The laundry phone now knows who is calling — and remembers everything
This one came from a conversation with a store owner. His laundry’s phone was forwarded to the mobile of whoever answers — and the problem was always the same: when it rang, nobody knew whether it was a customer or a personal call, or whether that person had already called three times about the same thing. We built what was missing.
How it works. The laundry’s number lives on a small dedicated Android phone, plugged in at the store or the office. Before the call rings, it asks SCApp who is calling. If the number is blocked, or hidden, the caller hears “busy” and nobody is disturbed. Otherwise the call goes on, as it does today, to the phone of whoever answers — but a few seconds earlier an alert arrives.
What the alert says:
- Who it is: the customer’s name, if they have an account at one of your stores, or the name the team gave them last time.
- Where they come from: the store they usually use and how many times they have called.
- What is pending: open complaints — and, in red, when the same reason repeats. Before saying “hello”, the person answering already knows it is the third call about the change.
On Android the alert also appears as a banner on top of the call screen. On the iPhone it arrives as a notification, through a web app installed on the home screen without going through the App Store. And on both it reaches the smartwatch of whoever answers.
Complaints that are followed up. When the call ends, the phone discreetly asks whether there is anything to log. In two taps the reason is recorded — change, payment, no foam, did not spin, machine did not start, dryer did not heat, app or card — together with the store, the machine number and a note. Each complaint stays open until someone marks it resolved, with a note on how. The dashboard shows everything by store and by reason: if one machine keeps failing to spin, it stands out.
SMS too. Text messages sent to the laundry’s number reach whoever answers, with the same alert. Advertising is filtered automatically — senders with a name, short numbers, blocked numbers — and any other sender can be marked as advertising with one tap. The reply is typed on the phone of whoever answers but goes out from the business number, never from a personal one, and you can see when it was sent and when it was delivered.
All in one place. Each number has its own record: calls, SMS, complaints, the name given by the team and, when it is a customer, their SCApp account details. Several people can answer, one line can serve several stores, and if the dedicated phone loses its internet connection it keeps blocking and logs everything to send later.
Privacy. Each laundry sees only its own calls, messages and customers. A number is only identified if it belongs to someone with a history at that laundry’s stores.
· EN