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Comment by alaskamiller | Hacker News Reader

The video demo is fine. Text is phone these days and answering a text is exactly the same as answering a phone call asking for more info. A 20 yo retail associate at American Apparel will take to this and figure this out in an hour.

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I understand where you're going with this now. Employees tap out responses on their smartphones. Put yourself in the shoes of a customer now: you walk in and see an employee looking down at their phone and tapping away. Most people won't assume that they're conversing with a customer. The phone conversation doesn't have the same "hey, I'm busy with another customer right now" effect that an audible phone or in-person conversation has. Customers will assume the worst: that they're being ignored for the sake of some employee's personal texting.

Employees already use there phones while at work to text their friends etc...When a customer walks in.... They would usually put there phone in their pocket and satisfy that walking.

Can't see how they wouldn't use this in the same way.

Floor staff are trained to be proactive rather than reactive. When the customer has already voiced their intent and it doesn't necessitate more interaction you can switch to another channel queue.

Obviously if that's not the dynamic of your shop then this isn't the right tool.

I totally agree! An average teenager/young adult sends 3000 text messages per month. For this generation, text messages are more convenient than phone calls.

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