Mobile phone growth is exploding across the world and with most customers glued to this small screen more than any other screen, it is becoming important for companies to tailor their customer support for the mobile user.
Software-based customer care support has been the realm of large companies like Indian origin company Zoho and US-based global companies Salesforce and Zendesk. Even companies like the bootstrapped Kayako and venture-backed Freshdesk which offer all sorts of support - via email, voice- calls and online chat now have thousands of customers.
However, offering customer support within mobile applications is not commonly heard of. Every company is aiming for a 'mobile app' extension of its business to connect better with customers. Even large online travel companies, ecommerce companies like Flipkart or Snapdeal or ticketing companies are seeing a growing transactional user-base on mobile. Also, mobile application developers need customer support for their apps, just as any other company. That is a huge market opportunity.
Filling this gap and sensing the opportunity that lies underneath is Pune and US-based startup Helpshift. The company was founded in 2011 by Abinash Tripathy and Baishampayan Ghose. It has raised a total of $13.2 million and the list of investors it has netted is interesting: Intel Capital, True Ventures, Visionnaire Ventures and Nexus Venture Partners. The company plans to employ the latest funding round worth $10 million to expand its sales and marketing team in SanFrancisco, United States.
Helpshift's mobile solution is offered as a SAAS (Software-as-a-Service) and is hosted in the cloud. The solution includes a familiar, in-app mobile messaging experience for users to communicate via short messages about problems they are facing and solve them thereon. Detailed, device-specific diagnostics and screenshots can be sent online with these messages, which enables a customer service representative to quickly and intelligently address customer issues from the Helpshift dashboard in real-time.
In-app activity is increasing dramatically and to be able to solve a customer's problem within the app without leaving the app is a good bet to make.
"A solution like this can be highly scalable, unless this is something that requires too much of customisation for different companies. Also if one is able to net large ecommerce companies, be it in ticketing, travel etc. which would rather like to outsource their in-app support to such companies, rather than build it themselves, the market opportunity can be great," says Rahul Khanna, Managing Director at venture firm Canaan Partners.
Currently, Helpshift is installed on over 150 million devices worldwide and has netted some of the largest mobile companies, including Supercell, Glu Mobile, Flipboard and ModCloth.
Offering customer support in a seamless manner may help solve one of the biggest problems mobile app companies face- 90 per cent of the users that download the app, chuck it away within the first 90 days. The company claims to reduce the number of customers walking away by 40 per cent because of better customer service within the app. That in turn could lead to other benefits like better rating for apps on appstores and more user engagement. Way to go.
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