Recently I learned about a new service that lets you customize your voicemail past anything of that the cell phone companies have allowed in the past. The service, YouMail, which began in 2007, has some excellent features not included by our cell phone carriers.
For starters, one of the main features is visual voicemail, which is most popular from being implemented on the Apple iPhone. Visual voicemail lets you listed to your messages as you want, rather than having to listen to each message until you get to the one you want.
My favorite feature of YouMail is the ability to select a custom voicemail for each contact. I have personalized messages for my wife, friends and family, but have my business greeting for my co-workers. I keep telling others how great this tool would be for salespeople, being able to personally greet each customer, rather than using the generic voicemail, for that personal touch. My brother-in-law, a former Marine, has a nice military greeting, while my dad has one that emulates Dell tech support. In addition to this, there are plenty of "ditchmail" greetings, so if you have an annoying person or telemarketer calling you, you can give their number an error or out of service message to not deal with them.
By default, YouMail assigns a "smart greeting" to contacts, which personalizes the message according to their name. The features don't end here however. You can have a voicemail to text service, which is useful for those in meetings who don't want to rudely disturb others to get up and check messages. In addition, there is an expanded Caller ID system in place. While I may receive a call from a number that isn't familiar, when I look at my missed calls or voicemails on YouMail, it will more often than not, show the company name, if not unlisted.
I have YouMail set up very simply - As I have a BlackBerry with unlimited data, I simply receive an email on my device whenever there is a voicemail for me. I can choose which messages to listen to via the visual voicemail on my phone's browser, can listen the old fashioned way, or can even listen to the messages on my PC via the YouMail website. That option is the best for those who like to save everything, as each voicemail can be saved in MP3 form for later playback.
YouMail is available for most phones and carriers in North America. I highly recommend checking it out - you won't be disappointed.
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