6 ms·

Show HN: Front, Collaborative Email for Sales, Customer Support, Hiring and more

94 points by mathouc 12y ago

mrmch 12y ago
This is awesome, looking at how we could use it at sendwithus to replace/augment our current support systems.
sgdesign 12y ago
Looks nice! In the same space, there's also Respondly: https://respond.ly/ https://respond.ly/ I've found it hard to pull myself away from Gmail and use these apps though, old habits are hard to change…
- d0m 12y ago
  There's helpscout that let you reply directly from gmail but still use their team inbox. However I find it very pricey.
ElliotH 12y ago
Landing page wise, a sign up link at the bottom as well as the top would make a lot of sense. Otherwise there's no call to action when you've read all the pitch.
- gk1 12y ago
  Also, I'm willing to bet that almost any call-to-action text other than "sign up" is going to get more clicks. "Sign up" is generic, doesn't say anything about the benefits of signing up, and simply isn't compelling.
mglauco 12y ago
Google Wave?
- mathouc 12y ago
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKCK16Junz4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKCK16Junz4 (their video minus that last 10sec)
hengheng 12y ago
Does anybody have an overview about nice CRM systems for startups and small companies? I keep feeling overwhelmed whenever I look at this stuff, and whenever I don't, it takes me five minutes to find essential features lacking.
- aerialfish 12y ago
  We're a small business and we use CapsuleCRM. It took me a long time to find a simple CRM that did what we needed. Just Google around, there are others that are made for small businesses.
  - randall 12y ago
    We used capsule, but switched to Streak. We found since we live in Gmail, and it lives in Gmail, it's a really really good fit.
- cjbarber 12y ago
  Yes: https://github.com/cjbarber/best-crm-for-startups https://github.com/cjbarber/best-crm-for-startups
- alooPotato 12y ago
  Founder of streak.com here - we think our product is really great for startups. Feel free to reach out to me at aleem at streak if you'd like to get a feature overview, although I'm confident you'll be able to install us and see what we have in less than 2 minutes.
tteam 12y ago
we really like contactually (https://www.contactually.com/ https://www.contactually.com/)
xtracto 12y ago
Hello, This seems like a nice program that we definitely may need in our current company (we do internet-based loans and use a support@ email which is shared between several people. Unfortunately, it is not clear what features your service can provide; what problems it can solve. I opened an account and played a bit with it but just couldn't find something that I could show my colleagues to tell them "look, we need to use this service" I would recommend showing one of those 2 minute video marketing overviews of what we can achieve with your service. If you put that in the homepage, it will be easier for people like me to sell this to other colleagues.
lobster_johnson 12y ago
Front looks good, but unfortunately it makes the same mistake as some other apps (Flowdock and SupportFu come to mind): It invents a new email app and requires that your team members live in this app. For example, if a customer emails support@example.com, you get an email notification about the new conversation, but you can't keep the conversation going solely through your email client. You have to use Front. This is a dealbreaker, I think. The normal day-to-day interactions — ie., responding to mail — that Front handles can, and should, easily be done with an email client; there is nothing different about Front does that an email client doesn't do today. People can still use the app, but they shouldn't be forced to switch.

94 points by mathouc 12y ago

mrmch 12y ago

This is awesome, looking at how we could use it at sendwithus to replace/augment our current support systems.

Looks nice! In the same space, there's also Respondly: https://respond.ly/ https://respond.ly/ I've found it hard to pull myself away from Gmail and use these apps though, old habits are hard to change…

d0m 12y ago
There's helpscout that let you reply directly from gmail but still use their team inbox. However I find it very pricey.

ElliotH 12y ago

Landing page wise, a sign up link at the bottom as well as the top would make a lot of sense. Otherwise there's no call to action when you've read all the pitch.

gk1 12y ago
Also, I'm willing to bet that almost any call-to-action text other than "sign up" is going to get more clicks. "Sign up" is generic, doesn't say anything about the benefits of signing up, and simply isn't compelling.

mglauco 12y ago

Google Wave?

mathouc 12y ago
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKCK16Junz4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKCK16Junz4 (their video minus that last 10sec)

hengheng 12y ago

Does anybody have an overview about nice CRM systems for startups and small companies? I keep feeling overwhelmed whenever I look at this stuff, and whenever I don't, it takes me five minutes to find essential features lacking.

aerialfish 12y ago
We're a small business and we use CapsuleCRM. It took me a long time to find a simple CRM that did what we needed. Just Google around, there are others that are made for small businesses.
- randall 12y ago
  We used capsule, but switched to Streak. We found since we live in Gmail, and it lives in Gmail, it's a really really good fit.
cjbarber 12y ago
Yes: https://github.com/cjbarber/best-crm-for-startups https://github.com/cjbarber/best-crm-for-startups
alooPotato 12y ago
Founder of streak.com here - we think our product is really great for startups. Feel free to reach out to me at aleem at streak if you'd like to get a feature overview, although I'm confident you'll be able to install us and see what we have in less than 2 minutes.

tteam 12y ago

we really like contactually (https://www.contactually.com/ https://www.contactually.com/)

xtracto 12y ago

Hello, This seems like a nice program that we definitely may need in our current company (we do internet-based loans and use a support@ email which is shared between several people. Unfortunately, it is not clear what features your service can provide; what problems it can solve. I opened an account and played a bit with it but just couldn't find something that I could show my colleagues to tell them "look, we need to use this service" I would recommend showing one of those 2 minute video marketing overviews of what we can achieve with your service. If you put that in the homepage, it will be easier for people like me to sell this to other colleagues.

lobster_johnson 12y ago

Front looks good, but unfortunately it makes the same mistake as some other apps (Flowdock and SupportFu come to mind): It invents a new email app and requires that your team members live in this app. For example, if a customer emails support@example.com, you get an email notification about the new conversation, but you can't keep the conversation going solely through your email client. You have to use Front. This is a dealbreaker, I think. The normal day-to-day interactions — ie., responding to mail — that Front handles can, and should, easily be done with an email client; there is nothing different about Front does that an email client doesn't do today. People can still use the app, but they shouldn't be forced to switch.