Lobbly

Well, we did it; we officially launched our redesigned product!

Lobbly initially focused on providing curbside check-ins to businesses. With our latest updates, we have changed from a curbside check-in service into an AI Virtual Phone Assistant that can answer all incoming calls and texts for a business.

One of our biggest customer concerns was the need to juggle two telephone numbers, one for the main business line and another for Lobbly. Now a business can start using our Virtual Phone Assistant as a primary incoming business number or forward their existing number to Lobbly to handle calls when they are unavailable.

My last three months have been devoted to building out the new version of this product. It has been fun and cemented why I love Elixir and Phoenix along the way. The next steps are to double down on the marketing and sales side of the equation and build up a better customer base. Here is to learning new things!

An old friend and I have been discussing the idea of striking out on our own. We decided now is as good a time as any in our lives, so we are going for it.

In the last year, I haven't put as much time into Lobbly as I would have liked, but it is now going to be my primary product. I have many pending updates to complete and a lot of sales and marketing stuff to learn, but this will be a fun adventure.

To keep me motivated, I'm building out a project here on indie hackers and will attempt weekly updates. Time to get out there and start pushing.

Word has spread a little, and I have a few additional customers signing up. Had a pleasant call with a customer who asked me if I've heard of Calljoy. I had not, but after some online reading, it sounds like an impressive project by Google. Also sounds like they are shutting down soon.

I wonder how much I would need to add to Lobbly to be considered a replacement for those leaving Calljoy?

I've always been good at building systems, but not so much on the marketing and sales side of things. Additionally, I'm not sure how to let businesses know about a tool that could help them restrict access to their location... when those same customers are restricting access to their location.

Figured I would try a hail-mary and start posting to the small business subreddit. Three weeks of posts in (once a week), and I have my first customer!

The website is launched, and businesses can start using the service. I'm not the best at making things look pretty, but TailwindUI was a lifesaver. I was able to pull just about everything I needed from their examples and launch a page that looks professional.

Next up on my list is Stripe integration for payments. The downside to this project is voice minutes and SMS messages add up.

It works! The basic flow is complete, and the assistant bot is answering phone calls and text messages. Everything still looks super rough, but you can complete a remote check-in, and a staff member can interact with the customer remotely.

There is still a lot more to do before it is ready for a business to use, but it is getting close.

The pandemic shutdowns just started. Already seeing a few local businesses scrambling to react to the new situation.

Took one of my kids for their doctor's appointment and noticed the waiting room is closed, and they are having everyone check-in from their cars and wait in the parking lot. The staff was hectic answering phone calls, keeping track of everyone, and calling people in. I have a non-local cell phone and was lost in the shuttle when someone forgot to write my area code down.

I started thinking and realized this is a super repeatable problem that can be automated. We were all stuck at home, and rather than go stir crazy, this seems like a good project.