TILTS: Caller ID with notes
Have you ever finished a long phone conversation with a family member or a friend, hung up the phone and then immediately realized you forgot to ask them about their recent vacation or thank them for a birthday card? Happens to me all of the time.
Which is why today's technology I'd like to see is caller ID with notes (feel free to come up with a better name).
Caller ID with notes would work hand-in-hand with your existing caller ID system. The only difference is that rather than just display the name and phone number of the person calling, it would also bring up a grid-style listing of all of the notes you have recorded for the person calling. Perhaps something like this:
--------------------
John Doe
800-555-5555
1. Ask John about his trip to Disney World.
2. Ask John how his daughter's surgery went.
3. Thank John for the basket of fruit his wife sent us.
--------------------
An elephant's memory
Now instead of racking my brain trying to remember if there is something I was supposed to ask or say to John, I just look down at the caller ID with notes display and easily remember all of the important things I should interject into the conversation.
With caller ID with notes, my conversation with John might go something like this:
John: Hey Patric, you going to the game with the guys tonight?
Me: Definitely. But I'm surprised you're up for it since you just got back from that big trip to Disney World.
John: Yeah, it was exhausting but the kids had a great time and I'm ready to get back into the swing of things.
Me: Speaking of the kids, how did your daughter's surgery go?
John: Great. She did awesome and recovered in just a couple of days. Hey, thanks for asking man.
Me: No problem. It's the least I could do after your wife sent us that nice basket of fruit.
John: Wow, you have a memory like an elephant!
Alright, alright, you get the idea.
Managing your notes would be painless
Of course, full editing options would be available to allow you to add, edit and delete notes associated with each caller in your database. And this could be done right from computer since my dream caller ID with notes device would also be fully synchronized wirelessly with every computer in my house.
And since I'm on a roll, I think I'd throw some TiVo-esque features in that would ask me if I would like to delete one or all of the notes associated with a caller when I am done with my phone call.
What did I miss? Leave a comment and chime in with your two cents worth.
Disclaimer: Technologies presented in the TILTS series are based on my original (and sometimes delirious) thoughts. I present them here to the public only because I can not afford to implement any of them myself. If you steal borrow one of my ideas and end up filthy rich because of it, please remember where you got the idea and throw a little love my way. Something like a BMW or a big fat check would do just fine.
5 comments for this blog post so far...
August 29, 2008 at 3:58 pm
bnpositive
I’m still waiting for geographic location incorporated into CallerID. Tell me where the area code is that’s calling me. For instance I have family in Kansas, but I don’t have their numbers memorized. I might pick up the call. I don’t know anyone in South Dakota, so I’m not going to answer the phone.
August 29, 2008 at 5:05 pm
Patric Welch
@bnpositive I would love that! I can’t tell you the number of times I don’t recognize the area code. Especially since they expanded to all of those new ones that don’t have a 1 or a 0 as the middle digit.
September 01, 2008 at 10:37 am
Steve Scalph
I love this idea Patric and the location of the call. But even with caller ID things like this happen to. Aren’t we teaching good phone edicate?
Saturday morning the phone rang and a voice on the other end said “Hey”. I had no idea who this was as I did not even look at the caller ID. I looked at the caller ID. It was from my son, but this was not my on the phone, it was my Grandson asking if it was okay to come over on Sunday and cut our grass.
After I got off the phone, I realized that my name was “HEY” and it made me think about a talk Zig Zigler gave some years ago about business people answering the phone. He said that if you call 10 businesses at random that you wouldn’t know what business or who you were talking to 8 out of 10 times. I tried this and it is true.
I did have a little word with my Grandson, Michael!
September 19, 2008 at 7:54 am
Aaron Sudduth
Just added some thoughts for people to borrow… Seems to me this could be some kind of .Net application or something… Most of us have a computer handy when the phone rings anyways (If we’re talking landline/VoIP) so why not have a modem pick up CID data, and it pop-up a window on the PC—that would allow note taking in a portion of the window, and note reading in another portion… And maybe that could tie in to some online area-code lookup service?
This data, would be best if it could be stored in the cloud so I could get it from ANY pc at home—or recall it when on the web. (I’m not a developer, but if you are feel free to borrow this idea)
btw, Patric - Just found your site from ad in Coffee News - in no way am I a Noob, but a lot of good stuff going on here! (In the same issue of coffee news I saw an ad for GeekInPink, and I see bnpositive posted a comment… just makes me wonder if there is a Greenwood/Southside IT Pro community meeting or anything where we all meet for a cup of coffee and collaborate or discuss IT issues)
September 19, 2008 at 9:20 am
Patric Welch
@Aaron There is a southside tech meeting once per month on the first Monday of each month at the Bean Cup in Greenwood. I’ll email you more detail.
Add A Comment
Need help leaving a comment?
Just fill out your name, email address (for our eyes only) and web site address (if you have one, this is optional) above. Next, type your comment in the comment box. Feel free to use the Enter key to leave spaces between paragraphs.
The last step before submitting your comment is to enter the CAPTCHA word. This is the funny little series of letters and numbers you see below the comment field that helps prevent comment spam and ensures your comment can be seen on the web site immediately after you submit it.
The last step is to click the "Submit Your Comment" button. Thank you for commenting.