If you are thinking of providing a Time and Temperature telephone service for your community, there are a number of things to consider.  In the next few posts, we'll look at the issues involved, including the phone number, the phone lines, the Time and Temperature announcer and promotional issues.

First – let's talk about the time and temperature phone number in your town. 

1) Do you have a current time and temp service and your old time and temp device is showing its age? 
2) Was there a time and temp service in your town operated by someone else, they shut it down, and you have obtained the phone number? 
3) Or are you starting fresh – with a new time and temp service, device and a new phone number?

If you answered "yes" to #1 or #2, much of your work is done.  You only need to obtain the time and temp announcer, then plug it into your phone lines.  You'll find information on our devices elsewhere on this website.  And keep in mind – if you fall into the #2 category – you have obtained a phone number used by others in your community in the past to offer a time and temperature service – there are two ways of looking at your situation. 

In a way, it's important to get your service up and running as quickly as possible on that phone number so members of the public don't stop calling the number (no operators of time and temp systems shut them down because they weren't getting enough calls – they shut the service down because they didn't know how to take advantage of the calls they were getting). 

On the other hand, we've seen examples of time and temp services being shut down by the original owners, then the service is resurrected by someone else in their town MONTHS later.  To their surprise, they find that the people who called the old time and temp service for years are STILL calling the number, even though the service is no longer there.  When the new time and temp service is put on the phones – area residents just resume calling again.  In substantial numbers. 

In our next column, we'll examine #3 – how to handle a brand new time and temperature service in your town.