Love this product - used it twice now to find a lost snowboard and cancel a gym membership. Do you guys plan to integrate with certain large brands and take over their customer service or will you always represent the consumer?
@paigecraig great question... we're a neutral third party, so we represent both the consumer and the business. If the consumer has been wronged, we fight like hell to get them what they deserve to make it right. If they are filing a dubious case, we will protect the brand by not even bothering them and dealing with the consumer directly.
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@schneider Feels to me like brands might value a neutral party's evaluation of their customer service. Perhaps an overall score and some breakdown. Often times there's a disconnect between the frontline support an organization is providing and what the raw numbers tell management.
@eriktorenberg too many for these comments :) safe to say we've seen it all - from the most insane flight or travel situations to the most insane consumers being incredibly unreasonable. Luckily, most consumers are reasonable and most businesses want to do right for their customers.
This is awesome. We've leaned on my business partner's mom for this exact type of service - brokering customer service resolutions on our behalf (a service we've lovingly referred to as "pro nag nag").
Easy to see the market for this - a one-stop shop for all gripes - and can definitely see how brand/company partnerships could eventually be a natural extension of the model.
@schneider I read in your response to @aaran_mcguire that this is free for consumers... can you discuss the business model?
@vantoai thanks Alan! Hopefully we can give your business partner's mom a break :) We are still developing our business model, for the foreseeable future it will be free for consumers and free for businesses. Eventually we will start charging businesses or consumers or both... TBD.
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App is sweet! Nicely done team Service. How do you handle privacy of personal info? Feature request for next version: passlock app so when I put my private info in settings it's not easily accessible by someone with access to my phone
Hey Michael and congrats on the new app launch. I've been waiting for a good reason to give it a try but unfortunately (or fortunately) I have not had any major customer service challenges lately.
One thing I have been wondering is how do you deal with vendors who will only speak with the customer directly? Seems a few would not be willing to let a 3rd party handle something on their customer's behalf. Or is that not correct?
@percival good question, Sean. We save time there too. How many times have you called a company, passed their security questions, and then been told you need to talk to a different department to help, where you need to be transferred, wait on hold, and re-authenticate. We get rid of all of that.. for companies that require your verbal authorization for them to talk to us, we pre-arrange a time that's good for you. We then call the company ahead of time, make sure we're talking to the right department, and only then get you on the phone. And once you're on, you authenticate and give us permission, and then you can drop off. So an issue that could have taken you an hour takes you 2 minutes.
How fast does it take to get my problem solved on average, and would you guys be willing to wait on the phone for hours to solve my issue or do I have to pay for that service at all?
@lewishowes Hey Lewis - on average, same day to a week or two, most are solved in under 2 days, but it only takes 1-2 minutes of your time during that period. We're willing to do whatever it takes to get you a fair resolution, including waiting on hold, and it's completely free!
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First off, thanks so much for this; I loose a ridiculous amount of money each year due to my inability to deal with picking up the phone and calling an 800 number. Also, are you working on integrating directly with many of the larger businesses to provide a single interface for any communication I might have with them? Also do you foresee adding the ability to hold my private information to allow for purchases this way as well? Thanks again!
@jcinis thanks for the question Jessey... we are already integrating with large businesses, and are usually faster and more efficient than you could be yourself dealing with the same business. Our goal is to provide a single "customer service" interface for any issue you have in your life. We have the ability now for you to add third party accounts to your profile - if you add things like account #s and the last 4 of your social, often that gives us everything we need to help you when you have an issue.
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