The mission of my real estate brokerage, Brio Realty, is to create a truly remarkable home buying/selling experience. With that mission in mind, every point of contact with a home buyer or selling is a potential opportunity for you to wow them. GrandCentral is a new company that has really thought outside the box and as a result is able to offer some really great "why wasn't that thought of earlier" services.
Including:
Screen Your Calls: Always know who is calling because 100% of your calls can be screened. There is a couple different ways GrandCentral does it. One is by matching a caller ID with a name that you typed into your GrandCentral account, and the other, for non listed numbers, is by asking the calling their name. Both methods allow you the opportunity to answer the call, send the caller to voicemail, and send the caller to while listening.
ListenIn on Voicemail: When you send a caller to voicemail, you have the option to listen in to the voicemail in real time, and if you choose cut into the message and take the call. Just like the old fashion table top voicemail machines.
RingShare: Upload an individualized MP3 file to play for specific callers. This would allow you to play your clients favorite song to them when they call. You can also record different personalized greetings for each caller.
Block Callers: Just enter a number that you want blocked and your never receive another call from that caller again.
Switch Phones mid-call: Switch from your cell to your office phone without your callers ever knowing.
Voicemail Everywhere: It is much simpler for me to go to the GrandCentral website and play back my messages on my computer than calling my virtual voicemail number. Big time saver!
Voicemail Storage: All of your voicemail messages will be saved online, for life (supposedly).
One number: Grandcentral assigns you one local number that when called will rign all of the numbers that you designate.
While it is beta they are offering the service for free. I am sure the idea is that you will use the service now, give everyone your new number (as I have done), and the your be hooked on the service.
The downside is that the service is in beta and is unstable. If I was a practicing agent, I don't think I would be completely comfortable giving out this number to be clients just yet. Give GrandCentral a month or two to work out the kinks and the give it a shot. But start slow to make sure you like the service before putting the number on your business card.
Nice- Me like gadgets.
I remember another company offering a similar sevice..."Call Anywhere"?
I agree about the beta period as one not to "bank" on. But it's free!
Thanks for the good info
Now those are some cool features! I will check it out.
I thought this was interesting from their site:
Will GrandCentral always be free?
Yes, we�re excited to say that we will always offer a free version of GrandCentral, even after beta. Our free version will include unlimited inbound minutes, unlimited voicemail (up to 30 days old), and access to all of our core features.During beta, we�re giving everyone unlimited access to our premium features. In exchange, all we ask is that you send us your feedback (good or bad) to beta@grandcentral.com. We'll read every comment.
I use IOBI, a service through Verizon. Doesn't have al the bells and whistles described above, but allows me to keep my regular phone number, direct calls from my main number (home number, from years back when I ran my business from my home office) , to office, cell, or several other numbers; can be changed remotely by computer or phone; has caller ID, shows the calls, takes voice messages. Even records the numbers that don't leave a message.
Once, when away for the weekend, I was on my laptop and saw that a number had called twice with no message. I saw the same long distance call come in again (I hadn't forwarded to calls to me, since I was "off") so I called the number, listed a condo that I sold soon after.
thanks for sharin gthat with us.
I'll check it out BUT everytime I get something FREE it costs me $$ but that's OK,
All I ask for is value for my $$$'s
I checked it out and it looks great but there isn't any local number for my area yet. :(
I've used GrandCentral for quite awhile. We have transferred all of our marketing to show our single point of contact. Having access to voicemail over email is great. I wish they would save voicemails as wav files for long term storage. I love the being able to transfer a call from your home phone to cell phone while in the middle of a conversation. I'm looking forward to future updates.
Just dropping my $.02 into the thread...
I have used GrandCentral.com for about a year now and am finally confident to put it on my card as the main contact number for myself. The ability to manage calls via web and the other features have finally won me over. If you get a chance to try it out, I can highly recommend it as it just works.
A really useful tool and a service that I hope continues long into the future (jut like the other 'Beta' service I use from Google - > Gmail).
Later!
How can I get an invitation to GrandCentral? I have my name on the wait list, but they will take forever to take action on those requests.
I too have my name on the wait list. I would like to start this beta service now. Any thoughts?