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QText

01 Jun 2014 by Keith Elder

About QText

Qtext was a Text Messaging interface in LOLA with the ability to send/receive text messages to clients plus view message history.

How QText was created

I received a call from my leader on a Friday afternoon. He knew I had done a lot with texting including setting up the company's short text codes as well as having integrated Twillio into Messenger. He explained the company wanted to send texts to clients. He asked me how we could do it and if I could build a proof-of-concept (POC).

I started to lay out a plan of how it could be accomplished over the weekend. I reached out to Tyler Smith, a Software Engineer that was reported to me and we kicked off a quick POC.

Tyler built it using the architecture I had laid out over the weekend and we paired on it for a days. Within a couple of days we had a working prototype and QText was born.

The proof of concept used Messenger to route messages and Twillio to assign a text number to a banker.

After we showed it working, the business got super excited about it and it was eventually rolled out in LOLA.

Why QText was Exciting:

1. Provided bankers with text messaging ability to increase conversion and contact rate by offering another method of communication to our clients
2. Allowed bankers to be more efficient and effective
3. During the proof of concept, clients commented that they were appreciative that QL offered texting!