Loading...
Answers
MenuHow to Create a Smart Phone Support in a Virtual Business?
We want a system to plug into that doesn't require hardware and infrastructure but allows us to route calls to different people at different times - smart attendant, etc.
Answers
If you want a system that doesn't require any hardware or infrastructure, then a virtual PBX is the best bet. These systems just use your existing phone numbers (cell phones or whatever) and routes the calls among them.
The big player in this space is http://grasshopper.com/ They have been around for quite awhile and have a lot of features for managing calls. They're well known for their reliability and customer service.
I've also used http://www.ringcentral.com/ and they are very good as well. Never had any issues and they support various softphones and hardware phones as well.
I've also heard about a new up-and-comer https://aircall.io/ - But I know very little about them and they look to still be in beta. But you should definitely try it for comparison.
Related Questions
-
I need you to look at my sales & commission tracking app and help me formulate a clear cut monetization strategy. #iPhone #MiFunnel
What's the name of the app so we can look at it?JC
-
In what situations should a SAAS company offer phone support? In what situations should it only be email support?
In my opinion, phone support is frequently requested but hardly ever needed. I worked at Twilio and as part of my role as a Developer Evangelist I responded to help desk tickets part of the week. We didn't do any phone support and we were able to help people effectively. The key is to be very detailed, thorough and courteous in all your correspondence and also to ask for clarification if you don't understand their questions. You should also have a library of online resources like documentation, frequently asked questions and forums that you can refer people to so they can easily find answers for themselves once you point them in the right direction. One caveat to all that though: I worked at another company that provided phone support but it was something you had to schedule and pay for in advance. At first, I thought it was crazy but our phone support people were busy all day helping customers. It wasn't a lot and it didn't even cover our costs but it prevented your phone from ringing off the hook and people calling to ask really stupid questions. Hope that helps! Also, if you're looking for technical advice on setting up phone support options I'd be glad to help you... over the phone! :)AW
-
I have been developing an idea on my own for sometime now. Recently,a potential competitor has surfaced. Should I reach out to them? What should I do?
Here are your options: You can only compete with them If you're able to either: A) Get a programmer: - Either raise necessary funds to hire one full time. See my answer on ("When is the right moment to approach investors?") - Use your own funds to hire a freelancer. See my answer on ("How do I get my game from Prototype to Demo?") - Or convince a developer to join you as a cofounder for equity. See my answers on that topic ("Where do I find a co-founder to join my team?" --And-- "How and or where do I find a stellar Partner/CEO") B) Learn how to program it yourself, and program it yourself - Either have enough time and motivation to learn programming fast enough (could be very difficult, depending on how far along you are, and what you're trying to program) - Or there are several methods you can potentially use (depending on the complexity of the app you need) to make an MVP without programming. For instance MIT App Inventor (http://ai2.appinventor.mit.edu/), or Marvel App (https://marvelapp.com/) Otherwise: A) Either see if you can join the competition. If you contact them and can convince them that you have something to contribute, they might let you join the team. See my answer on that topic ("How do I approach a business with an idea?") B) Or come up with another idea, and see if you can do steps A or B before someone else starts implementing the same idea Send me a message if you want to discuss any of these, or other options in more depth. In any case, I wish you the best of luck, LeeLV
-
Good resources for structure/flowchart of an onboarding & ongoing support process?
I've helped lots of SaaS companies improve their onboarding processes over the years, but I just published my best (high-level) piece on doing this right: http://sixteenventures.com/customer-onboarding The bottom line is (though I suggest reading the entire article) you need to know what success looks like for your customer - what their Desired Outcome is - and then reverse engineer the steps necessary to get there. Going through that process will reveal the steps necessary to get them to that Desired Outcome outside of the product; we're not talking about functional steps within the product yet. Map this out using flow charts, line lists, mind map, white board, etc. The tool isn't important as much as doing this right. Now, once you understand the process required to move them from Step 0 - deciding to take action to reach their desired outcome to Step z - achieving their (at least initial) Desired Outcome, you can start laying out, designing, and building the in-product processes necessary to achieve those success milestones and ultimately, their Desired Outcome. You should then peg your email (or other lifecycle messaging) flow to those success milestones (rather than doing a timed follow-up), where each message is sent like this: "have they done this milestone? yes, then send this message to get them to the next one." Since each user and customer will achieve success on their own cadence, it's best to not have a timed autoresponder sequence but to actually trigger based on milestones reached. The good news is that this is relatively easy to do given the availability of lifecycle messaging services. See this post for more on this topic: http://sixteenventures.com/email-follow-up-sequence Hopefully this helps, but if you want more details or - more importantly - want to figure out how to apply this thinking directly to your situation, request at least a 15-minute call with me.LM
-
I have several startup ideas. How do I decide on my technology stack?
You need to be able to get feedback on your product as quickly as possible, so my advice is to choose the technology stack that will allow you to build a prototype efficiently. There's no right answer here: for some people it's LAMP, for others it's node, for others it's a Windows stack. Worrying about the technology at the stage you're at is a red herring: worry about the product, the problem it solves and the user experience of your solution, and get feedback you can iterate on as quickly as possible. I'm a serial startup CTO who's now a startup founder and CEO. Let me know if I can help.BW
the startups.com platform
Copyright © 2025 Startups.com. All rights reserved.