Editing the IVR Cheat Sheet

Editing the IVR Cheat Sheet

The IVR Cheat Sheet™ has become so popular that Paul is now looking for help in verifying new "cheats".
The master database that I use to manage the IVR Cheat Sheet is in a QuickBase. (This is an awesome web database product created by Intuit; see my notes about QuickBase.) The database currently has about 200 verified entries plus hundreds of other suggested updates which need to be tested before I will publish them. Our initial editors have been able to verify about 10 cheats per hour.
The editor will obviously need access to a phone in order to make these phone calls.
The editor is not the person to discover the cheats. Instead, the cheats will be suggested by the community of users. The editor only has to verify the cheat, and to make sure its entry is in a standard format that we will document. (If you do want to also discover some new cheats, that would be cool too.)
I have been assigning each editor their own category. For example, you could be the editor of the finance entries, and someone else might be the editor of the retail entries, etc. If you can help out, please let me know.
Editor Requirements

I've had several false starts. Many people volunteer to be an editor with good intentions, but then find they do not have the time to put into this. Having a false start like this loses me time, so please do not volunteer to be an editor unless you meet the following requirements... :-)

Time commitment. Probably several hours the first week and then perhaps an hour a week for the next several weeks. You need to commit to owning a focus area-- for USA, an industry such as finance or retail; for other countries, the entire country to start, then broken into an editor per industry once we have critical mass. I would like a commitment of at least three months so I don't have to train new editors all the time. Yes, this is a big commitment to help me get started with high quality lists!
Motivations. Given that this is a free list, I can not have editors who have commercial intentions from working on the list.
Technical skills. We use QuickBase web database for the backend system; I don't have a lot of time for hand holding, so you need to be technical enough to use a database.
Editing skills. Someone who enjoys being extremely detail oriented so we can allow follow exactly the guidelines listed below. This is important to keep the list concise, clean and easy to use. (Note the guidelines will probably evolve based on the input of the editors.)
Email. Someone comfortable sometimes receiving a lot of email. I will setup a private mailing list (postable only by editors) so we can easily communicate with each other. I might also, if you desire, setup automatic email notifications in our QuickBase to email you each time a new cheat is entered by someone for your focus area.
Identity. Once I get the first few editors approving the first batch for your focus area, I would like to publish you by name as a volunteer editor. This is to credit your work but also to make consumers feel comfortable that this project is assisted by several volunteers. And also to save me some time! :)

Thanks for humoring me with my detailed requirements above; I need this to save me time (I already spend way too much time on this!) and to keep the list as useful as possible for millions of consumers.
Editing Guidelines

Validate company name, URL, phone number, cheat. Change "status" to "ok" only if all of these are correct.
Check first to see if the new entry is already listed in the IVR Cheat Sheet.
Publish only the quickest method for each company, not two or more.
Try to not have more than one entry per company unless absolutely necesary, and in such cases, indicate what each one is used for. E.g., Amazon.com and Amazon.com Visa.
Use the short version of company names, and short, concise cheat descriptions. See the printed version to make sure that all companies fit on one line.
This is not a place for general complaints. This is useful only if you actually know the way to get to a human.
Companies who have humans answer on the first ring should not be in the cheat sheet, but instead should be listed under kudos page. (But only list really popular, mass-market companies who do this, to make the point that it is possible to have humans answer calls and be a large and successful company.)
Non-mass market national companies should be marked status "hold". For USA, the list should only include companies with over 1 million customers else it gets too big! (For other countries, use your judgement but please only the most popular national companies.)
For mass-market companies where the cheat works for each local brance, list the phone number as "local store" (all lowercase).

General Formatting:
Use quotes only around spoken phrases (e.g., say "agent"), not around digits to press.
Say "Press 0" not "Hit 0" or "Dial 0" etc.
Cheat should start in uppercase, and end with a period.

Phone number formatting:
Do not include the country code in the phone number (e.g., not 1-800 but instead 800), as the country is coded into the country field.
For USA, include dash between phone number components, do not put area code in parens; thus 800-841-3000, not (800) 841-3000.
For UK, use area code, space, rest of number. Don't put brackets around the area code. For non-geographic numbers (e.g., 0800, 0845, 0870), use code, space, remainder of number. Make sure that you use the correct code. Although many companies break after code and first digit (e.g., 08456 or 08457), the local rate cell code is actually 0845.
In general do not spell out a phone number as this is difficult for many people.

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