Patent ID: 8160552

Claim:
A method on a phone for providing a promotion to a user that has entered a command on the phone to place a call to a phone number, the method comprising: listening on the phone for a command from a user to place a call to a phone number; in response to the user entering such a command, performing the following: prior to initiating an outbound call to the phone number, determining using software on the phone whether or not to provide a promotion to the user; in response to determining not to provide a promotion, initiating an outbound call to the phone number; in response to determining to provide a promotion to the user, providing the promotion to the user, wherein the promotion is provided prior to the phone initiating an outbound call to the phone number and wherein the promotion includes an offer to perform an alternate action; in response to the user accepting such offer, initiating such alternate action on the phone instead of placing a call to the phone number; and in respond to the user not accepting such offer, initiating an outbound voice call to the phone number.