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263 points bigmicro | 2 comments | | HN request time: 0.418s | source

Hello HN community,

This is bootstrapped/indie hacker-ish. Would appreciate feedback.

What it is: You create a link (e.g. onair/yourname), and anyone can call you from it. Caller uses a web browser to make the call (not dedicated app). You can create as many links as you want, and can direct calls to colleagues in a round-robin or escalation manner.

In a way, it's like the "opposite of Calendly"; whereas Calendly is about meetings in the future, OnAir is about immediate meetings.

Motivation behind it: One of our SaaS products was struggling to grow. We believed that if we provide more "hand holding" to visitors on the landing page, it will increase conversion. It's like speaking to the guy behind the counter before making a purchase. That idea/experiment, over time, became OnAir.

Feedback: Identifying the perfect use case / customer has not been easy. E-Commerce store owners, which I thought would be ideal customer profile, are not responding as expected (e.g. "why use this instead of a WhatsApp button?"). The value of branded links, round-robin, recording/transcription, lead capture, etc does not seem to matter much to them. Ideas are welcome.

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redrove ◴[] No.42146682[source]
Someone please explain to me why a phone call is different to this, I'm truly blanking.
replies(4): >>42146695 #>>42146739 #>>42146745 #>>42146839 #
1. moritonal ◴[] No.42146695[source]
Hide's real phone-number and allows you to control when, how you receive calls. Pretty smart honestly.
replies(1): >>42146726 #
2. infecto ◴[] No.42146726[source]
I am not sure any of those are really the true value. The driver imo is swapping a chat bubble with an audio call. It reduces friction a customer may have picking up their phone and dialing a number and also since the customer can see you are online and ready to chat, they know they will be able to instantly get in touch with someone. Thats the smart and valuable piece.