Since Path Talk (cc @davemorin) launched, I haven't called a business to setup reservations or ask a question. RealTalk (awesome name, btw) is another app that uses natural language and text as an interface. @libovness and @alexiskold wrote about this trend here and here, respectively. And last week Facebook launched Business on Messenger.
It's interesting to see so many players moving in this direction and many would argue the consumer-to-business communication needs a long overdue reboot.
@davemorin@libovness@alexiskold@rrhoover I agree, the problem is that user need for this, imo, doesn't always extend to downloading an app. My typical interaction would be to do a google search for the business name and call their number. I feel like you could even forget you had this app and still go to Google first.
What we're seeing is businesses moving to SMS for a lot of customer communication, but it's all going over the standard phone number, in the US, because it's reliable, always read and free of spam.
@davemorin@libovness@alexiskold@rrhoover I hate calling businesses, and I had no idea Path Talk Place Messaging existed. The developments in this space are exciting as both a consumer and a marketer. I look forward to trying all of these products.
@libovness So mimicing the in store Q&A experience, vs the web's browse and read method. I think it could be a big deal but I wonder what people are most used to. I grew up calling stores but it's always google first now.
Apps like this are great, but I am curious how the biz owners are keeping up with the increasing communication level coming into their business via multiple channels?
Most of them are already working long hours on small margins, and increasing the volume along with an expectation that the response time will decrease, may lead to less quality customer service than more.
@tbjornson oh yeah not assuming its an insurmountable problem, but time is precious on both sides. would be interesting to hear how your marketing this to the biz owners and how they are thinking about a service like this.
IMHO horizontal plays like Fetch, Path Talk etc... are not able to provide the speed, availability and quality of service that is required for this to be useful because they are so detached from the businesses they are providing for. I would be interested in seeing vertical plays, i.e. a travel booking service, a hotel booking service etc.. that have superior access to the underlying data and don't have to wait for said customer service reps to respond.
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