Why Four or More Phone Directories in Tulsa?

[AMP]

Looking at our year end expenses some of the largest are the 4 Yellow Page ads we pay monthly.  They total over $14,400 per year.  That is money that leaves Oklahoma, other than a small portion that is paid in commissions to the local phone book's outside account managers.

Noticed none of the Telephone Directories are based in Tulsa, or even printed Oklahoma for that matter.  Giant streams of revenue flow out of this state in payment for a mere listing in these books.

Why does Oklahoma not print these phone directories, and why do we need FOUR PHONE BOOKS for Tulsa?

A small business owner does not dare choose to not list in all four, as most people toss out the existing book as soon as the new one hits the door step, which is every 4 months with 4 or more books being delivered in this small town.

I have associates that operate service businesses and they tried not buying in one or more phone directory.  Their phone all but stopped ringing when they dropped out of sight when the new book hit the door step and the old one got tossed out in the recycle bin.  

Added to that is the Broken Arrow Valor phone directory, which has very few businesses in Tulsa listed in it.  Most businesses at the intersection of 71st and Memorial and further north and East of Memorial in a few Industrial Parks are listed in the Valor Phone book out of Broken Arrow, and may not be listed in the four directories published for the Tulsa market.  That is unless the business owner is savvy and pays additional fees to be listed.  

Ever take a calculator and add up the costs of all those ads in the various phone books in the Tulsa area.  Don't forget Jenks and Owasso, Sand Springs and Bixby.  People living in the states where the payments flow to are living large off our monthly phone book payments.  

And don't forget the AEP Electric bill that goes to Ohio.  Another giant river of revenue flowing out of Oklahoma and into some other community that is absoultly loving spending the profits made off of our energy use.  

People wonder why the economy in Oklahoma is struggling and why the wages are below standard and why our schools suffer.  With the massive revenue rivers flowing out of here monthly it is a wonder we have enough money left to buy the overpriced, as Quik Trip named

[AMP]

With the massive revenue rivers flowing out of here monthly it is a wonder we have enough money left to buy the overpriced, as Quik Trip named it "boutique quality" Gasoline.

[BKDotCom]

phone books are still relevant?  I wish they weren't.  they're all available on CD or online.
I like yp.yahoo.com, local.google.com, smartpages.com, etc.

[dsjeffries]

It's strange that you brought this up, because just last night (or this morning), I cleaned out a  cabinet full of phone books, and while some of them were old, I still have two separate Tulsa directories, a Bartlesville directory and three Owasso/Skiatook/Sperry directories.  I think it's especially ridiculous that Owasso/Skiatook has at least three phone directories published by three separate companies.. Why?  What's the need?  There isn't, other than some small directory company to make more money on advertisement space!

...and none of the books are arranged the same way or even contain the same information, so it's no wonder that it's so difficult to find telephone numbers or information...  Imagine if a city larger than Tulsa had this many directories... Take NYC for example... They have enough listings for several books just once per year... Could you imagine the sheer number of books that would be printed and wasted??  I think we should have electronic phone directories--it'd save so much time, energy and of course, trees...

[AMP]

Well the anywho.com and 411.com and others all suck too.  They are all out of date, not cleaned out, and updated.  And if you use them you will find mailing addresses incorrect, businesses that have been gone for years still listed and other problems.  

Not too many people in Oklahoma have Internet Access, and even fewer are educated on how to use the Online Directories.  Recently at an event we held in Oklahoma, we asked 1,200 people in attendance if they had Internet Access, only 4 people responded that they did have Internet Access. 22 responded that they knew someone that had Internet Access.    

We just did a 3,000 piece mailer and used some of the Online directories for locating business types we target in surrounding states and cities.  Got 40% returned with incorrect or closed addresses, or Unknown.  May be a sign of the poor sluggish economy, but also may be an outdated data base.

Trust me, if you own a business or more than one as I do, you are attacked by this problem several times a year.  The phone calls from the phone book reps take up hours of time, and you do not dare have your ad printed incorrectly as it will be out there for a year before you can change it.  Not to mention all the mail pieces that appear to be associated with a Yellow Page Directory billing you for $295.00 for an annual ad in a directory you have never seen or will ever see.  

Quick Easy Fix = Competitive Bidding

The State Legislature needs to allow ONE Source in each area for the Telephone directory from low BIDS on the process.  The bidding companies must be located in and incorporated in the State of Oklahoma, and all proceeds must stay in the state of Oklahoma.

Try to combine the suburbs with the Major City in the area all in one book, could be two parts white pages and yellow pages.

Require the printing firms to BID and they must be located in OKLAHOMA.  

Require the Distribution firms to BID.  They must use OKLAHOMAN'S that posess ID and they must be Citizens of the US and not Illegal Aliens.  

[AMP]

Two of the largest sources of problems causing the poor economy in this area from my experience are:

1. Poor Mail handling and processing.  The mail cannot seem to get through, and if and when it does it appears to of been run through a paper sheader or worse.  If you even receive it.  Mail returned with Unknown stamped on it as if it never left the Post Office Hub.  Based on the computer that read the label and made the decision that person had never received mail there before, therefore an UNKNOWN stamp is applied and the mail returned to sender.  Sheesh! NO wonder the economy sucks.

2.  Too dang many Phone Books confusing the consumers, causing mis-information, not listing every and all competitors, and causing extreme learning curves among the end users.

Consumers either toss out the new book, or hold on to the old one they have learned to use, marked up with a pencil and book marks until the next years model arrives.

In the mean time the business owners are being charged 4 Times the amount they should be paying for timily accurate data to be provided to the market.

[AMP]

One other thing about the Post Office.

If you mail once a year or every six months and one day, you will not receive a forward address on a party that has moved and left a forwarding address with the Post Office.  

Same goes for new phone numbers. Unless the business pays to have the "This Number Has Been Changed" recording extended past the normal time it falls off.  

Forwarding address is only good for SIX months, not TWELVE months.  Most mailers that are annual are mailed once a YEAR.  Like Christmas Cards, Holiday Greeting Cards, Birthday cards and other typical correspondence.  So why is the forwarding address only good for SIX MONTHS?  

Who makes these policies that seem to not fit normal business and private party correspondence procedures?

[Cubs]

but if there were only one phone book then they would just charge a lot more for advertisement space and you probably would still be spending about the same amount

[Rowdy]

quote:Originally posted by AMP

Not too many people in Oklahoma have Internet Access,...

There are a lot of Oklahomans on the 'Net.

[Sangria]

I would prefer to get my phone book on disk. I hate the big, heavy, bulky books with the tiny print.

It seems like I am always throwing them away and more just keep showing up.

I seldom open them up unless it's for a Mazzio Coupon in the back. I have the numbers I call on an Ipod so they are always available to me.

If I have to look something up I do it on the PC. If they don't show up on the PC then I move on to someone else.

[Hawkins]

AMP raises a valid concern.

Each of these phonebooks pull in a lot of advertising dollars, and most of them go out of state.

I would suggest only running ads or coupons in the phonebook that comes out closest to your small business' busiest time of the year. For some that would be early summer, and for others, late fall.

There's no simple fix to this problem, it is just capitalism. Phone books apparently are not government regulated. Should they be?

[AMP]

Thus far the addition of additional phone books in the market has not reduced the costs of advertising for us.  We are now spending 4 to 5 times more running the exact same size ads in the multiple directories.

Another problem that exists is the fact that each suburb of Tulsa prints their own phone book.  Therefore unless a Tulsa Based business elects to pay additional to be placed in the Yellow Page ads in those surrounding suburbs, that business is not listed.  

Your business could be located on the West side of Memorial have a AT&T phone (used to be SWB) and not be listed in the Valor phone book out of Broken Arrow which controls the phones and phone books on the East side of Memorial Drive.

People wanting do to business with your type of firm may not know you exist, and may drive 10 miles into Broken Arrow to do business there as that firm would be listed in the Valor phone book.  

Keep in mind business and people living in those communities do not receive a AT&T/SWB Phone Directory, they just get their small home town phone book.  Out of Site - Out of Mind.

This makes it necessary for businesses to Pay even more for Advertising in even more additional phone directories, if they want to reach those suburb markets.  Thus driving up the costs of goods and services and increasing the flow of revenue out of the State of Oklahoma to another competing state economy.  

By incorporating the suburbs such as Jenks, Broken Arrow, Owasso, Bixby, Sand Springs, Pratville and other surrounding towns and villages into one single source comprehensive directory, and then eliminating all the small directories, it would boost the economy as people in the rual areas would become aware of businesses they may of never known existed to service their needs.

[rwarn17588]

I use the pages of my old phone books to start my wood stove. A Google search will find phone numbers as quickly as anything.

[AMP]

"but if there were only one phone book then they would just charge a lot more for advertisement space and you probably would still be spending about the same amount"

Maybe not, if it were done with a Competitive Bid process.  Plus even if the ads were 20% higher, if there were ONE Comprehensive book, the increase in sales would more than offset the additional costs.

[shadows]

In the near future you will be able to choose a disk instead of a heavy book.   The money that the yellow pages generate for printing and distribution can be considered against a less than a dollar disk.  Regardless the yellow pages in all the phone books, transferring the names would be simply scanning to copy on a disk.

One would presume that all yellow pages have a central office and they have the good-ole-boy political power liken the PSO wanting more money to build and improve generation facilities when the power plant on 51 is operated at the minimum standby for lack of customers.