Wednesday, May 25, 2016

No excuses with ReminderGuru

5/25/2016

Gizmo Editor Review:

When my wife wants to make sure that I don’t miss an important family or social event, she puts on a full-court press. I first get an email reminder that’s followed by a text message and confirmed with a phone call. “I forgot” is never a viable excuse in my house.

The people at ReminderGuru apparently take the mundane topic of reminders just as seriously as my wife. They have a complete system for creating, scheduling and delivering reminders using email, text messages and voice calls.

The ReminderGuru system also works outside the US. Voice messages using text-to-speech can be sent in English, Spanish or French or you can make a recording of your own voice and keep it stored for repeated use.

The ReminderGuru service works with credits. You get a number of credits when you register and more if you upgrade to one of the paid account. Sending one email or text message in the US or Canada costs one credit. A phone call requires two credits and international calls or messages cost a little more.

When I registered with ReminderGuru, I got enough credits to send five basic messages per month for free. That’s a good way to test the service and see if it fits your needs.

I built a contact list by entering names, email addresses and phone numbers for each person. I could include a note about each person and confirm that their phone could receive text messages. And, yes, there are still people who have mobile phone service but don’t want SMS. Contacts can also be sorted into groups, like Cub Scout parents or the bridge club, to send one reminder to multiple people.

Making a voice reminder works like recording a greeting for an answering machine. ReminderGuru’s computer will call a phone number that you designate and walk you through the process: start talking at the beep, press 2 to start over, press 1 to save. Voice messages are stored along with your text and email reminders so you don’t have to start over each time you need one.

To test the service, I recorded a voice message, selected contacts from my list, clicked which ones would get email, a text, a phone call or all three and entered a date and time for delivery. All reminders arrived on time. The email and text versions deliver a web link where the recipient can listen to the recorded message.

ReminderGuru would be a useful tool for any sports teams that have regular games and practices. I play on a tennis team that meets every week, sometimes at different times and locations. A standard reminder telling me when and where to show up would be welcome.

The service’s paid packages cost $5 a month for 50 credits or $9 a month for 100 credits. Additional credits can be added for about .10 cents each.

To get a closer look at ReminderGuru, get the professor’s pitch in the video below and visit the ReminderGuru website to sign up for the free starter package.

ReminderGuru from Team ReminderGuru on Vimeo.





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Follow me on Twitter @ricmanning and read my technology columns at My Well Being.

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