[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":367},["ShallowReactive",2],{"project-22357517":3},{"id":4,"name":5,"line":6,"line_source":7,"title":8,"url":9,"domain":9,"maker":10,"posted_at":11,"year":12,"points":13,"comments":14,"rank_in_year":15,"shown_in_year":16,"top":17,"tier":18,"category":19,"subcategory":20,"format":21,"keywords":22,"reception":27,"sentiment":28,"stance_mix":29,"scored_comments":32,"aspects":33,"strip":40,"post_text":42,"what":43,"said":83,"maker_in_thread":228,"shape":238,"grid":242,"attempts":328,"same_week":329,"maker_shows":41,"maker_hidden":358,"reader_version":359,"card":360},"22357517","FounderPhone","make customer support personal with SMS","title","Show HN: FounderPhone – make customer support personal with SMS",null,"parthi",1582045347,2020,106,40,615,3028,21,"notable","web_saas","customer support inbox","web_app",[23,24,25,26],"sms customer support","shared inbox","slack integration","twilio","mixed",-0.017,{"positive":30,"neutral":31,"mixed":30,"critical":30},4,10,22,{"idea":34,"pricing":36,"execution":38},{"positive":30,"critical":35},3,{"positive":37,"critical":37},0,{"positive":37,"critical":39},1,[39,37,35,37,37,37,37,35,35,37,35,37,35,37,41,37,41,37,39,37,35,35,35,35,37,35,37,39,37,35,37,37,41,41,35,37,35,39,35,37],5,"Hi HN! We're Parthi and Kunal from FounderPhone (https:\u002F\u002Ffounderphone.com). FounderPhone is a shared customer support inbox for SMS and calls in Slack.\n\nWe've built and shipped 7 products recently and if there's one thing we've learned, it's that your personal relationship with your customer is your secret weapon as a startup. Having customers email support@company.com or message a bot via Intercom doesn't feel personal. People are skeptical they will ever get a response. We've had a lot of success giving out our phone number to the top customers we really care about and telling them to text u",{"problem":44,"audience":50,"pricing":9,"motivation":60,"time_to_build":9,"stack":64,"openness":80,"stage":81,"team_size":82},{"value":45,"source":46,"evidence":47},"Personal customer support via SMS and calls is hard to run as a single phone inbox at scale","maker",[48],{"id":49},"post",{"value":51,"source":46,"evidence":52},"Startups and B2B companies wanting direct support for their most valuable customers",[53,54,57],{"id":49},{"id":55,"by":10,"text":56},"22358144","For larger teams that aren't startups, we don't intend for this to be used for everyone. We think it should be reserved for your most important customers. In a lot of B2B…",{"id":58,"by":10,"text":59},"22358741","Thanks for the feedback! A phone number is a lot more personal and immediate than email. We intend for this to be used with your most valuable customers, where you want to give…",{"value":61,"source":46,"evidence":62},"Maker's team found personal SMS with customers a secret weapon and needed to scale it",[63],{"id":49},[65,69],{"value":66,"source":46,"evidence":67},"Slack",[68],{"id":49},{"value":70,"source":71,"evidence":72},"Twilio","commenter",[73,77],{"id":74,"by":75,"text":76},"22359249","Olscore","Neat product, we rolled something similar to this using Slack where we manage the phone system, etc. I especially like how you can reply within Slack and text back the customer.…",{"id":78,"by":10,"text":79},"22360661","Yeah, we're actively trying to figure out group texting. Right now it looks like the individuals in the group are texting you","unknown","launched","team",{"praise":84,"objections":112,"requests":146,"questions":175,"alternatives":198},[85,100],{"value":86,"source":71,"evidence":87},"Seems like a solid idea with value for VIP customers",[88,92,96],{"id":89,"by":90,"text":91},"22359149","usernamebias","Hey, man! I run a small web agency, and deal with A LOT of clients texting me and my account managers. Hate on here aside, I think this is a solid idea. Keep up the good fight.",{"id":93,"by":94,"text":95},"22359475","anomaloustho","I think this is a great idea. It seems like it’s getting a lot of resistance due to the dishonesty. On the website it looks like the message is purposefully withholding the…",{"id":97,"by":98,"text":99},"22358726","synlatexc","The channel is the value. It's simple and every mobile phone has SMS. No need to keep a browser window open during a chat with support, nor is there a chance you'll miss a chat…",{"value":101,"source":71,"evidence":102},"Text channel is simpler than live chat or waiting on hold",[103,104,108],{"id":97,"by":98,"text":99},{"id":105,"by":106,"text":107},"22359256","CleanCoder","This is precisely where the value is. More companies are allowing to \"move\" your online chat session to Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and SMS.",{"id":109,"by":110,"text":111},"22358815","dkdk8283","I use home depot SMS customer service, the response time is typically 1-15 minutes. Works perfect for me to do things async instead of fielding “Are you there?” questions when I…",[113,127,138,142],{"value":114,"source":71,"evidence":115},"Feels like a corporate attempt to seem personal; customers will see through it",[116,120,123],{"id":117,"by":118,"text":119},"22357987","yjftsjthsd-h","I'm a little sorry to rain on your parade, but this seems like you're turning a personal contact back into a normal support system. \"Hey, here's my direct contact info\" works…",{"id":121,"by":118,"text":122},"22360506","My point was that it's not a good product, at least from a customer's perspective. It's the latest in a long line of corporate attempts to convince you that they're totally human…",{"id":124,"by":125,"text":126},"22361037","staticautomatic","These systems are only as good as your ability to hide them. Recently I did a trial of https:\u002F\u002Fwww.diffchecker.com\u002F, and when I didn't buy, got an email from \"Nick from…",{"value":128,"source":71,"evidence":129},"Unclear how it differs from existing support platforms",[130,134],{"id":131,"by":132,"text":133},"22358139","ycombonator","I still don’t understand the value in this. How is this different from Apple Facebook Zendesk et al. contact platforms which provide certain level of anonymity to the customer ?…",{"id":135,"by":136,"text":137},"22358117","wtmt","> We've built and shipped 7 products recently and if there's one thing we've learned, it's that your personal relationship with your customer is your secret weapon as a startup.…",{"value":139,"source":71,"evidence":140},"Messaging is inconsistent: email can be personal too and team handling is messy",[141],{"id":135,"by":136,"text":137},{"value":143,"source":71,"evidence":144},"Usage costs of SMS and calls may be hard to sustain at this price",[145],{"id":74,"by":75,"text":76},[147,157,164,171],{"value":148,"source":71,"evidence":149},"Group texting support",[150,154],{"id":151,"by":152,"text":153},"22359524","mmastrac","I built something like this for my own texting needs, though it was app-based. The biggest killer is that Twilio doesn't yet support group texting. Unsure how many people will…",{"id":155,"by":152,"text":156},"22360877","Yup. I ended up blocked in the same way. You might want to reach out to Twilio and get another vote for this feature on their roadmap.",{"value":158,"source":71,"evidence":159},"Auto-reminders and autoresponders",[160],{"id":161,"by":162,"text":163},"22359150","sinak","We currently use Front to achieve something very similar: A few questions: - Do you support MMS (photos and videos)? - Do you support creating auto-reminders to follow up with…",{"value":165,"source":71,"evidence":166},"Support for non-US numbers",[167],{"id":168,"by":169,"text":170},"22358742","nolite","I like the idea alot.. but not in the US",{"value":172,"source":71,"evidence":173},"Use own Twilio endpoint instead of company number",[174],{"id":74,"by":75,"text":76},[176,184,191],{"value":177,"source":71,"evidence":178},"Does it support MMS photos and videos?",[179,180],{"id":161,"by":162,"text":163},{"id":181,"by":182,"text":183},"22359271","memn0nis","Yes on #1. We dont have auto-reminders or an autoresponder, but could certainly build them!",{"value":185,"source":71,"evidence":186},"How does it compare to OpenPhone?",[187],{"id":188,"by":189,"text":190},"22360724","veeralpatel979","Congrats on launching! How does this compare to something like OpenPhone (https:\u002F\u002Fwww.openphone.co\u002F)?",{"value":192,"source":71,"evidence":193},"Is RCS support on the roadmap?",[194],{"id":195,"by":196,"text":197},"22406802","yocha","is support for RCS in the roadmap?",[199,203,207,214,221],{"value":200,"source":71,"evidence":201},"OpenPhone",[202],{"id":188,"by":189,"text":190},{"value":204,"source":71,"evidence":205},"Front",[206],{"id":161,"by":162,"text":163},{"value":208,"source":71,"evidence":209},"Switchboard",[210],{"id":211,"by":212,"text":213},"22358444","evantahler","Or, if you don't want to use Slack, but still want to use SMS to communicate with your customers, check out https:\u002F\u002Fwww.switchboard.chat. This use case really resonated with…",{"value":215,"source":71,"evidence":216},"SignalWire",[217],{"id":218,"by":219,"text":220},"22359017","startledmarmot","Have you taken a look at SignalWire instead of Twilio? Syntax-compatible XML, less price gouging so might be able to help offset some of the costs to make these products even…",{"value":222,"source":71,"evidence":223},"Talkbin",[224],{"id":225,"by":226,"text":227},"22360358","quartz","This is cool. You may already know this but Talkbin [0] was building this for physical locations back in 2010\u002F2011. I remember them having a \"text the owner\" sign in Coupa Cafe…",{"comments":229,"answered":30,"key":230},11,[231,232,235],{"id":55,"text":56},{"id":233,"text":234},"22360644","Thank you for your thoughts! Yeah, technology is making everything more distant and impersonal. We're trying to figure out how we can make business to customer interactions feel…",{"id":236,"text":237},"22359468","We can do that for you. We can give you the API endpoints to hit from Twilio. Want to shoot me an email at parthi@founderphone.com or text at 510 756 2522?",{"commenters":239,"max_depth":41,"maker_replies":229,"first_comment_mins":240,"lifespan_hours":241},25,34,145,[243,245,247,250,252,256,258,260,262,264,266,269,271,272,273,275,277,278,280,283,285,287,289,290,292,296,298,300,301,303,305,308,310,311,312,315,317,318,322,325],[117,37,39,244,118,37],"project\u002Fcritical\u002Fidea",[55,37,37,246,10,39],"maker\u002Fneutral\u002Fidea",[248,37,35,249,118,37],"22358181","project\u002Fneutral\u002Fidea",[109,37,37,251,110,37],"other\u002Fneutral\u002Fnone",[253,37,37,254,255,37],"22359483","commenter\u002Fneutral\u002Fidea","armatav",[121,37,37,257,118,37],"commenter\u002Fcritical\u002Fidea",[124,37,37,259,125,37],"commenter\u002Fcritical\u002Fnone",[261,37,35,246,182,37],"22362636",[93,39,35,263,94,37],"project\u002Fmixed\u002Fidea",[233,39,37,265,10,39],"maker\u002Fneutral\u002Fnone",[74,267,35,268,75,37],2,"project\u002Fmixed\u002Fpricing",[236,267,37,270,10,39],"project\u002Fneutral\u002Fnone",[135,35,35,263,136,37],[58,35,37,246,10,39],[89,30,41,274,90,37],"project\u002Fpositive\u002Fidea",[276,30,37,265,10,39],"22360852",[225,41,41,274,226,37],[279,41,37,265,10,39],"22360658",[151,281,39,282,152,37],6,"project\u002Fcritical\u002Fexecution",[78,281,37,284,10,39],"maker\u002Fneutral\u002Fexecution",[155,281,35,286,152,37],"project\u002Fneutral\u002Fexecution",[161,288,35,270,162,37],7,[181,288,35,270,182,37],[211,291,35,249,212,37],8,[293,291,37,294,295,37],"22359698","commenter\u002Fneutral\u002Fnone","DailyHN",[188,297,35,270,189,37],9,[299,297,37,270,10,39],"22362596",[131,31,39,244,132,37],[302,31,37,246,10,39],"22358313",[218,31,35,304,219,37],"project\u002Fneutral\u002Fpricing",[306,31,37,251,307,37],"22362079","signalwiretrav",[309,31,37,251,307,37],"22362371",[97,31,41,274,98,37],[105,31,41,274,106,37],[313,229,35,249,314,37],"22360158","vxNsr",[316,229,37,246,10,39],"22362162",[195,229,35,270,196,37],[319,320,39,244,321,37],"22358899",12,"pottertheotter",[168,323,35,324,169,37],13,"project\u002Fmixed\u002Fnone",[326,323,37,327,10,39],"22358898","maker\u002Fneutral\u002Fpricing",[],[330,335,340,345,349,353],{"id":331,"name":332,"points":333,"category":334},"22344254","art42",277,"ai",{"id":336,"name":337,"points":338,"category":339},"22327086","DelayWebpage",232,"productivity",{"id":341,"name":342,"points":343,"category":344},"22318677","ShellMagic.xyz",213,"dev_tools",{"id":346,"name":347,"points":348,"category":344},"22364040","Trevor demo",184,{"id":350,"name":351,"points":352,"category":344},"22338879","Configurable Route Planning",143,{"id":354,"name":355,"points":356,"category":357},"22371436","Top Fantasy Reads",107,"learning_science",false,"v2",{"id":361,"name":5,"line":6,"ai":358,"cat":19,"year":12,"points":13,"comments":14,"rec":27,"s":362,"top":17,"kw":363,"maker":10,"domain":364,"tier":18,"attempts":37,"strip":365,"url":-1,"mix":366,"praise":86,"objection":114,"sub":20},22357517,-0.02,[23,24,25,26],"","1030000330303050501033330301030055303130",[30,31,30,30],1794036586667]