NANP

Brought up in previous feedback was the fact that the lookup results were inaccurate for calling Canada from the USA. It turned out I was ignoring a little something called the The North American Numbering Plan (NANP). What this little nugget law allows us participating countries to be able to call each other without the need for a exit code. So for example, for someone in the USA to call Canada, instead of dialing 011 (exit code) + 1 (country code) + area code + phone number, you simply dial 1 + area code + phone number. This makes it a lot easier for the member countries to call each other, by removing the very confusion I'm trying to solve...the need to remember the international country codes. What's funny about this system is that only two countries in North America are involved (no Mexico), and the rest of the member countries (17 + USA and Canada) are generally far from North America.

In any case, what's important here is that I make sure the data I'm reporting is accurate, which means I have to add code to account for these special cases. My first step were a few useful resources which helped me gather the data I needed. After adding the logic to support this wacky system, we now have looks that look like this:

Previously, this lookup would have said "001 + 1 + area code + phone number". Notice I also link the user to a site that helps them lookup the area code. I'm somewhat concerned that clutters the interface, but we'll see.

I'm feeling a lot better about the robustness of the looks after this exercise. I'm going to get back to focusing on the SEO and marketing efforts.