhead, etc) but that is easily changeable.
I was looking into PATLIVE as an option so I don't miss 90% of the calls, but after reading this thread I'm not so sure it will work with GV. I'll need to find an alternative.
Have you ever looked into Vumber? That is also a VOIP service that is similar to GV (but costs money). They may give you the functionality you're looking for without the $20/mo for an additional phone line on your Verizon plan.
Best of luck,
Mike
@Account Closed it ended up just being two responses that came in via text from my first mailing. Of those two, one of them was a potentially motivated seller that I will be following up with next week, as they are looking to sell in April. The second included threats to my well being for sending them a letter. I have since ported the GV number into Patlive because I could not justify paying for another phone line just to receive text messages. I removed the "text message" call to action in subsequent mailings.
@Michael DeFrancisis Thanks! I definitely recommend having something set up to answer calls. While I suppose I could answer at least some calls while at the office and not tied up in a meeting, it is just not something I'm going to do on the company's time. The only other alternative is a voicemail but I think that a lot of people would not bother leaving one. The thing I like about Patlive is that you can set up your own script and then you receive an email right after the call with all of the details of the call. I assume this is a feature that is common to other call centers as well.
As far as the GV number, I did end up porting it to Patlive due to the issues. It has worked seamlessly since doing so.
Let me know if I can provide any further information. Good luck with your direct mailing as well!
Shawn
I'd highly suggest you check out CallRail. I'm hitting 4 different lists and each list has its own number. When a person calls, CallRail forwards it to my google voice # and also tells me which list the call is coming from. If in the future I want to outsource call answering, I'll just have CallRail forward calls to that provider's number. The best part is that I never have to change the list's dedicated number.