Phone Companies Tout '900' Numbers p.

By: M.L. Stein

But revenue from pay-per-call numbers fell in 1992 over 1991
and some newspapers say they are not popular with customers sp.

PAY-PER-CALL 900 numbers will not only equal the popularity of the much older 800 calls, but their usage will increase at a much swifter pace, an AT&T executive told a recent Las Vegas audiotex conference.
Noting that 800 numbers, which began 25 years ago, now account for 40% of all calls on AT&T's network, Carol Knauff, director of the company's inbound applications, said many firms are realizing that 900 service "offers unique opportunities to build a relationship with a consumer audience."
"The ability to give people what they want, when they want it, at a price they can afford, is the keystone of successful marketing," she continued. "Companies on the forefront are using 900 to improve customer relationships and they are finding other creative ways to use pay-per-call solutions."
Among the companies are several major newspapers.
Pointing out that the Phoenix Gazette ran a holiday promotion via 800 that offered to fax maps to the best-lighted Christmas displays, Knauff exclaimed, "Ten thousand fax pages later, they were wishing they had used 900."
However, InfoText magazine, which sponsored the recent InfoText 93 convention at which Knauff spoke, reported in its January issue that revenue for 900 services dropped 40% in 1992, from $975 million in 1991 to $550 million last year. But the article's author James Ivers reported that, of the four 900 providers, AT&T emerged in 1992 with the "fewest bangs and cuts," dropping from $360 million in retail billings to $330 million.
Knauff acknowledged there have been problems in the acceptance of 900 service, partly because of confusion with 800 numbers and a credibility gap.
These have been corrected, she contended.
"Standards were adopted," she explained. The guiding principle was simple: "Respect the caller's right to know what the call would cost and what value they would get for their money."
AT&T guidelines and FCC rulings embodied the principles of "truth in advertising," Knauff said.
Also, in a 1992 survey, 70% of the respondents no longer confused 800 with 900 numbers, which they knew cost money, she said.
Still, she conceded, there are lingering problems with uncollectibles and other billing snags. One AT&T solution is to get a profile of the caller, determine his credit standing, and block abusive callers from using the number, Knauff disclosed.
Knauff was equally candid about 900 calls as a current profit center.
"Right now, many of us aren't making much money in this business," she observed. "The risk and the margins cause us all to ask ourselves daily, Is it worth it?"
At AT&T, Knauff said, the answer is a "resounding yes, because we understand the power of 800, its perilous early history, and we have the courage to live it again with 900."
She asserted that pay-calls enable a business to find different markets, extend product lines in new directions, launch enterprises, and stretch the life of mature products by attracting new users.
In addition, Knauff said, 900 service gives companies an opportunity to learn more about callers. She maintained that the millions of people who now consider the telephone their first-choice way to buy goods will welcome the 900 number as a "storefront for electronic information just as they did the 800 number for goods and services."
Another speaker, Rachel Gonter of Voice Information Services (VIS), a subsidiary of Cox Enterprises, said her firm has learned that 900 and 976 do not work for information services or newspaper support in the local market.
Instead, she said, Cox newspapers are experimenting with a three-digit number, N11, a nominal fee per call with the idea of retaining and/or building a caller base. The idea is being tried at the Cox-owned Palm Beach Post of West Palm Beach, Fla., for such services as news headlines, sports, stock updates and ads.
Gonter said Cox's flagship papers, the Atlanta Journal and Constitution, have installed a Classified Answering Machine that provides, for a fee, a voice mailbox to any classified advertiser and makes sure that he never misses a response to an ad.
The advertiser, whose home or office number is not revealed, can access the mailbox at any time and respond only to the messages that look promising, Gonter said. She said the machine averages 450 to 500 ads a month and receives about 12,800 calls. The Atlanta newspaper also is offering "talking ads" in which advertisers of a particular group are placed in a directory, Gonter stated.
Calls are made to a single number ? "We use a catchy 222-2222" ? and then the four-digit advertiser's code is given. The caller then hears a recorded message and has the option of staying on the line for a direct connection to the advertiser's place of business.
Gonter said talking ads are averaging 137 advertisers a month, up from 19 in 1991.
Kurt Indvik, publisher of InfoText, said that 900, although an attractive billing option, "is not a business in and of itself."
However, he forecast an upsurge in 900 use in 1993, noting that the Strategic Telemedia firm estimates growth of 7% in billings, with 10% to 12% growth in 1994 and 1995.
He said that the future 900 increases will come from mainstream industries relying on the interactive/automated telephone for customer service.
"What we must remember," he concluded, "is that interactive telephone can help us help our customers, our readers, our viewers and our employees to get what they need from us in as convenient and friendly a way as possible."