January’s App of the Month: Q-Bell

This month’s App of the Month is an innovative app, tried and tested by Cuhu’s very own, Jon Edge. Jon is an advocate for how easy this app is to use and how it has made taking his child to school that little bit easier. More importantly safer, it also makes it safer in the midst of the pandemic. January’s App of the Month is Q-Bell, The Virtual Door Bell App. 

What is Q -Bell?

The Q-Bell app is a simple yet effective tool for social distancing. Where waiting rooms are too small for clients to wait, or the latest regulations do not allow customers to wait inside the premises, Q-Bell provides the option to ring a virtual doorbell, join a virtual queue, and even message before arriving. In pre-schools and nurseries, this app can even be used by parents to notify the teachers that they have arrived with their child and when they have arrived to pick them up. 

So how does it work?

The user will see a list of available Q-Bells, made up of private Q-Bells they have been invited to, or public Q-Bells that are nearby. The customer can then simply press the button to “ring” the Q-Bell and inform that they are there.

If a private Q-Bell is ‘out of range’ they will still see it, but will not be able to ring it until nearby. 

When a user rings the Q-Bell they will appear on screen. They then are queued up in the order that they rang. When the owner is ready to deal with the customer/parent/client, they can then type a message manually, or simply click a preset response, such as ‘pick up.’

You can even add extra detail using notes or groups to your invited customers, which will be displayed to you when they ring. For example, at a nursery, the note could be the child’s name and the group could be which room they are in! 

Final thoughts

Although the virtual queues can be set up online, the app itself is only currently available from the App Store. However, the app has great potential to be a useful tool for many business owners and customers alike in the current circumstances, and the expansion across platforms would most definitely aid this.

Jon says ‘It’s a very clever idea, very easy to use, and really useful during the pandemic. Parents can’t go into the nursery at the moment, so it means everyone can wait in their car instead of standing around outside for ages in cold rainy weather!’ For this reason, he gives the app a 4-star rating.

Make sure to check out our previous App of the Months here.