I saw your blog entry [Ez: this one] about Gethuman.com on August 22nd, and thought you might be interested in a project we have been working on called NoPhoneTrees.com. Our mission is to take the next step in the process by directly helping users skip phone trees and connect with a real human on the customer support phone lines at many companies throughout the U.S. Users simply choose the company they wish to call, and we'll dial the company directly, navigate their phone tree, and call them back when they are in queue for an operator or customer service representative. The service is available for free, and we've gotten some great feedback so far.I checked it out, and the idea is definitely interesting. The site seems to make its money off the advertising revenue from its site, and you aren't giving any information other than your phone number to the [automated] site. I tried it quickly with Dell, and it is incredibly fast - within a minute I already had verified my phone number for NoPhoneTrees and they'd contacted Dell and had connected; the only flaw being that it was going to someone's answering machine already.
We are in the middle of doing a soft beta launch, and we are trying to get early feedback to refine the site before we publicize the site more broadly. I'd love to have you check out the site and offer your opinion on the user interface, and overall concept. Of course, we'd love if this was interesting enough for you to post about us in your blog (although we are currently avoiding the major media outlets until we are able to refine the site a bit more).
Marcin Musiolik
NoPhoneTrees.com
marcin@bringo.com
One little aspect I especially liked is their instantaneous updating on the site as you're using it: When it was calling me to verify and again later when it was ready, it told me to pick up on the screen, and when I did, it immediately showed as being connected. This wasn't a big deal, because I know what I'm doing; but it did the same with Dell as well - showing that they were calling, connecting, etc.
They're still testing it and working on it, but they're definitely on to something with this. Try it yourself.
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WOW. That shit works. Simple and fast. I tried United Airlines and got through without the pain and it took me maybe 30 seconds. I entered my phone #, got a call from BRINGO confirming my #, and then got connected with United seconds later. Not sure how these guys are making their money...but I am sure that I will use it again.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting about us. I checked Dell and we have something unusual there. Normally this number redirects to a real person, but today it goes to voice mail, where they ask clients to leave order number and contact details. They say it is because of high volume of phone calls...
ReplyDeleteMarcin
http://gethuman.com/us/
ReplyDeleteAwesome. There's really no other way to say this: you rock, Ezzie!
ReplyDeleteWhat if you have dialup internet? Does it work even if you have to go offline to receive their phone call, and therefore can't see their updates?
ReplyDeleteAlso, check out http://gethuman.com/ for a database of how to quickly get a human at various corporations.
Kiwi - It should work.
ReplyDeleteGetHuman is what started this. :)
Here in Toronto, Virgin Mobile Canada has an ad campaign touting the fact that if you call them, you get to speak to a real live human.
ReplyDeleteAvrom - They have humans in Canada?
ReplyDeleteDo you give this company any kind of account data? If so, I'd say THAT's how they're making their money...
ReplyDeleteCroaky - None at all.
ReplyDelete