Free/cheap web telephony?

Not much time to write on my blog these times, anyway: I found this interesting article on how to make free/cheap calls from web browser and I regret to notice that Sitòfono is not listed there.
But I guess this is due to the "free" model that has been considered: free calls that nobody pay, except the VoIP company holder of the free web telephony product.

BUT this is not a sustainable model, it needs to gather some revenue stream, which is not VC funding!

On the other hand, Sitofono is based on a more realistic revenue model: Sitofono is bought by companies/professionals who want to be reached from the web by various media channels (email, chat, voice call). Caller does not pay for the call, which is offered by the sponsoring company/professional.

Just one more point: one of the disadvantages of web call back model is the possibility of making call tricks or jokes to some victim. In this case, the offender puts the number of the victim in one of the boxes, and starts the call. The offender is not immediately recognizable, unless by asking the VoIP company who started the call.
There is no "perfect" answer to this, but one strategy is better than none :)

Sitòfono Christmas present!

Sitofono - Online customer contact tool.
Hey, this Christmas I am going to offer one free click-to-call to a tourist agency, a hotel, or a restaurant, with unlimited calls for three months!
Put Sitòfono in your website and in your e-mail signature, and receive immediate feedback by talking to your customers, from the Web.
Sitofono gives voice to your online business!

Just send me a brief description of:

• your activity,
• your website,
• the phone number you want to be connected to Sitofono,
• and where you would like to position the call-button.

My e-mail is enrico.marongiu [_at_] abbeynet [_dot_] com

I'll contact the winner on December the 15th.

More info on Sitòfono here: http://www.sitofono.com/
Please forward to anyone interested!

Technorati Tags: cernio, click-to-call, Christmas offer, contact management,

Sitòfono Social: because relationships matter

Sitòfono is undergoing a major restyling, these days.
We realized that relationships between a firm and a customer cannot be just "phone calls". After all, the phone call is just the medium to achieve a result.

In the Real world, customers notice you on a printed ad, look for you in the yellow pages, get your name by some friend's advice. Anyway, since customers are usually located in the same place, they are naturally bound to move within a limit.
Time passing by, they will notice you again, and get information which is persistent and durable. They will remember you, and you have somehow captured their attention.

But what happens on the Web? People move, literally flock from a content to another. The very same happens on e-commerce sites, or "online shops": customers are like a frenzy swarm, some bounce on your website and do not come back again.
Customers have to cross a lot of barriers on your site.

• The first "shield" is distraction: customers can go off track if they don't get a clear focus
• The second barrier is lack of comprehension: do they understand clearly what they are looking at? Can you assure them that they got the message?
  
• The third barrier is lack of persistence: will they come back the next day?
• The fourth barrier is mistrust: can they judge a book by its cover? Don't they need direct contact to be assured that you are a trusted person? Visual contact will be the best, but even voice contact can make the difference
• The fifth barrier is hesitation: when facing the payment form, they can get scared, or they need some more information that hasn't been found on the website. At least, it wasn't noticed before

People need direct contact to resolve uncertainty and to dissolve some of these barriers.
Sitòfono addressed very well the barriers that involve direct contact, like hesitation, mistrust and lack of comprehension.
But now, with the new "social" features, Sitòfono becomes a tool which engages your customers in a more social-oriented behavior: your visitors can give advice about your website to their friends, bookmark the call-back button for future reference, share the URL on the most common social bookmarking tools...
In word, they will remember you.

Luca Filigheddu published a great review of Sitòfono with the new social features, check it out!

If you want to discuss about the new features with me,
just call me


Technorati Tags: cernio, sitofono, social, marketing, engagement,
Luca Filigheddu,

Irrelevant corporate websites

Giacomo Vacca found an earth-shaking article on traditional SEO and Google ranking:
How to evolve your irrelevant corporate website

They use instant messaging, facebook, (and other social networks) and rarely directly type in a domain name to corporate website. If this holds true, then it’s assumed that prospects make decisions on other websites BEFORE they come to the corporate website to get factual information.

This is clearly true. Before going to visit the official website of a product I am interested into (let assume a digital camera), I'd go on a product-review website (just as an example, Revoo) and select the most appropriate comments to have a quick glance about the available products.
When I go to the official website, I already know nearly everything. In few occasions, I found a n official support forum that made me choose for that product: online support and general good feedback from users are key points in my consumer habits.

You’ll no longer only be the only one publishing to your website, customers, prospects, and other members of the community will have direct access to publish on your website.

To summarize: customer feedback and engagement. That's what Sitofono is meant for.
What if you can even talk to a customer? What if you can call him free and ask him a general review of the product?
Do you think letting visitors call other consumers is a valuable feature? Since it can be done as a special adaptation of Sitofono, my company product for customer engagement, I'd like to discuss with you the feasibility and the scenarios.

Technorati Tags: cernio,
sitofono, ugc, customer, feedback, engagement,

2007 Predictions: the crystal ball contains Sitofono

It seems that my hermit state has hit again.
I've just found this news about the top 10 voip predictions for 2007: well, I cannot conceal my happiness to see our product, Sitòfono, as one of the players in this forecast:

I definitely see voice features becoming an integral part of the way customer-service applications, enterprises, and publishers use the Web.
Voice-based communications through a Web trigger or hyperlink is becoming more common and will be even more so in 2007, thanks to aggressive moves by Adobe to add VoIP into Flash, and thanks to upstarts like Sitòfono.
Ted Wallingford, Signal to Noise

Technorati Tags: cernio, Ted Wallingford, voip, googlevoip,

Italian ex-president uses Sitòfono

As you probably noticed by my low posting activity, we are rolling out a lot of new things, and one of which I am particularly proud of is that Francesco Cossiga, a well known ex President of the republic of Italy, is using Sitofono.
His Sitofono is hosted here: www.francesco-cossiga.sitofono.it

What makes me even more proud, is that Francesco Cossiga is Sardinian, as well as me and most of the people in the company I work for, Abbeynet.

If you can read italian, check this article on Mytech.


Technorati Tags: cernio, Cossiga, Sitofono,

L'espresso praises Sitòfono

L'espresso, the weekly newsmagazine leader in Italy talks about Sitofono and its value proposition for all the activities that have a point of presence on the Internet.

Sitofono is like a doorbell for your site. If the metaphore "website" = "shop/studio" is true, Sitofono is your first voice contact, that is to say the second thing you look at after reading the bronze plate.

Luca said:

(Free translation)
At present, we are focusing on the Italian market, but we've already planned the expansion towards Europe and North America, i.e. countries where the usage and the success of VoIP technologies is really relevant.

(Source, Italian)
Attualmente ci concentriamo sul mercato nazionale, ma stiamo già pianificando il lancio nel resto d’Europa e in Nord America, Paesi dove l’utilizzo e il successo delle tecnologie basate sul Voice over ip è davvero molto importante.

That is to say: stay tuned :)


Technorati Tags: cernio, sitofono, Luca Filigheddu,