We’ve been talking with Marouane Marchoud, founder and CEO of ScreenFone. The solution, which Marouane desribes as ”real” click to call, might change the face of CRM in the near future. The startup offers a ready to use solution which allows anyone to be called directly from the internet, in real time, using a simple url. The potential uses are countless.
The beta brought up a lot of possibilities we didn’t even dream of, and since our solution is quite flexible we can implement changes or new features easily. – Marouane Marchoud, CEO
How did it begin ?
Marouane knew existing offers, but he wanted something more.
Every click to call solution I could find was in fact web call back. I then searched for a CTO and finally found Hicham Bariki, my own Wozniak, so to say!
More than click to call
ScreenFone’s solution provides some extremely useful tools in terms of tracking and targeting. The widget can be displayed on the website or not, depending on the time of day, of the period, but also on geographical criterias. You want to be called by people in a particular region only ? That’s possible. Small businesses, wihout offices – the typical auto-entrepreneur who uses his personal cellphone number- will like to display the widget in the day time only.
It’s more than customer support and e-reputation : the solution also allows tracking of the caller. Knowing who calls and when, who is lost or needs advice on which pages on your website is a marketing advantage.
In France, where you almost never ever find an online shop’s phone number, ScreenFone could improve trust on internet from both sides, especially for small businesses, and facilitate interaction.
”Imagine ScreenFone on connected devices, you have a problem with your fridge or your washing machine ? The widget ScreenFone appears and you can reach the support immediately”. The solution is available in Flash or in HTML5 (webRTC).
Right now, ScreenFone is in talks with big websites in France, in the classifieds and dating sectors. The advantages ScreenFone would offer to them are obvious : someone posting an ad could be contacted quickly without making his phone number public. Needless to say, dating services would be glad to implement a feature allowing two people to call each other without anyone giving his number.
The startup also offers a general use solution, called LikeFone. This could find its way on social networks, as Marouane showed us on his Twitter.
Talking about money, ScreenFone now would like to raise 300k.
The business model of the startup is not based on free communications, even if the fees are relatively low, thus online businesses have to make the choice of a free customer support, not a very widely spread concept here in France. Anyway, the solution is a true winner which could change CRM as we know it right now. It can definitely help online businesses to take care of their customers, help the potential buyer to take the last step and order (the widget can be displayed after the user stays inactive on a page for a certain time) and allow web services to offer an anonymous call feature. For Marouane, France is a good location for investment, especially when you want to stay independent. Besides, it’s in Europe, the market which ScreenFone wants to develop at first. Fun fact, ScreenFone’s servers were attacked by DoS several times, sign that maybe some competitors are worried, or at least that it’s big enough to raise the interest of big players in the industry.