Show HN: Calloud – Let your visits call you from your website | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Calloud – Let your visits call you from your website

calloud.com

12 pointsbernatfp17 comments

One thing I noticed upon moving to Europe (Ireland, specifically) is how much people seem obsessed with phone calls here. I checked on Vodafone broadband service and the next morning got annoyed at work by a call from a sales rep. I wanted to change payment info with my current provider and was told I had to make a phone call. I emailed a support group and their response was to call their 1890 number - something which costs 50 cents a minute to do, and is shockingly common here.

Maybe I'm just grumpy, but why is it so much harder to get things done here without going through the arcane and inefficient process of a phone call?

On the bright side, it's nice to see this lets businesses make themselves available without trying to charge their customers for the privilege.

Inefficient? Phone calls are anything but tbh; you have a conversation, direct back-and-forth communication, something that could take days over e-mail. Keeps the focus of the support employee on your issue, too.

I think it depends on the nature of the issue. Semi-complex and non-time-sensitive issues like (as an example of something I am dealing with at work with our internal helpdesk right now):

"I need you to disable email address X entirely, and route email address Y to this person, and change distribution list Z to this other config"

Email is perfect for this - I don't care to sit on hold while they click around because it's not time sensitive, and having things written down makes it less likely there will be confusion.

On the flip side, trying to come to a consensus on a nuanced issue or negotiate an outcome with a support person over email stinks, other than the benefit of having it written down. Way better to talk on the phone.

So it just depends on your use case. There's tons of time when I have a simple question and I'd prefer to just be able to drop a line to customer support.

It depends on what I'm doing. There are times when calls are appropriate. I quite enjoy vc'ing with friends and loved ones. However, if all I want to do is discover which broadband speeds and caps are available for my location, and click "buy" on the appropriate one, there is no need for a phone call, at least until after I've hit buy.

As it is, the phone call convinced me not to use Vodafone. The first thing they did was ask me for my date of birth, as though it's somehow relevant to purchasing broadband. They then went on to ask how much I watched TV IMMEDIATELY after I said "Just to let you know, I understand you offer bundles but I am interested in broadband only - no TV, no phone". When they failed to understand that modem != router I was pretty clear I wouldn't be purchasing service from them.

I have no idea; it's not exactly "popular" with the public either. But it's usually the only option that actually results in sorting out whatever it is you need to sort out. People aren't comfortable putting their personal details in email, so what's the alternative? Slow expensive postal correspondence?

This is probably a good place for me to link this excellent series of 3 posts on the operational politics and failures of the call centre concept: http://yorksranter.wordpress.com/category/callcentre/

Call me now buttons have existed for at least 5 years. How is calloud different/disruptive/special?

https://www.google.nl/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&es...

Because all these services ask you for your phone number and shift the conversation to your phone, while with Calloud the conversation takes place in your computer and you don't have to give away your phone number. So, instead of interacting with your computer at the same time you are using your phone, everything happens on your browser. It is a more fluid and better experience.

Not a whole lot of information on the page.

Just some graphics, FAQ and a payments page. Where is the video? Demo? This could be vaporware for all I know. Selling me nothing.

I do like the minimalistic design, but when you are asking me for money, I want to know a little more.

Hey, I'm the creator of Calloud. What else do you need to know? What has put you off? I've tried to keep it simple, communicating the basics on the landing page, trying to address more specific questions on the FAQ and added a demo at the bottom of the landing, where you can test call a voicemail.

Looks like this is active for calls, https://calloud.com/calloud

We are customers and fans of Zingaya.com which does exactly the same. It is a wonderful service and always amazes me the amount of people who prefer to speak by voice rather than alternative more-effective communication channels such as chats, contact forms or even emails.

Hate it when you need to "purchase" before you can "try". A couple of minutes free trial would be enough...

Will take into account. To be honest, I've considered adding a trial option but can't afford to give away many accounts because I'm self funding it and there's no revenue to cover operating costs yet.

This is a great idea.

this is no different from a google voice widget being placed on your website, and its free.

Google voice doesn't really exist in the UK.

From a UK b2b point of view, I can see this being real nice.

Hey, thanks for your feedback! Calloud supports phone numbers from way more countries than Google Voice does, plus we are focused on building an awesome product for businesses, there are many things that can be done on top of our service, and we can't wait to roll them out. Additionally, Google Voice is expected to integrate with Hangouts (they are probably focusing more on B2C), so it might lose some of its current functionality http://phandroid.com/2014/03/18/google-voice-hangouts-coming...

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