Do you receive many voice mails during the day? If you’re like me you often receive voice mail during times when you may be in a meeting or other location where calling in and listening to a lengthy recording is not convenient.

For the last month I’ve been using a service called PhoneTag. When I receive a voice message my system (Gotvmail) automatically sends a copy (WAV or MP3) to a special address that I’m assigned at PhoneTag.

Then the service has my voice message transcribed and sent to me via email. This usually occurs within 5 minutes of the voice message being left.

Transcription isn’t perfect. People’s names can be tricky to transcribe. Whenever there is a word the system doesn’t understand it will put a (??) next to the word so you know that it may not be correct.

The big benefit of PhoneTag is that you can now read all of your voicemail instead of having to find a quiet place to call into your mail and listen to messages. In many instances this lets me know at a glance of my iPhone or BlackBerry Bold screen whether I need to excuse myself from a client apointment to return an emergency phone call or whether it’s only a routine message.

PhoneTag costs $9.95 per month for 40 transcribed messages (.25 per message overage fee). If you need more they offer an unlimited plan for $29.95 per month. Those who prefer to pay as they go can elect to pay a flat .35 per message transcribed.

I’ve found PhoneTag to be indispensable and a great tool for helping me manage my voice mail when I’m on the road.

Link: PhoneTag