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Ask HN: Phone Support Number for Startups

15 points by kyro ↗ HN
How have you guys gone about setting up a support line for your startups? I have a Google Voice account that I never got round to using, so I was considering using that. Do consumers feel more comfortable calling an 800 number? And what other services do you use to manage voicemails, etc?

19 comments

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cperciva
I don't offer phone support for Tarsnap; but I do offer email, twitter, and IRC support. It all depends on what sort of users you have -- I'm quite fortunate in that Tarsnap has very technically competent users.
kyro
We're targeting churches, and those who work there aren't that technically savvy, so I think offering phone support would help quite a bit.
cperciva
We're targeting churches, and those who work there aren't that technically savvy

I have no idea what your startup is, but are you sure that you're going to be dealing with people who are working at churches, rather than congregation members who volunteer? Most community organizations -- churches, kids sports teams, amateur orchestras, etc -- will include someone who is technically savvy, even if the priest / coach / conductor / etc. doesn't know how to use a computer.

bugs
Maybe you could do a phone support by request, pretty much everyone knows and can email these days and those that want phone support need only email you a number and a time that they can be reached. (Running a dedicated phone support system can build up quickly and offer more problems than it solves)
andrewtj
Make sure you can really quantify the benefits of phone support as it could be quite a heavy time and dollar sink if you're not careful. Personally I'd exhaust every other avenue - don't forget traditional things like welcome booklets and DVDs if margin/CPA allows.
patrickmclaren
I'm sure that most people would be happy to call any number(not mobile), provided they really need the support.
maxklein
Use Skype-In with Skype-Forwarding to your normal phone. Skype will forward to 5 different phones at the same time, and whoever picks up first gets the call. So it's convenient when you have other people who could answer the call.
austinshea
I'm certain that Google Voice has this functionality.
mrduncan
As far as I'm aware, you can only use a phone with a single Google Voice account. So, if you already have a personal account that forwards to your phone you can't forward a company account and vice versa.
frankj
If you want to use an 800 number, but with GV capabilities, then use Phone.com where you can fine a number that is relevant to your business - www.Phone.com.
bemmu
I've been playing around with Twilio for the past two days and I could already recommend it. It took me about about two hours to get it working well enough to make my own phone ring using their API. And of that the second hour was because I was confused, my number is international and it needed special permissions to call that. Now after two days I know how to make recordings, set up conference calls etc., so easy and powerful. I have a toll-free number in the US now ($5/month, $0.05/minute) just because I wanted to play with one.
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BrandonSmith
Our phonebooth.net offers hosted voicemail transcription by email and you can read, listen, and manage voicemail from the web (as well as the phone, of course).

There is simultaneous and sequential group ringing.

Conference bridging with up to 8 participants.

Each user/phone number can also configure external phone numbers to forward to.

Finally, you can create an unlimited number of "automated attendants" for your "press 2 to sound like a big business" scenarios. Along with nested menus to drill down to the right person/voicemail, if your needs are more complex.

If hosted isn't for you and you are willing to get your hands dirty, try the open source FreePBX.org for on premise build out of the functionality you've described.

Disclosure: I am on the phonebooth.net product team and are the primary contributors to FreePBX.

oomkiller
I built my own PBX using FreeSWITCH, and used the ITSP flowroute.com.
JangoSteve
I have one company that uses Google Voice and one that uses Grasshopper. Grasshopper allows you to easily set up a local number and/or an 800 number (you can also import your own number, for instance you GV number). It allows you to setup "lines" (press 1 for support, 2 for sales, etc), which can forward to other numbers, record messages, have on-hold music and a hunt group, etc.

So, to really answer your qustion, I think it depends on what your startup is. If it's a B2C company that really only needs its own number for support issues and whatnot, you're probably good with just a GV account that forwards to your cell phone. If it is a B2B company though that needs to sound established and professional, I'd consider setting up an 800 number with a multiple-line answering service like Grasshopper, even if every line only forwards to your cell phone for now. This also makes it very easy to scale once you start hiring people.