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Show HN: Accordive - Customer Context in your Inbox

38 points by joncalhoun 13y ago

michaelmior 13y ago
This looks pretty well-designed! Although I will add that you can achieve similar functionality if you code a Raplet[1] for Rapportive. (and it's free) [1] http://code.rapportive.com/raplet-docs/ http://code.rapportive.com/raplet-docs/
- scalhoun2005 13y ago
  Hey, I am the creator of Accordive. Thanks for the feedback! I have looked at the Raplets a bit but I wanted to make something that was a little easier to setup and would allow for further customization in the future. Think automatic labels for your customers on the Enterprise plan, or a quick way to find all past emails from the user who wrote the email you are currently viewing. I know a lot of this can be achieved in Gmail through filters, searches, etc, but I am aspiring for something a little more immediate and non-tech friendly. So far our private beta users have loved it and most of them are not insanely technical.
  - michaelmior 13y ago
    Don't get me wrong, I'm sure there's MUCH farther you can go with this idea than you can get with Raplets. And certainly there's no way non-technical users can develop Raplets. Best of luck!
ateevchopra 13y ago
1) I really loved the design. Its really clean and "heavenly". 2)Are you really gonna take money from people helping you in private beta ? I mean its good to give 50% off but these will be your first customers and will help you shape the product. I can understand you might have done this after a lot of thought, but you still owe these people for every criticize they make.
- rzendacott 13y ago
  Zapier (YC S12) did something similar to determine demand for their initial product. I heard Bryan Helmig (co-founder) give a great talk on the subject, and it seemed to work very well for them: https://zapier.com/blog/anatomy-of-sale-or-how-andrew-warner-became-our-first-paying-user/ https://zapier.com/blog/anatomy-of-sale-or-how-andrew-warner... http://bryanhelmig.com/bootstrapping-an-idea-the-paid-beta/ http://bryanhelmig.com/bootstrapping-an-idea-the-paid-beta/
- scalhoun2005 13y ago
  Thanks for the feedback! We only charge you one time, then never again until a month after it leaves beta. This just locks you in at the discounted price and doesn't charge you again until the 2nd month out of beta. I'll make this clearer on the site. As far as why we are taking money, we already started a private beta and are looking to get feedback from paying customers. As incredibly useful as our private beta users have been, they aren't paying so it is hard to determine what things they ask for are things they would pay for and what are just neat things they want. With paying users it is a little clearer that they would pay for feature x, because they are already paying to use the service.
  - ateevchopra 13y ago
    I got my answer. I really like your way of thinking. People creating a "paid only" product in future will love this. Do write a blog post on this strategy and your experience with it. And All the best!
- d0m 13y ago
  >> Are you really gonna take money from people helping you in private beta Those are early adopters, not volunteers. They pay to have their problem solved. If they're not happy to pay 5$ for it then it's either not the right customer or not a real problem.
scalhoun2005 13y ago
Hey, I am the creator of Accordive. I just wanted to note that we have users in private beta right now, and opted to openly tell everyone the signups were for a public beta, thus the discounted price. While we considered not telling users this until after they signed up (many services have done this in the past) it ultimately seemed like a shady thing to do and I would rather be open with my users than trick them. That said, we are allowing signups into the public beta pretty slowly because we like to work with each user individually to help them get setup and running. This is slow at first but it makes the experience much better and we learn a lot along the way.
jlgaddis 13y ago
Can I pay you to never put my data into Google/Gmail, if I'm the customer of your customer?
- scalhoun2005 13y ago
  It is never IN Google/Gmail. It is loaded via a chrome extension and injected in after Gmail loads.
  - jlgaddis 13y ago
    Thank you for clarifying that; I mistakenly believed that it was.
- antoinec 13y ago
  What's wrong with telling the guy you bought something from what you paid and when?
  - jlgaddis 13y ago
    Apologies, I misunderstood. I thought the data was being stored in/on Google servers.
scalhoun2005 13y ago
We had a lot of users emailing about the beta price so we decided to adjust the pricing to $5 for unlimited beta access. Would any of you prefer an integration with Sales Force, Zendesk, Desk.com, or Helpscout more than a Gmail integration? We are looking to expand out of Gmail eventually, so if you would use one of the existing CRM tools and would like Accordive for it please let us know by email - contact@accordive.com
- russj 13y ago
  You need to do Zendesk, Desk, etc.. That's where this type of integration is really useful. Very few customer service orgs use gmail directly to assist customers.
nchuhoai 13y ago
This is not constructive comment, but this is a great idea! What languages/frameworks do you provide libraries for?
- scalhoun2005 13y ago
  Thanks! We only support javascript at the moment. Most of the data gets updated with the user on your site, so this was the logical first client since any backend would work with it. We plan to roll out support for Ruby, Python, PHP, and likely some plugins/addons (think wordpress, magento, shopify, and etsy) shortly. We will likely preference the plugins/addons at first.
gregpilling 13y ago
In reading this I am not sure if it is specific to web services or could be used for any business with customer service needs. Is it basically a light CRM that is built to work with Gmail?

38 points by joncalhoun 13y ago

This looks pretty well-designed! Although I will add that you can achieve similar functionality if you code a Raplet[1] for Rapportive. (and it's free) [1] http://code.rapportive.com/raplet-docs/ http://code.rapportive.com/raplet-docs/

scalhoun2005 13y ago
Hey, I am the creator of Accordive. Thanks for the feedback! I have looked at the Raplets a bit but I wanted to make something that was a little easier to setup and would allow for further customization in the future. Think automatic labels for your customers on the Enterprise plan, or a quick way to find all past emails from the user who wrote the email you are currently viewing. I know a lot of this can be achieved in Gmail through filters, searches, etc, but I am aspiring for something a little more immediate and non-tech friendly. So far our private beta users have loved it and most of them are not insanely technical.
- michaelmior 13y ago
  Don't get me wrong, I'm sure there's MUCH farther you can go with this idea than you can get with Raplets. And certainly there's no way non-technical users can develop Raplets. Best of luck!

ateevchopra 13y ago

1) I really loved the design. Its really clean and "heavenly". 2)Are you really gonna take money from people helping you in private beta ? I mean its good to give 50% off but these will be your first customers and will help you shape the product. I can understand you might have done this after a lot of thought, but you still owe these people for every criticize they make.

rzendacott 13y ago
Zapier (YC S12) did something similar to determine demand for their initial product. I heard Bryan Helmig (co-founder) give a great talk on the subject, and it seemed to work very well for them: https://zapier.com/blog/anatomy-of-sale-or-how-andrew-warner-became-our-first-paying-user/ https://zapier.com/blog/anatomy-of-sale-or-how-andrew-warner... http://bryanhelmig.com/bootstrapping-an-idea-the-paid-beta/ http://bryanhelmig.com/bootstrapping-an-idea-the-paid-beta/
scalhoun2005 13y ago
Thanks for the feedback! We only charge you one time, then never again until a month after it leaves beta. This just locks you in at the discounted price and doesn't charge you again until the 2nd month out of beta. I'll make this clearer on the site. As far as why we are taking money, we already started a private beta and are looking to get feedback from paying customers. As incredibly useful as our private beta users have been, they aren't paying so it is hard to determine what things they ask for are things they would pay for and what are just neat things they want. With paying users it is a little clearer that they would pay for feature x, because they are already paying to use the service.
- ateevchopra 13y ago
  I got my answer. I really like your way of thinking. People creating a "paid only" product in future will love this. Do write a blog post on this strategy and your experience with it. And All the best!
d0m 13y ago
>> Are you really gonna take money from people helping you in private beta Those are early adopters, not volunteers. They pay to have their problem solved. If they're not happy to pay 5$ for it then it's either not the right customer or not a real problem.

scalhoun2005 13y ago

Hey, I am the creator of Accordive. I just wanted to note that we have users in private beta right now, and opted to openly tell everyone the signups were for a public beta, thus the discounted price. While we considered not telling users this until after they signed up (many services have done this in the past) it ultimately seemed like a shady thing to do and I would rather be open with my users than trick them. That said, we are allowing signups into the public beta pretty slowly because we like to work with each user individually to help them get setup and running. This is slow at first but it makes the experience much better and we learn a lot along the way.

jlgaddis 13y ago

Can I pay you to never put my data into Google/Gmail, if I'm the customer of your customer?

scalhoun2005 13y ago
It is never IN Google/Gmail. It is loaded via a chrome extension and injected in after Gmail loads.
- jlgaddis 13y ago
  Thank you for clarifying that; I mistakenly believed that it was.
antoinec 13y ago
What's wrong with telling the guy you bought something from what you paid and when?
- jlgaddis 13y ago
  Apologies, I misunderstood. I thought the data was being stored in/on Google servers.

scalhoun2005 13y ago

We had a lot of users emailing about the beta price so we decided to adjust the pricing to $5 for unlimited beta access. Would any of you prefer an integration with Sales Force, Zendesk, Desk.com, or Helpscout more than a Gmail integration? We are looking to expand out of Gmail eventually, so if you would use one of the existing CRM tools and would like Accordive for it please let us know by email - contact@accordive.com

russj 13y ago
You need to do Zendesk, Desk, etc.. That's where this type of integration is really useful. Very few customer service orgs use gmail directly to assist customers.

nchuhoai 13y ago

This is not constructive comment, but this is a great idea! What languages/frameworks do you provide libraries for?

scalhoun2005 13y ago
Thanks! We only support javascript at the moment. Most of the data gets updated with the user on your site, so this was the logical first client since any backend would work with it. We plan to roll out support for Ruby, Python, PHP, and likely some plugins/addons (think wordpress, magento, shopify, and etsy) shortly. We will likely preference the plugins/addons at first.

gregpilling 13y ago

In reading this I am not sure if it is specific to web services or could be used for any business with customer service needs. Is it basically a light CRM that is built to work with Gmail?