
Show HN: Empathize – manage user conversations easily - dpandya
https://getempathize.com/?utm_source=hn
======
bernardhalas
I like the UI and the design. The tool feels well integrated. However I'm not
sure of the added value. What's the difference compared to the invite I send
out directly from Google Calendar?

BTW, if you'd like to get some more free UX feedback, please feel free to
visit our UX community platform at
[https://usability.testing.exchange](https://usability.testing.exchange)

~~~
mtmail
Can you and Kaj stop mentioning your website whenever you comment? It's the
7th time in the last day and and feels like you only take time to give
feedback in order to be able to add a link (provides value for yourself).

~~~
KajMagnus
Hi, sorry about that, we shouldn't do like above.

You're correct that so far we've been commenting when the person we reply to,
can get more feedback about his/her stuff, at usability-testing-exchange
(UTX). And, in cases when we've posted _lots_ of helpful feedback, and also a
link to UTX, then people have appreciated it, said thanks or upvoted, and some
of them went to UTX, helped others over at UTX, and got even more feedback
back him/herlself.

In this particular case, though, the actual feedback is brief — about the same
length as the "see UTX" line. And I understand that that doesn't feel good.

I think we should write lots of more more helpful feedback, than the text
occupied by the "see UTX" line. Look at my other reply (with feedback to OP)
on this page for example.

About providing value (which maybe we didn't do so much this time): The
purpose is to 1) help the people we reply to, so they can improve their
websites & software. And 2) to slightly slightly improve the quality of the
ShowHN submissions (feedback —> impovements, better submissions), which I
would think is good for the readers here at HN. And 3) making people aware
that UTX exists.

So this is supposed to be good for everyone: 1) people who posts ShowHN:s, 2)
for the readers here at ShowHN, and 3) for us/me.

However in this case, as mentioned, the "see UTX" line seems a bit distracting
and promotional, because the actual feedback is so brief. We shouldn't do like
that in the future.

* * *

Sorry @dpandya (original poster) for this off-topic discussion from your point
of view. Anyway I guess you're interested in feedback about your service?
(Since that is one of the points with ShowHN, right.) — I gave Emphasize a
try, and left feedback in another comment here.

------
KajMagnus
Ok Emphathize seems like something that could possibly be useful to me, I'm
trying to do a startup, and I'm planning to contact some people who signed up
for some software I'm developing, but then abandoned it. So I think I'm your
target audience.

First: This doesn't tell me much: "Schedule customer conversations with ease."
The next line though, makes me intrigued :-) (i.e. _" Everyone says you should
talk to your customers. Our software makes it painless."_)

What about a shorter & simpler headline like "Talk with your customers. Our
software helps you do that."

"See a sample email" — good idea, I wonder how to write such emais in a good
way. I click "Get sample email", before scrolling down & reading more.

Ok here's the email I got.

    
    
        David from Empathize wants to speak to you!
        We would love to hear what you think about our product over a 30 minute phone call.
    
    

To be honest, my reaction to this is "Gaahhh! They think I have 30 minutes of
my time to spare, to help them? Never going to happen."

From my perspective, as someone who gets this email, if you want me to _work_
for you for 30 minutes, you need to provide some compensation. Like $30. Or
giving me your service for free for 6 months.

Anyway I click "Pick time" to test what'll happen ...

About the "Please select a time" page:

Which time zone? 12:00PM could be 02:00 AM to me, for all I know :-)

I feel slightly frustrated because the schedule seems adjusted for what's good
for _you_ , not for what's a good time for _me_ (I now being the one who will
give feedback to the company). If you really want my feedback, then you should
let me pick any time I want 24 o'clock, and then adjust your schedule.

(If you pay me $$$$ then it's OK though if I need to adjust to your schedule.)

UX problem: After selecting a time, I clicked `[ > ]` instead of Submit, and
didn't immediately undrestand what then happened.

I think: 1) Change from just `[ > ]` to `[ > next day ]` to make it clear what
those buttons do. And 2) Make the submit button look more like a button,
instead of like a footer, by making it narrower, maybe 2-3x as wide as the
Submit text (but not as wide as the page).

Ok I click Submit. And see the text "Please complete all items above". What?
Ok ... after a while I understand I need to fill in my phone number...

...Somehow make it more obvious that I need to type my phone number above.
Hmm, interesting that I totally didn't see the phone number input. In
retrospect, it looks as if it ought to be easy to notice.

...Maybe the problem is that everything is in bright gray — looks like not-
importrant-secondary-stuff. Instead, what grabbed my attention was the large
calendar in the middle, and that's where I started.

Ok I got to "Thanks! The call has been scheduled."

I'm looking now in my Google Calendar, but don't see any appointment there
yet. Of course, since I haven't signed up. I suppose maybe only the company's
staff will get their calendars updated.

\---

I look at "How it works", and find: "We automatically handle giftcards ..." —
how do you do that?

To me that seems like crucial for getting someone to answer a phone call. What
about including a gift card, in the "Get sample email" demo?

I look at "What makes us special", and "Email templates that work" — I would
want to see some of those email templates; I'll be sending similar emails
myself soon some day.

I would want the option to give _money_ as "thanks" to the customer, not only
a gift card.

Curious about pricing.

From what I've seen this far, of Emphatize, I'd actually prefer writing my own
emails, and asking for feedback _in text_ via email instead — I'm thinking
people might have time to reply with an email to an email ... but not for a 30
min phone call. Also, if I get feedback in text, I can just copy-paste it into
a todo document (rather than having to listen to a phone call and take notes
myself).

Can I ask how did you come up with the idea to build Emphathize?

Have you validated that a talk-with-your-customers service is something
companies are actually looking for? What if maybe they (like me) prefer asking
for & getting feedback via mail instead? Or maybe they use some customer-
relationships-management system that already has get-feedback functionality
built-in?

Maybe there are more "Talk with your customers" stuff that you can expand
Emphatize to include? The concept of a company that helps other companies talk
with their customers, seems like something that could actually work. But I'm
hesitant right now about if the service you provide, is enough, for companies
to get interseted.

What about contacting some different companies / startups, and talking with
them about how they do when talking with their customers, and what they might
need / want from you? Then maybe good to first read the available-for-free-
online chapters in this book:
[http://www.startupwerkboek.nl/startupcenter/Momtest.pdf](http://www.startupwerkboek.nl/startupcenter/Momtest.pdf)
(The Mom Test). It's about finding out if people are truly & honestly
interested in the things one wants to build. —Maybe you'll come up with more
useful features, or re-focus completely to something else.

Best wishes anyway.

~~~
KajMagnus
More details about this: _" I would want the option to give money as "thanks"
to the customer, not only a gift card."_ – the most valuable people to get
feedback from, are the ones who _abandoned_ the service?

They are not likely to be interested in a gift card, ... they don't want to
use the service any more, right.

But if you pay them money, then they might have time for a phone call with
you.

Or, if you send them an email, and ask what problems they found with the
service — _and_ tell them that the reason you're asking is that you want to
fix the problems. So that maybe some day in the future, the service will be
sth they will want to use. That can also motivate them. (But, I think, not
enough for scheduling a phone call. Only to write a brief email back to you.)

