Area 120 is considered as “Google’s workshop for experimental projects” and its latest service is “CallJoy.” Google has expanded its lineup of products for small businesses today with the introduction of CallJoy. CallJoy offers a low-cost customer service agent that will help to block spam calls, provide callers with basic business information and redirect customers to complete their requests — like appointment booking or placing a to-go order — over SMS.
CallJoy is a cloud-based phone agent that enables small business owners to measure, improve, and automate customer service — addresses two problems for smaller companies that larger corporations often already have solutions for. Typically, customer service phone agents like this are out of reach for small business owners, but CallJoy is priced at a flat monthly fee of $39 to make the technology affordable.
How CallJoy works:
Once you sign up, businesses will be provided with a local phone number, similar to Google Voice, with CallJoy automatically blocking unwanted spam calls. Google notes that “nearly half of small business calls go unanswered” because owners assume it’s spam or is too busy. When a customer calls, CallJoy will answer with a custom message and offer basic business details such as opening hours. If the caller wants to inquire about a task that can be carried out online, like placing an order or arranging an appointment, CallJoy will send them a text with the relevant URL if they agree. If they want to talk to someone or if they call from a landline, their call will go through to the business’ phone. The system will also filter out unwanted spam calls.
It’s still early days for CallJoy, but it is quite easy to foresee possible features for the system in the future. It might handle food orders for restaurants that don’t have an online ordering option, handle reservations or connect to inventory systems to tell customers whether an item is in stock or reserve it for them.