In a
mobile world, where the smartphone has become the command center of our lives support
needs to be offered from directly inside the app, using in-app messaging. This
way the advantages of being able to send relevant contextual information about
the state of the app to the service agent and the ability to engage in a
service conversation via a conversational UI can get brought to full advantage.
The user is identified, relevant information has been gathered, which the
service agent can use right away.
This leads to capabilities that a genuine
mobile in-app support system needs to have on top of generic help center
functionality:
1.
In-App FAQ that gets pushed out
to the phone and is available in an offline scenario
2.
Collation of meta data about
the phone, user and the incident that created the support call, along with the
ability to send that to the customer service center
3.
In-App messaging/conversational
UI in combination with push notifications
4.
Automation to properly route
incoming issues and to increase the issue resolution efficiency
5.
An ability to integrate into
CRM- or other systems
6.
An ability to selectively and
proactively engage with users, to e.g. support onboarding or push notifications
about special situations to relevant parts of the user community.
It is possible to find vendors that deliver
parts or all of this in order to deliver a mobile service experience. Platforms
like G2Crowd, but also traditional
analyst companies like Forrester and Gartner give some leads. Gartner lists Salesforce,
Pegasystems, Oracle, Microsoft, Zendesk as leaders in customer engagement
centers, with SAP being the only Challenger and Lithium the only Visionary. None
of these companies gets high marks for in-app support, though. So, we are apparently looking for specialist
vendors.
Concentrating on the bigger medium and enterprise
end of the market I’ll briefly look over the following companies, which offer
parts or all of the desired solution.
·
Intercom
·
Zendesk
Salesforce and Zendesk are part of this
list as in-app service specialists see them in sales opportunities as
competitors.
Vendors
Apptentive
Apptentive focuses on mobile customer
engagement to foster a better way to communicate. The solution offers in-app messaging,
rating prompts, notifications and surveys. There are no FAQ’s, though. The
company got founded in 2011.
The solution integrates into Zendesk,
Uservoice, and Desk.com, which can be used to build a more complete in-app
customer service solution in combination with Apptentive. Further integrations
should be possible using the company’s API. Apptentive gathers meta-data from
the mobile apps and presents it via its reporting solution. This data then can
be exported as CSV and imported into a CRM system to enrich it and to provide
for segmentation. However, there does not seem to be a campaigning
functionality inside Apptentive itself.
Freshdesk/Hotline
Hotline.io, the former Konotor, is the
mobile in-app support platform of Freshdesk. Konotor got founded in 2012 and
was acquired by Freshdesk in November 2015. It is a native in-app support
platform that fully caters for the criteria mentioned above. Hotline positions
itself more like an engagement platform than a customer service platform. Being
a part of the Freshdesk group their focus is more on the upper end of the SMB
arena. Their clients mainly consist of startups and bigger corporations (as the
smaller ones often do not have mobile apps, according to Srikrishnan Ganesan who heads up
Hotline). Freshdesk itself seems to be sales-driven (which is not a bad thing).
The company recently won the 2017 CRM Watchlist award, which is an impact award
given by Paul Greenberg, which gives high visibility.
Hotline has built-in integrations e.g. with
Zendesk, and Slack and, of course, with Freshdesk itself. Using APIs it is
possible to integrate with other CRM- and customer service systems. With the
help of the Freshdesk platform it turns into a multi channel support system.
The campaign module that is built into the back end allows segmenting customers
based upon meta-data, app usage, and other criteria and allows for simple
campaign automation.
Helpshift
Helpshift seems to be the leading mobile
in-app support platform with a base of about 1.3 billion installations. The
company got founded in 2011 and pioneered the idea of in-app support, providing
a native platform that fully caters for the criteria above. The company
positions itself as revolutionizing the customer support experience on mobile –
with a strong focus on customer service. The target of Helpshift is enterprises
and bigger call centers, and their number of installations proves that they are
up to it. In 2014 Helpshift won the CRM Idol competition and the company is
probably a bit of a hidden gem, which may partly be attributed to their
enterprise focus.
Helpshift has a deep integration into the
Salesforce Service Cloud and I personally expect integration into MS Dynamics looming,
as Microsoft Outlook Mobile is a key customer and Microsoft itself a leading
investor into the company. Being API-driven integrations into other CRM systems
are easily possible. The backend itself is multi-channel capable. The Helpshift
campaign module is geared for service rather than marketing and leverages
meta-data for segmentation, easily allowing for the facilitation of onboarding
or recovering abandoned baskets, and getting over the early retention barrier.
Intercom
Intercom positions itself as a platform
with support for live chat, marketing and support, with all part solutions
being seamlessly integrated via their platform. The company has a strong mobile
focus. A lot of their customer base seems to deploy the solution as a customer
service solution. As Helpshift, the company was founded in 2011. Their
solutions cover the criteria above, with the exception seeming to be the in-app
FAQ. FAQ’s seem to be published through the web, instead. Their analytics offer
the nice feature of identifying candidates for improved or new knowledge base
articles, based upon searches.
The solution offers multi-channel support
and integrates into a good number of communications channels, and into
Salesforce, to have a strong support system. They have deliberate support for
onboarding processes, helping customers to get over the early retention
barrier. Using data collected from the devices a segmentation and hence a
targeted communication with users is possible, for example the onboarding
support.
LivePerson
LivePerson offers a mobile in-app support
solution through its LiveEngage platform. The company sets out to drive
conversations and loyalty through the platform, and does not position it as a
support- but an engagement system. LiveEngage is an ‘upgrade’ from the
company’s earlier LivePerson solution, which seems to have caused some grief
for customers. This ‘upgrade’ seems to resemble a pivot into the mobile in-app
business. They are targeting enterprises although they also have startup
customers.
LivePerson is in the chat business for
around 20 years. Focusing on messaging they do offer a chat platform that can
be integrated into apps and web sites. They do not offer knowledge base support
of customers but rely on custom integrations into CRM systems. Their key asset
is their long standing history along with a platform that can turn chat into
action, albeit more with a focus on cross-selling. Their current challenge is
their need to manage their pivot and some customers that lost functionality
that was important for them.
Salesforce
Salesforce offers two customer service
solutions, the Salesforce Service Cloud and Desk.com, addressing different
customer sizes. Desk.com is geared towards smaller organizations where the
Service Cloud is enterprise scale. Both solutions offer multi channel support
capabilities. Gartner Group, in their 2016 Magic Quadrant for Customer
Engagement Centers states that “mobile chat” (their term for in-app messaging)
is best handled by partner solutions that are available via the AppExchange
market place.
Desk.com
Desk.com is Salesforces “Out-of-the-Box
helpdesk for small businesses”. Being a member of the Salesforce family the
solution has considerable grunt and exposure behind it. Desk.com is not a
native mobile in-app support platform but a general support platform that
allows for embedding support functionality inside mobile apps via an SDK.
The SDK allows for the creation of tickets
from within the mobile app and for knowledge base search with the knowledge
base not being inside the app itself. In contrast to other providers Desk.com
does not cater for conversational in-app support. The main support experience
is provided outside the app. Being a member of the Salesforce family
integration into other family members is a given, since they share the same
platform. This includes a connection to the Sales Cloud that facilitates the
conversion of support cases to sales opportunities. But at its root Desk.com is
a helpdesk solution that got extended to cover mobile apps.
Service Cloud
The Service Cloud is the Salesforce customer
service offering for enterprises. As such it offers a full fledged service
solution that also extends into mobile devices via e.g. ticketing live chat,
knowledge bases and support of communities. All this takes advantage of the
powerful Salesforce platform. There, however, is no direct in-app support,
which makes a good case for the integration of Helpshift.
Zendesk
Zendesk is a leading cloud based customer
service platform, offering multi channel support. Zendesk features as a leader
in the Gartner 2016 Magic Quadrant for Customer Engagement Centers.
Zendesk is not a mobile native. Their chat
widget integrates into web pages and the company does not offer in-app chat.
Instead the company offers solutions that hook into existing messaging apps
like Facebook Messenger or Whatsapp. They offer knowledge bases, support of
communities, and portals. Zendesk has integrations into many other systems,
including MS Dynamics and Salesforce.
The support for messaging apps, besides
Zendesk being competitively met by mobile in-app vendors, is the main reason
for them appearing here.
What It Means
The in-app service market is a specialist
market. If a strong support for mobile apps using a conversational interface
and an in-app experience are required, not many players with the strength to
support larger enterprises are left. This can be seen in the table below, which
covers above solutions and is enriched by some generic help center
functionality.
Zendesk and Salesforce both offer partner
solutions to fulfil in-app service requirements. By themselves they are not
in-app support players.
Apptentive focuses on rating systems and
surveys and is not a full-fledged player as well..
Intercom positions itself more as an engagement
platform although customers seem to deploy it as a support platform, too.
Without an own knowledge base capability it, however, misses an important
capability.
This leaves us with three vendors:
Freshdesk, Helpshift, and LivePerson, with LviePerson currently pivoting from
being a web based chat provider to an in-app service solution provider, which
seems to cause existing customers some grief. The solution is also missing an
in-app FAQ.
Helpshift and Freshdesk as the front-runners
are running very different strategies. For Freshdesk in-app support is one of
their capabilities that they acquired over time and made part of their solution
set. Helpshift totally focuses on in-app support, believing that mobile will
be, if not already is, the dominant channel, which needs specialized support
functionality to offer maximum service and experience.
We all know that excellent customer service becomes happy customers. 81% of consumers are more inclined to do repeated business to a company after a good service. Although applications continue to dominate the mobile revolution, most mobile application developers still do not provide in-App support for the client. When experiencing problems with mobile applications, 52% of users tend to eliminate or forget the application, while 33% will try to contact customer service and 11% will leave the application to seek help online. By providing an instant and accessible support service within your mobile application, you can increase positive reviews, improve app ratings and turn users into loyal, happy and committed customers.
ReplyDeleteHello,
ReplyDeleteGreat write up...
This is very informative and helpful tip.
Thanks a ton.