Never get put on hold again! App lets you TEXT businesses to make reservations or complaints

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Never get put on hold again! App lets you TEXT businesses to make reservations or complaints

Posted by sciencetech-blog on Wednesday, October 1, 2014 Label:

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Making a dinner reservation over the phone often takes longer than it should.

After being put on hold one too many times, a former Facebook manager decided to take matters into his own hands.

California-based David Morin today launched an app that allows anyone to text businesses to make complaints or handle reservations.

To use Places, you first need to have the Path Talk app. The latest version will have a Places tab from which users can select nearby locations or businesses into a search field. Once a company is selected, the user can then type in a question, such as 'can I make a dinner reservation tomorrow?'

The free service, named Places, is the first standalone product from Morin's 'Path' social networking business.

Users don't need to know the restaurant's phone number, or wait on hold until a employee deals with their request.

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To use Places, you first need to have the Path Talk app. The latest version will have a Places tab from which users can select nearby locations or businesses into a search field.

Once a company is selected, the user can then type in a question, such as 'can I make a dinner reservation tomorrow?'

The Path app will assign one of its employees to act as a broker between the business and user. The agent will make the reservation or let the user know why it can't be done. In most cases, this is done within 10 minutes

SHOUT APP LETS YOU SELL UNWANTED DINNER RESERVATIONS

A new app is now making it possible for people to sell experiences that have long been priceless: a top place in line, a prime spot at a busy beach, or a dinner reservation at a five-star restaurant.

Shout allows individuals to request or offer up any desirable 'spot' - physical or virtual - for a price, and the app has already been used to sell tickets to musicals, movies, operas the Tribeca Film Festival -- and even to pass off Cronuts for $30 (£18.50) a pop.

'We are striving to create an environment, a community, where two people can connect and trade seamlessly at a moment's notice,' the app's website explains.

Some are worried, however, that Shout's users will start to hold these things hostage, and drive up prices. 'It's just going to perpetuate bad humanity,' said one user, who asked to remain anonymous.

The Path app will then assign one of its employees to act as a broker between the business and the user.

The agent will make the reservation or let the user know why it can't be done. In most cases, this is done within 10 minutes.

'The idea here is that you don't have to worry about it,' Cynthia Samanian, Path's product manager told Nicole Lee at Engadget.

'We'll take care of it. Just go about your day. This app is about making your life simpler.'

The app will also show a list of suggestions, based on questions asked previously by other users.

And people can use Places with any business, even if they're not in the map. 'You're not at all limited to what you can see here,' said Ms Samanian.

Currently, the Places feature is only available in the US and Canada. It is part of Path's latest update which is rolling out for both iOS and Android today.