For the last couple of months we have been working on a system to help promote escort safety, its now in the final stages of production and we would like your thoughts and help. This IS NOT a sales thread we simply would appreciate the views and help of the escorts on this forum.
How the system works.
1. You register your work phone number with us and choose a 4 digit PIN
2. Everytime you get a booking you create a "job" on the system with some very basic details this includes the time you are due out of the appointment (at the moment this creation of jobs is done online however we are looking to add in a text service soon (ie you send a text with the details to have it logged).
3. At the appointment ending time, you will receive a text asking you to confirm you are ok, you reply with your PIN to confirm all is fine, if you need to extend the booking time (say the appointment started late or client has extended etc, you reply with your PIN and the number of minutes to extend by eg 1234 30, this will then reset the booking and start step 3 again when the extension is due up. (Note: these texts from you dont need to be in response to an "ending" text, you could send them before the system has done anything and have the same end result eg if the booking ends early then you dont need to wait to receive a text before notifying us all is well.)
4. If no reply is received then the system will wait 10mins and then send another text, this time including any other numbers youve registered (such as your personal phone etc) just in case theres a problem with your work phone.
5. After the 3rd attempt to contact you the system will then notify one of our operators who will take this forward manually, ie try to call you, contact the client etc. If all else fails then they would notify the relevant authorities.
Additional benefitsThe system will link into the database of dangerous and timewasting clients telephone numbers that we are collating, any matching would be flagged at the point of you entering the number therefore hopefully reducing your chances of a problem occuring. The same goes for postcodes, if a client is found to be dangerous then every address they have used (other than hotels) is flagged as potentially dangerous. Entering one of these postcodes will produce a message showing the recorded "dodgy" address and the reason it was logged. These all allow you to then make an informed decision about the meeting.
The system will also help you quickly confirm addresses, when you enter a postcode it pulls up the full address details therefore if they dont match with what youve been given you can check it out with the client before setting off.
Things we need to clarify1. What do you think is a sensible time between texts? We've initially set it at 10mins but is this too long? short?
2. Is 3 attempts too little or too much? (at 10min intervals this would mean you were half an hour late from the booking when it notified our operator).
3. Are texts the right thing or would an automated call be preferable? both are possible, in fact, if theres a perceived demand for calls then it could be set that the user chooses their own preferred method. Whats your thoughts?
4. The dreaded bit, cost: I would love to offer this for free as I feel it could be an invaluable service (and being honest, I do see it as a way for us to promote our other services to the correct audience) however there are many overheads involved (server to run the system on, it costs us to send each text, we would need to have a least 1 operator working 24/7 to deal with any problems etc etc. What therefore would be a price that you see as fair for this? ?5? ?10? ?20 per month? or maybe a billing system based on the number of texts we issue? for example 30p per text we send? or a standard price per booking?
5. Would anyone be willing to take part in a short period of testing for this once its fully tested internally? Ideally a dozen or so users who will try it out for a day or so, not necessarily on real bookings but just to enter some bookings and check that you get the notifications and that it correctly does what it should depending on your responses.
There are a couple of other bits to this however Im hoping someone will ask the relevant question rather than me giving all the secrets away at the start.
Please be as critical as you can with this, if its a crap idea and nobody would use it then Id rather we found out now than 6months after release! Please also ask me every question you can think of, point out any flaws you think are there etc. I believe we've thought of most things but there could be something major there that we've missed or even just a few things that we can enhance it with to make it better.
Thank you for your time.