[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":498},["ShallowReactive",2],{"project-2285594":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":28,"sentiment":29,"stance_mix":30,"scored_comments":34,"aspects":35,"strip":47,"post_text":49,"what":50,"said":85,"maker_in_thread":203,"shape":216,"grid":219,"attempts":460,"same_week":461,"maker_shows":43,"maker_hidden":489,"reader_version":490,"card":491},"2285594","FastCustomer","\"Never wait on hold again\" service built with Rails and Twilio","title","Show HN: \"Never wait on hold again\" service built with Rails and Twilio ",null,"ekanes",1299183767,2011,216,83,28,1097,3,"notable","consumer_social","customer service phone hold","web_app",[23,24,25,26,27],"hold line","customer service","call back","phone tree","twilio","mixed",0.227,{"positive":31,"neutral":32,"mixed":17,"critical":33},18,21,10,52,{"idea":36,"execution":39,"design":42,"pricing":44,"docs":45,"performance":46},{"positive":37,"critical":38},9,7,{"positive":40,"critical":41},2,0,{"positive":43,"critical":43},1,{"positive":43,"critical":41},{"positive":41,"critical":41},{"positive":41,"critical":43},[17,43,43,17,17,17,41,41,48,48,41,17,17,17,17,48,17,48,48,17,48,43,17,48,43,43,41,48,48,48,17,48,17,48,17,48,41,48,43,17],5,"My buddy paulsingh and I have been working on this for a few weeks, got something up and running and wanted to show you.\n\nThe problem we're solving: When you need customer service (your flight got canceled, strange fees on your bill, etc) you just want to talk to a real person. Waiting on hold wastes your time AND your concentration; you can't be coding in the zone when part of your brain is waiting for an operator.\n\nOur solution: We wanted to make it \"one click\" to reach a real person.\n\nHow it works: You click on who you want to talk to (even a specific department, like the billing dept at AT",{"problem":51,"audience":57,"pricing":61,"motivation":65,"time_to_build":9,"stack":69,"openness":82,"stage":83,"team_size":84},{"value":52,"source":53,"evidence":54},"Waiting on hold wastes time and concentration when contacting customer service","maker",[55],{"id":56},"post",{"value":58,"source":53,"evidence":59},"People who need to call customer service",[60],{"id":56},{"value":62,"source":53,"evidence":63},"Free website version; iPhone app 99 cents",[64],{"id":56},{"value":66,"source":53,"evidence":67},"Customer service waiting wastes time",[68],{"id":56},[70,74,78],{"value":71,"source":53,"evidence":72},"Ruby on Rails",[73],{"id":56},{"value":75,"source":53,"evidence":76},"Twilio",[77],{"id":56},{"value":79,"source":53,"evidence":80},"Rackspace Cloud hosting",[81],{"id":56},"unknown","launched","team",{"praise":86,"objections":99,"requests":137,"questions":166,"alternatives":182},[87],{"value":88,"source":89,"evidence":90},"Good execution and clean product","commenter",[91,95],{"id":92,"by":93,"text":94},"2285861","zippykid","my thoughts exactly. pre-mature optimization is the root of all evil. When I first heard of this idea I ran through a list of ways to abuse it and make you guys go bankrupt :),…",{"id":96,"by":97,"text":98},"2286290","supabill","Nice product, will be bookmarking and using in the future. I sent you a bug report to your woodmill email, hopefully you got it. I agree that you need to verify requests in some…",[100,107,118],{"value":101,"source":89,"evidence":102},"Companies could block or counter the service",[103],{"id":104,"by":105,"text":106},"2287052","zeteo","Interesting, but this doesn't address the fundamental problem. The main reason that companies make you wait on the line is to differentiate the customers who care a lot about…",{"value":108,"source":89,"evidence":109},"Abuse via prank calls or fake numbers",[110,114],{"id":111,"by":112,"text":113},"2285734","citricsquid","curious how you intend to handle abuse? Maybe have an sms sent to the recipient first and they must confirm? I was just able to enter the example number (\"555-555-5555\") and it…",{"id":115,"by":116,"text":117},"2286105","qixxiq","I personally would be quite worried about it being used for prank calls. At the click of a couple buttons anyone can create a very awkward conversation between AT&T and a random…",{"value":119,"source":89,"evidence":120},"Existing services like Fonolo and callback systems already do this",[121,125,129,133],{"id":122,"by":123,"text":124},"2285704","markjheadd","Fonolo has been offering this type of service for a while (http:\u002F\u002Ffonolo.com).",{"id":126,"by":127,"text":128},"2286696","vyrotek","There are many SaaS companies which provide Call Center systems with the call back feature. It works just as you described. You call in and it asks for you phone number and calls…",{"id":130,"by":131,"text":132},"2286827","k33n","Delta Skymiles customer support has been doing this for awhile now.",{"id":134,"by":135,"text":136},"2286889","sudoscience","Amazon does it and has for a couple years.",[138,152,159],{"value":139,"source":89,"evidence":140},"Support for more countries such as UK and Australia",[141,144,148],{"id":142,"by":116,"text":143},"2286092","I'm interested to know what you plan on doing for revenue. I'm sure the cost of the calls will quickly outweigh the $.70 you're getting out of the app store. Other than that its…",{"id":145,"by":146,"text":147},"2286720","mwill","My ISP and phone provider iiNet (Based in Australia) do this. You call and chose the broad department you want to talk to (tech, sales, or billing), and you're told how long your…",{"id":149,"by":150,"text":151},"2285660","snack","This is a great idea. Make sure you have the British Tax Offices on this list ;) Racked up a huge bill this month.",{"value":153,"source":89,"evidence":154},"Fix search and keyword issues in the iPhone app",[155],{"id":156,"by":157,"text":158},"2286113","capstone","Just bought your app for my IPhone. One comment: the app is not searchable on Fast Customer, only on FastCustomer (no space). If you just added Fast Customer to your description,…",{"value":160,"source":89,"evidence":161},"Detect when a call comes off hold",[162],{"id":163,"by":164,"text":165},"2285723","extension","Would be totally rad if it could detect when any call is off hold. I bet there's some magic DSP heuristic that could do it, maybe with some false positives e.g. \"your call is…",[167,178],{"value":168,"source":89,"evidence":169},"How the system detects a live human operator",[170,174],{"id":171,"by":172,"text":173},"2286019","mcantor","Out of curiosity, how does your app know when a real human gets on the line...? Do you have a database of the automatic messages (\"Please stay on the line while we sip Cognac and…",{"id":175,"by":176,"text":177},"2286054","clistctrl","How do you tell the difference between hold music, and a representative?",{"value":179,"source":89,"evidence":180},"How the company plans to make revenue",[181],{"id":142,"by":116,"text":143},[183,187,193,199],{"value":184,"source":89,"evidence":185},"Fonolo",[186],{"id":122,"by":123,"text":124},{"value":188,"source":53,"evidence":189},"LucyPhone",[190],{"id":191,"by":10,"text":192},"2285733","Fonolo is pretty cool. There's another similar service called LucyPhone. I'd say the main difference between those great services and ours is that with them you still have to be…",{"value":194,"source":53,"evidence":195},"GetHuman",[196],{"id":197,"by":10,"text":198},"2285969","We originally looked at GetHuman, who really pioneered this space a long time ago. Their database is copyright so we would have needed permission, but one downside to…",{"value":200,"source":89,"evidence":201},"inContact and LiveOps callback systems",[202],{"id":126,"by":127,"text":128},{"comments":204,"answered":205,"key":206},15,8,[207,210,213],{"id":208,"text":209},"2286512","Absolutely. There are a few startups doing this, ranging from hardware that companies install to software to \"outside in\" solutions like we're working on. As far as I understand…",{"id":211,"text":212},"2285787","Great question. There are a few ways we could handle it, but in principle we want to see how the problem happens before solving it. A confirmation process is a great idea but…",{"id":214,"text":215},"2285941","Yep. Most customer service folks don't mind waiting (they hear a phone ringing while we get you on the line) and they end up talking to happier customers, who are also much less…",{"commenters":217,"max_depth":48,"maker_replies":204,"first_comment_mins":218,"lifespan_hours":15},55,16,[220,224,226,228,229,230,231,233,235,237,239,243,245,248,252,255,257,260,265,268,271,275,277,279,281,284,287,288,290,293,296,300,304,309,311,315,320,322,324,328,329,332,334,339,341,345,347,351,353,358,359,360,362,364,367,370,372,376,379,381,383,386,390,393,398,402,405,407,411,413,418,421,425,429,434,436,438,442,445,448,451,455,457],[221,41,17,222,223,41],"2286491","project\u002Fneutral\u002Fidea","patio11",[208,41,41,225,10,43],"maker\u002Fneutral\u002Fidea",[126,41,43,227,127,41],"project\u002Fcritical\u002Fidea",[130,41,43,227,131,41],[134,41,43,227,135,41],[104,43,43,227,105,41],[111,40,17,232,112,41],"project\u002Fmixed\u002Fnone",[211,40,41,234,10,43],"maker\u002Fneutral\u002Fnone",[92,40,48,236,93,41],"maker\u002Fpositive\u002Fexecution",[115,40,43,238,116,41],"project\u002Fcritical\u002Fnone",[240,17,17,241,242,41],"2285918","project\u002Fneutral\u002Fexecution","baddox",[214,17,41,244,10,43],"maker\u002Fneutral\u002Fexecution",[246,17,41,247,172,41],"2286015","other\u002Fneutral\u002Fnone",[249,17,41,250,251,41],"2286166","commenter\u002Fneutral\u002Fnone","bschlinker",[253,17,41,250,254,41],"2286924","erikpukinskis",[256,17,41,250,251,41],"2290363",[258,17,41,247,259,41],"2286438","pbhjpbhj",[261,262,48,263,264,41],"2286043",4,"project\u002Fpositive\u002Fidea","ajju",[266,48,48,263,267,41],"2286118","jrockway",[269,48,48,263,270,41],"2286150","paulsingh",[272,48,41,273,274,41],"2286175","commenter\u002Fneutral\u002Fidea","Simon_M",[276,48,41,250,267,41],"2286383",[171,278,17,241,172,41],6,[280,278,41,234,10,43],"2286501",[282,38,41,247,283,41],"2285718","ohashi",[285,205,17,241,286,41],"2285909","fuzzmeister",[197,205,41,244,10,43],[156,37,17,289,157,41],"project\u002Fneutral\u002Fdesign",[291,37,17,292,270,41],"2286133","maker\u002Fneutral\u002Fdesign",[294,37,41,250,295,41],"2286218","jedsmith",[297,33,17,298,299,41],"2286128","project\u002Fneutral\u002Fpricing","jiffylu",[301,33,41,302,303,41],"2287832","commenter\u002Fneutral\u002Fpricing","evgeny0",[305,306,48,307,308,41],"2286022",11,"project\u002Fpositive\u002Fnone","jvinet",[310,306,41,250,270,41],"2286178",[312,306,17,313,314,41],"2286965","project\u002Fneutral\u002Fnone","jmilloy",[316,317,48,318,319,41],"2285685",12,"maker\u002Fpositive\u002Fidea","failquicker",[149,321,17,313,150,41],13,[323,321,41,234,10,43],"2285699",[325,326,48,263,327,41],"2288002",14,"andrewheins",[142,204,17,298,116,41],[330,204,17,331,270,41],"2286174","maker\u002Fneutral\u002Fpricing",[333,218,48,307,93,41],"2285805",[335,336,41,337,338,41],"2286684",17,"other\u002Fneutral\u002Fidea","arafalov",[340,336,41,318,10,43],"2286764",[342,31,43,343,344,41],"2286099","project\u002Fcritical\u002Fdesign","tmayshark",[346,31,17,292,270,41],"2286115",[348,349,17,241,350,41],"2285961",19,"gawker",[352,349,17,244,270,41],"2286042",[354,355,48,356,357,41],"2285836",20,"project\u002Fpositive\u002Fpricing","keeptrying",[122,32,43,227,123,41],[191,32,41,222,10,43],[361,32,43,227,164,41],"2285822",[363,32,41,225,10,43],"2285857",[365,32,41,247,366,41],"2289787","rezanator",[368,32,41,247,369,41],"2285848","hipsterelitist",[371,32,41,234,10,43],"2285864",[373,32,41,374,375,41],"2290069","other\u002Fneutral\u002Fexecution","jbigue",[96,377,48,378,97,41],22,"project\u002Fpositive\u002Fexecution",[145,380,48,263,146,41],23,[382,380,41,234,10,43],"2286816",[384,380,17,222,385,41],"2287353","xelfer",[387,388,48,263,389,41],"2286758",24,"jbeard",[391,392,17,313,259,41],"2286459",25,[394,395,17,396,397,41],"2288728",26,"project\u002Fmixed\u002Fidea","socialhack23",[399,400,48,263,401,41],"2286189",27,"zmitri",[403,15,17,222,404,41],"2286265","jeffwidman",[406,15,41,234,10,43],"2286522",[408,409,17,222,410,41],"2290061",29,"dmazin",[163,412,48,263,164,41],30,[414,415,17,416,417,41],"2285807",31,"project\u002Fmixed\u002Fdocs","dkokelley",[419,415,41,420,10,43],"2285872","maker\u002Fneutral\u002Fdocs",[422,423,17,241,424,41],"2286855",32,"entrepreneurial",[426,427,48,307,428,41],"2287504",33,"TheSmoke",[430,431,48,432,433,41],"2285865",34,"project\u002Fpositive\u002Fdesign","jhuckestein",[435,431,41,250,242,41],"2285914",[437,431,41,234,10,43],"2285950",[439,440,48,307,441,41],"2287118",35,"aagha",[175,443,17,444,176,41],36,"project\u002Fneutral\u002Fperformance",[446,443,43,447,259,41],"2286450","project\u002Fcritical\u002Fperformance",[449,443,17,444,450,41],"2286832","prawn",[452,453,48,307,454,41],"2285927",37,"huge_ness",[456,453,41,234,10,43],"2285945",[458,453,43,227,459,41],"2286114","Cushman",[],[462,467,472,477,481,485],{"id":463,"name":464,"points":465,"category":466},"2303395","nitrogen.posterous.com",98,"infrastructure",{"id":468,"name":469,"points":470,"category":471},"2289635","Phoneify",95,"web_saas",{"id":473,"name":474,"points":475,"category":476},"2294886","My weekend project",73,"productivity",{"id":478,"name":479,"points":480,"category":19},"2301871","Hackerstream",68,{"id":482,"name":483,"points":484,"category":471},"2288175","Review My Startup",63,{"id":486,"name":487,"points":488,"category":476},"2283981","Invite to try fiesta.cc",51,false,"v2",{"id":492,"name":5,"line":6,"ai":489,"cat":19,"year":12,"points":13,"comments":14,"rec":28,"s":493,"top":17,"kw":494,"maker":10,"domain":495,"tier":18,"attempts":41,"strip":496,"url":-1,"mix":497,"praise":88,"objection":101,"sub":20},2285594,0.23,[23,24,25,26,27],"","3113330055033335355351351105553535350513",[31,32,17,33],1794036486778]