Please vet my startup idea -DialWave, AI for telephony
I'm hoping to get some feedback to vet my idea for a new startup idea - https://dialwave.co
AI is disrupting a lot of industries at the moment, and I'd like to bring that to telephony as well.
I think we've probably all phoned a company up at some point and had a conversation like this:
Recording: Please say in a few words how we can help you.
Caller: I have a problem with my internet router.
Recording: Sorry, I didn't catch that. Please say in a few words how we can help you. For example, "billing issues"
Caller: ROUTER PROBLEM
Recording: You need help with...router problems.
Caller: Ye-
Recording: Please say "yes" if this is correct.
Caller: YES.
Recording: You are in a queue. Your call is important to us.
And that's with some of the more advanced systems out there. Usually it's just an IVR with a load of options, press 1 for support, etc.
DialWave aims to change that by combining AI language and speech models to hold a conversation with people while they're on hold. Instead of those annoying menus and all that hold music the caller can just casually chat to the AI bot on the other end of the phone. The AI can gather customer details while they wait, work out which department they should be speaking to, and then pass over those details to the next available person. This means the person answering can spend less time on the phone, and the customer is a lot happier by the time they get through to someone.
It will be targetted at everyone from sole traders tired of people hanging up when they get their voicemail, to offices with their own in-house PBX that want to integrate something to make their lives easier and customers happier.
I'd like to know if you think this is a service that people need and that offers value.
- Would you trust AI to handle calls for your business?
- Can you see a benefit from this for you?
- Would you be happy speaking to an AI bot when you call up a business?
Any feedback at all is greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
Gavin
Think this is a great idea. Who are you selling to? Customers trying to get through to companies, or companies looking to streamline their customer helpline?
Great! The target market would be companies wanting to streamline their customer helplines and keep their customers happier. It would be (initially) targetted at smaller companies as something that can easily integrate into their existing telephony systems.
I really like this.
Of course i'm not the target customer, but the target customer's customer.
But your exact call scenario is me to a "T". I've yelled at my phone many times because of this.
And as Shekisms said, if it was entertaining as well. That would really put a smile on my face. Really, if it had a joyful voice and cracked a joke from time to time. I'd love it even more.
Thanks for the feedback. It's good to hear this might be useful to you as an end user, even if you wouldn't be the one buying the service.
@Gav super interesting idea. Speaking as someone calling into a business using dialwave, I wouldn't mind speaking to an AI as long as it either entertained me or provided me useful information. Entertainment = music, jokes, trivia. Information = news of the day, business news, political news.
Where are you with this idea?
That's great to hear. It feels like there must be a better way to spend your time than just sitting there on hold.
I'm trying to see if there would be much demand for something like this at the moment. If there is then the next step will be to put a demo together with a number people can call to try it out.
Ha - a demo that gives me a number to call and simulates a customer support conversation would be super compelling!
The key commercial challenge is demonstrating the business proof point. By using DialWave, our customers see X% lift in retention / customer satisfaction scores, or Y% reduction in costs, or Z% lift in customer rep satisfaction because the customer is in a good mood after hearing a few jokes!
The product idea is strong and feasible - the challenge is on the commercial side.
Good luck!
I will be happy to provide more feedback as you progress further.
Thanks for the feedback, I really appreciate it.
I completely agree about the business proof. I think a big step, once there's a working prototype that people have tried, will be getting it into an existing business with existing stats to see the real world use case.
I wouldn't too long before starting the sales process to find the first 2-3 customers. A working prototype and a sales deck is more than enough.
Asked a friend about this who has deep experience with call centers and customer support and here's what he said:
Maybe smaller call centers are an opportunity.
Thanks, I really appreciate this. You're right, smaller companies is probably the way to go, at least until the product is proven.
Having seen the glacial speed at which a lot telephony solutions seem to move I'm hoping DialWave might also get a bit of a head start over the more established companies 🤞