

Ask HN: Phone Support Number for Startups - kyro

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?
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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.

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austinshea
I'm certain that Google Voice has this functionality.

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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.

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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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niklasst
Chek out <http://grasshopper.com/> if you are in the stats og
<http://www.firmafon.dk> if you are in Denmark...

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ScottWhigham
I second the use of Grasshopper. Very professional and affordable.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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patrickmclaren
I'm sure that most people would be happy to call any number(not mobile),
provided they really need the support.

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oomkiller
I built my own PBX using FreeSWITCH, and used the ITSP flowroute.com.

