Narrator: A new service is helping seniors without smartphones take advantage of popular app services like Uber from their touchtone phones. Chris Martinez shows us how it works.
Martinez: When Justin Boogaard got out of college, he spent three years living with his grandmother, Betty, to save money. He says it was a learning experience for them both.
Boogaard: I taught you how to use the TV; you taught me how to put the toilet seat down.
Martinez: Justin also taught Betty about services like Uber.
Betty: It’s cheaper for one thing, and no tipping.
Martinez: But Uber works through an app, and Betty is among the 70 percent of Americans over age 65 who don’t own a smartphone. So with grandma in mind, Justin developed GoGoGrandparent, a service that connects seniors to app services using a traditional touchtone phone.
Employee: Hi. Thanks for calling GoGoGrandparent.
Martinez: Betty showed us how it works.
Employee: Press 1 to get picked up at your home.
Martinez: A recording on the line guides the caller to the service they need. Employees at a call center set up the Uber ride.
Joan Carty: Oh, two minutes.
Martinez: Joan Carty has a smartphone but only uses it for calls. She doesn’t know how to use the apps. She uses GoGoGrandparent to get a ride to the market.
Carty: Is this Jose? Jose: Yes.
Martinez: Customers are charged an extra 19 cents a minute during the ride for the service. They pay the total cost of the ride through a credit card on file.
Betty: Then I’d really be housebound, you know, I think, without it. I couldn’t just depend on friends and family all the time to get me here and there.
Martinez: A sense of independence regained thanks to her grandson’s love.
Boogaard: Works out really well. Betty: It does. Boogaard: Yeah.
Martinez: Chris Martinez, CBS News, Torrance, California.