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I can sell you a little box that you plug their phone into and it will answer the phone and present a phone tree: "If you want to speak to Marv, press 1. If yo
by freeopinion 3y ago
I can sell you a little box that you plug their phone into and it will answer the phone and present a phone tree:
"If you want to speak to Marv, press 1. If you want to speak to Pat, press 2. If you know the name of the person who lives here, press 3."
If the caller presses 3, they have to punch in the first 3 letters of the name of the person they are trying to reach.
If, instead, the caller punches in 5284, it routes the call through.
All other calls or terminated without the phone ringing.
This can also work for cellphones with a cheaper box, but takes a little more effort to configure.
- function_seven 3y agoI've been thinking about doing it more basic: "Please enter the extension" I'd make '7777' be the only "extension" that gets through. Callers that are in my contacts wouldn't even get the prompt. The doctor's office, school administrators, or any other not-a-contact-but-still-wanted caller would know what my "extension" is.
- mastercheif 3y agoI’ve been thinking the same thing. You could even treat extensions as tokens and whitelist numbers only if they call the right extension.
- freeopinion 3y agoEssentially, that's what 5284 is--an extension. The "Dial 1, Dial 2" is just to waste the time of human bad actors. If you can keep them on the line for just 20-30 seconds longer, you cut their call volume down considerably and perform a public service.