Dave Nanidzhanyan, Moe Manasra, Mike Pena are the founders of bizChat app, a mobile application that aims to connect customers to businesses by allowing customers to directly message (SMS) businesses through the app. bizChat’s main mission is connecting customers and businesses through the power of messaging. Messaging is the main gateway of communication among millions and is the preferred way of interacting in today’s world. The customer will use a simple, yet powerful search tool in order to find a business and contact the business directly via bizChat. Aside from the obvious benefits to the customers, the app is also a powerful tool for business owners. With customer service being on top of any business’ priority, bizChat allows you (the business owner) to respond to customer inquiries in a quick and timely manner.
Dave, Moe and Mike are 3 friends from Wayne, NJ; their similar mindset of improving the lives of the future generations, paved the way for them to become young entrepreneurs. They were constantly looking at ideas that could improve the everyday quality of life for people and come up with solutions to problems in their own lives and thus bizChat came into existence.
“Having small business owners in our families, we knew how texting a business could be very beneficial over emailing and calling, but giving out personal numbers was never an option, so we created bizChat. bizChat is a result of our motivation and determination to affect a positive change in the consumer experience. In the modern-day, many people are much more comfortable text messaging instead of calling or emailing and we are trying to meet that need. No more playing phone tag with a busy business. Get your questions answered quickly and effectively. bizChat is the solution” Dave says.
Looking for an outside developer was their main hurdle as they realised coding it themselves would consume too much time, when they can focus on other things instead. But they were involved in every step of the app’s development. Coming from various backgrounds and fields; they brought something to the table.
“In our age group, people prefer calling to texting, so that was the main driver for our idea. A small anecdote helped us come up with this. One of our family member owns a barber shop and every single time it snowed last year (which was almost every other day), the phone would ring non-stop with people asking whether we’re open. A barber shop doesn’t usually have a receptionist, so answering a text was a lot more convenient than a phone call and this led us to creating the live status update in bizChat” he says.
Many business owners find giving out personal numbers to customers they barely know, a bit uncomfortable. bizChat solves this problem and brings with it many other useful aspects, such as the live status, favorites page, reviews and many others.
Dave says that Facebook is their competitor; however, it’s more used for comments and questions that don’t require a quick response. For example, no none usually writes business on Facebook a question that they expect an answer as soon as possible. Many people also prefer to keep their Facebook pages personal and don’t want to use those pages to contact businesses. Also, Facebook is getting cluttered with ads and a lot of the younger demographic is stepping away from it.
“We are currently beta testing in our local area; however, we have no doubt that this product can be useful for every business and every customer out there. As soon as we’re done testing, we plan on increasing our marketing efforts and trying to sign up as many businesses as possible and inturn get their customers to start using the app” he explains.
Their target audience is every business and customer out there. But Small business that can reach their customers in a more efficient manner and in order to provide their customers answers in a timely manner, would find it more beneficial.
This is a pre-revenue startup that’s growing its user base for now. But they do have a business model with ways to monetize the product in the feature.