Better Voice powers mobile voicemail solutions with Twilio

Better Voice provides customizable voicemail and phone services for businesses and individuals who rely on their phones for their livelihood. Its online system allows customers to create customized response systems quickly and easily.

Voicemail the way you want it

While working on applications for real estate brokerages, Better Voice CEO and Founder Lyle Pratt identified a need for improved voicemail services for real estate agents who operate principally from their cell phones. His customers needed an easy way to build a customizable, complete voicemail system that would flexibly handle incoming calls with voice, SMS, and email messages. Information from calls needed to be automatically extracted, integrated with existing CRM and other systems, and prioritized for response.

A simple but powerful solution

Using all of Twilio’s features (SMS, MMS, Voice, Client, and SIP), Better Voice developed a drag-and-drop call flow builder that offers voicemail transcription, call information capture, dynamic call handling, CRM integration with more than 250 systems, call prioritization, outbound VoIP forwarding, and SMS messages.

To start, Better Voice users select an available local or toll-free phone number from Twilio’s worldwide pool of SMS-enabled phone numbers. A default call flow consisting of a greeting and voicemail is automatically configured, but may be easily changed using a built-in Template Wizard. Through simple drag and drop actions, customers configure a call flow with recorded or text-to-speech greetings, menu branching based on caller key presses, voicemail, call forwarding, and SMS responses. Powerful conditional actions allow special call flows based on callers’ menu selections, time of day, and caller identity. Conference rooms come free with every Better Voice account and can even be established on the fly.

And the ease of use and helpful features don’t stop there. Unlimited length voicemails are automatically transcribed to text. Voicemail notifications are delivered via the Better Voice app, via text messages, or in an email. Voicemails are saved in the cloud and accessible from the web.

Twilio was chosen as the communications cornerstone for Better Voice because of the breadth of its offerings: a pool of available phone numbers, automated call flows, call recording, voice to text transcription, SIP integration, and SMS messaging. Better Voice chose Twilio after considering in-house development and competing solutions.

A communications platform for growth

“Twilio had the REST API that we needed. With little telephony experience, it was a no-brainer to use Twilio,” said Pratt. When using Twilio, Better Voice found that it didn’t need to be a telephony expert—it could concentrate on its application and rely on Twilio to provide a robust infrastructure. Better Voice built and improved its products as Twilio expanded its feature set. Among the unique aspects of Twilio that Better Voice uses, are its broad range of available phone numbers, worldwide SMS operation, and iOS/Android voice clients.

As Better Voice grew and added more features, its client base expanded from real estate agents to a wide range of professionals that rely on mobile phones for their business. Clients find that it allows them to improve their customer relationships, saves time, and closes more business. Better Voice says that its customers report 100% increase in professionalism, 90% less time wasted listening to voicemails, 75% improvement in callback efficiency, and 50% more sales conversions.

The Children of America Schools, for example, needed 62 custom interactive voice responses (IVR) for its school system. It also needed call recording, an easy-to-use dashboard, and quick setup. Better Voice built its system for just $35 per IVR.

Scalability is also a significant benefit for Better Voice customers. The Goodlife Team Real Estate Brokerage was able to give all 50 of its agents and all new agents a customizable work phone number that is integrated with its CRM system.

Working with Twilio as a partner has been a rewarding experience for Better Voice. Benefits include early product betas, the ability to influence Twilio features, more sales leads, and closer participation in the Twilio community.

Better Voice continues to improve its features and functions. With Twilio’s help, the company has its sights set on increasing the power of its smartphone app to become a complete IP phone comparable to the most advanced on-premises phone system.