| About Action IVR | Cost and Guarantee
Cost and Guarantee
What absolute and golden guarantee comes with the ActionIVR system?
As I said, when you lease my IVR system, I consider myself to be an associate of
your firm. I have to pull my own weight or ship out. When I was first hired by a
law firm, I don't know what it was because in all fairness to the gentleman law
firm that first hired me, there was no pressure on me to bring in business. This
was a long time ago and unfortunately all the members of that firm are no longer
with us. It was a very small office with a total of 4 lawyers including myself.
But I felt that either I bring in my own 'book of business' and help the firm be
profitable, or I would resign. If I failed them, I didn't deserve to be an associate
and my value system is such that I felt that any money that they paid me, had to
be refunded. I guess that's why I became a partner within 1.5 years.
When you lease my IVR system, I'm going to work for you as a junior associate. Unless
I prove myself to you, then I should refund any money you pay me. That's right.
I can't stand these marketing people who tell me that if I purchase their services
or products, they can't guarantee me the results. I know these marketing people
are shocked when I ask them for a guarantee. No one asks them for a guarantee. Why
not? If they know what they are doing, if they know and believe in what they are
doing, if they truly want to help you because their victory is your victory and
their loss is your loss, why don't they offer a guarantee. If you become member
of our group, then I guarantee you success. And if you aren't satisfied with the
result, I'll offer to resign before you cancel.
What exactly is the guarantee? If you aren't satisfied for any reason with the results,
you can cancel at any time and you owe nothing. Further, I'll refund to you any
and all monthly payments which weren't an expense for me. What's an expense? You
receive a phone call on the IVR system and the phone company bills us for the call.
We in turn bill you for the call. This is an expense. Now in all fairness, these
calls will mean real business to you. But if you don't get many calls which does
not happen when you follow my instructions, you won't have much in the way of expenses
anyway. When a practitioner is getting many 'hits' or 'calls' and it always means
increased business as you would see, I haven't had anyone say, “ Turn the IVR off
because I don't want the calls'. But if you want to have it turned-off, I will have
it turned-off but it would be insane. Further, you have to follow my instructions
on how to use the IVR. If you don't follow my instructions, it won't work. Plain
and simple as that and if you don't agree to follow my instructions, I'm not going
to offer the IVR system to you for the simple reason, as I told you, it won't work.
Remember, I put my dues in and I bring 14 years of continuous prior experience to
the table. As Rodney Dangerfield would say, 'I need a little respect' or this is
not going to work. I can't tell you what my instructions will be because obviously,
that's part of my trade secrets.
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What does it cost for the ActionIVR system?
Regarding the cost, here's my philosophy. I want you to have a long term association
with you and that means our costs have to be fair and reasonable and frankly on
'cheap side'. Most of the problems with franchises stem from the fact that the franchiser
wants to gouge the franchisee with exorbitant prices. The First Commandment: Thou
Shall Not Gouge or Overcharge. Second Commandment: Thou Shall Keep the Prices Low-especially
if you want repeat business.
Plain and simple, there are no huge up-front fees. So take a yoga cleansing breath.
First, I don't like huge up-front fees for anything, so why should you? I don't
believe that people should gouge one another. And as I told you, since all payments
except expenses are refundable, why would I want to be bothered with the accounting
of putting your deposit into escrow? Second, I'm more concerned that you are an
experienced and reputable practitioner than I am with any up-front fee. All the
practitioners in our Connecticut group are very experienced and, of course, highly
ethical attorneys. I take such personal responsibility in this Action IVR system
that I prize your participation more than the money. Yes, I want to make a profit.
That's only fair but I want to first and foremost know that I have helped you and
only then am I entitled to any compensation.
But let me try to be a little specific about costs. There is a set-up fee which
involves the recording of your scripts. We have arranged to have a professional
studio record your scripts if your are concerned about the quality of the sound.
We only charge you what is charged to us for this service. You can go to your own
sound studio and have it recorded and send us the CD. Then you totally control the
costs but it's probably going to be cheap and easier to use our studio.
Further, let's say you are not too concerned with voice quality. When I used my
first IVR system, we used a very simple system and the voice quality was acceptable.
It wasn't 'professional' but it got the job done and it was effective. We can tell
you how you can do-it-yourself and send it to us but if you are basically computer
illiterate like myself, (I have to have someone set it up), you better not tackle
it. But I assure you, we'll tell you how to record the scripts yourself and send
them to us and you'll totally eliminate this cost. Each set of scripts are evaluated
and given a quote for professional recording and I would say the range is between
$300-$1,000. It depends on the length. The longer the script, the longer to record.
There's no limit on the length of your script. If you had your own IVR system which
would cost a small fortune, you would have the same exact cost because to have a
professional voice and professional studio do the recording, I assure you it costs.
Simply shop around for quotes. You would have to pay to have your scripts professionally
recorded.
I have to pay someone to set-up your scripts with our Action IVR system which I
would estimate the cost be in the $500 range. They have to take your scripts and
put them onto the computer and get all your codes into the computer and test the
system.
I have to spend considerable time talking with you and emailing and sharing with
you the trade secrets which are really necessary to make this IVR system work for
you in the market place. There's no charge for this.
I know how busy your practice is and how demanding it is of your time to try to
write scripts for the IVR system. We have scripts which you can use but I find that
based on your practice, you will want to change those scripts. No problem. You can
use our scripts or you can create your scripts or you can take our scripts and modify
them. There's no charge for the scripts. We can send you sample scripts of what
is presently being used, so you can cut and paste, if you like.
What you need to see is what your monthly bill would look like with the Action IVR
System. Obviously, this is confidential and I'll certainly share that with you once
you sign our non-disclosure, non-compete agreement and you demonstrate some real
commitment by paying your set-up fee. And the set-up fee is refundable if you don't
elect to implement the IVR system.
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