Service makes automated customer service less expensive and annoying [feedly]

Israel-based Zappix offers a visual alternative to voice menus that can be navigated before call charges are applied.

Automated menus can be useful for connecting callers to the most relevant line based on their needs, although the fact that they are audio-based means they often take a long time to go through the options, racking up charges for customers. Considering how many of those customers now have smartphones, Zappix aims to replace voice menus with a web-based visual option that determines the best department to connect them to before initiating the call.

Rising Prices Slowly Eroding National Negative Equity [feedly]

Rising home prices lifted 200,000 homes into a positive equity position in the fourth quarter of 2012. A total of 1.7 million homes regained equity during 2012 according to CoreLogic’s negative equity report released on Tuesday. There are now 38.1 million homes with mortgages that now have positive equity nationwide while 10.4 million or 21.5 percent of all properties with a mortgage remain in negative territory. Another 11.3 million or 23.2 percent have equity but at a rate below 20 percent. CoreLogic said that 1.8 million of the underwater homeowners have a loan to value ratio between 100 and 105 percent. Should home prices increase another 5 percent these “near equity” homeowners would be back in a positive equity position.