Mobile Carriers

Mobile carriers who have implemented category search within their Directory Assistance service have found that perhaps 10% of callers choose this option - without any marketing effort. More and more carriers are now extending their Directory Assistance service to include category search. As consumer awareness grows, Directory Assistance call volumes will rise with a growing percentage of calls being for category search.

By offering category search within their Directory Assistance service, mobile carriers can improve customer satisfaction while increasing revenues.

Call Genie provides two alternatives for the mobile carrier. With our hosted service offering, the carrier can simply transfer category search calls to CallGenie. We will look after the rest. With our licensed solution offering, CallGenie will assist the mobile carrier to integrate EVD™ into the existing Call Center environment, minimizing call transfer costs and giving full control to the carrier's IT staff.

Hosted Service Offering

Call Genie provides a full-function category search service for mobile carriers. The service is branded for each carrier, and includes operator fallback arranged by Call Genie. CallGenie arranges for quality, up-to-date Nationwide listings.

The Hosted Service offering can be implemented with minimal investment and delay. The carrier simply has to adapt the front-end Directory Assistance dialog to offer the category search option, and to transfer these calls to CallGenie's facilities. We look after the rest.

Licensed Solution Offering

Call Genie provides a licensed solution option, where EVD™ is installed in the mobile carrier's data center as an integral component of the Directory Assistance environment. Typically, in a licensed solution, the mobile carrier provides the listings and arranges for operator fallback.

Call Genie assists in implementation and integration of EVD™ into the carrier's environment, and configures EVD™ to present the carrier's brand. Call Genie provides ongoing operational support of the EVD™ software, including automatic delivery of software release upgrades as part of the Software Support Agreement.

Advertising Opportunity

When the consumer is paying for each Directory Assistance call, explicit advertising is probably inappropriate. However, priority placement, tagline ads, premium content display, SMS delivery and the option of connecting to a selected business will all enhance the consumer experience while opening the opportunity for advertising revenue.

Through arrangements with advertising content providers, such as Yellow Pages and newspaper publishers, and advertising agencies, CallGenie supplies unobtrusive ads, paying fees to the mobile carrier for placement of these ads. This secondary source of revenue may go a long way to covering all costs of EVD™ operations.

Summary

Category search is a valuable extension to a mobile Directory Assistance name search service. With EVD™, the service can be implemented fast, with minimal investment and delay, using Call Genie's pre-built mobile carrier hosted service or licensed solution option. Consumer satisfaction will improve, and revenues will grow.