While mainstream tech trends follow in the footsteps of established and successful companies, it is often the small and innovative startups that drive change and introduce disruptive solutions. These are the companies that send an industry in new and exciting directions.
We are on a trajectory towards a consumer centric world. Customer support startups are springing up everywhere, presenting unique ideas that are changing the way we think about “customer service.”
Some of these innovative startups focus on the agents themselves, by helping them to better perform, while others are disrupting customer service as we know it, utilizing cutting edge technology such as artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and advanced big data analytics.
Look at these “game-changing” startups to see where customer service is headed.
1) AirCall
Is a completely cloud based customer support system, which a company uses to set up their own call center in a matter of minutes. The AirCall app features every traditional call center tool without requiring a company to purchase equipment or spend a fortune in startup costs. Best of all, every call center essential can be accessed from a smartphone.
Some of the most important features of AirCall include: the ability to purchase multiple phone numbers, teammates can easily be added to the dashboard, and that phone calls can be replaced and received on any phone.
It’s the perfect system for a small company looking to expand into the customer service world because it practically eliminates the risk traditionally associated with investing in a call center. With AirCall, customer service representatives are now able to work from anywhere on their mobile phone. They have literally taken the “center” out of “call center.”
2) TechSee
Provides a disruptive platform for Intelligent Visual Support, which allows tech support agents to see exactly what their customer sees and use augmented reality to visually guide them.
The platform completely changes the support process by moving it from a “blind” experience to a visual one, which delivers a significantly easier, faster, and more satisfying support experience. They are turning every support session into a virtual tech visit.
In addition, TechSee is collecting the visual data from those support interactions and using its proprietary machine vision algorithm to optimize support in real time. This data is the underlying asset for building a visual support bot.
3) EpiAnalytics
Uses big data analytics to provide key customer service insights. The system collects all customer interactions across different channels (customer complaints, feedback, surveys, emails, social media, and call logs).The data is then analyzed and structured into powerful and comprehensive insights that provide companies with the conviction to optimize their customers’ experience.
EpiAnalytics helps brands to optimize their service. Their system identifies good and bad customer experiences, analyzes the effects that those experiences have on customers and the reputation of the company’s brand, and finally it makes powerful insights about changes that need to be made.
4) Pypestream
Is an app that allows recurring customer service interactions to be automated, and happen quickly over chat. No longer will a customer have to waste time and money waiting to speak with a representative when trying to resolve basic tech or service issues. Instead, Pypestream uses artificial intelligence to chat with its customers on a variety of issues. The app also utilizes push notifications to automatically alert customers of any issues that need to be brought to their attention.
For example, credit cards are often declined because a customer forgets to tell their bank or credit card company where and when they are traveling. Rather than trying to figure out what to do while waiting on hold for a customer service representative, Pypestream will send the customer a push notification asking where they are. All the customer will need to do is respond to the notification, and in a matter of moments they will be able to use their credit card again.
5) EvaluAgent
Addresses one of the toughest challenges to any call center manager: motivating your team. They have created a web based platform that uses gamification, a social media interface, and other features to raise your team’s morale, increase their overall performance, and create a unifying experience.
This is great for a company whose customer service operation has become stagnant. Once customer service representatives begin to use EvaluAgent’s web based platform, they will become more competitive, engaged, and improve their performance.
6) Tenacity
Helps decrease the likelihood an agent becomes burnout, which is one of the main indicators for attrition and absenteeism. Tenacity has developed a software using advanced social science research from MIT to help call centers adequately handle the stressful responsibility of making disgruntled customers happy.
Tenacity’s cutting edge approach taps into our most basic motivations. It relies on providing the right rewards, in the right context, for the right individuals. It also uses a breakthrough adaptive behavior change algorithm to reduce attrition and absenteeism, while it improves agent performance.
7) InteractCRM
InteractCRM’s customer experience platform provides a solution to quickly meet the demands of customers who reference previous communication with a company, while allowing them access to the company through a variety of channels, which includes inbound and outbound voice, email, web chat, SMS, fax, and social media.
Customer service representatives no longer have to waste their time searching for an email that references a customer’s bill. This is because it will automatically be on their screen as soon as a customer calls. InteractCRM allows your customer service representatives to deliver a quick and positive customer experience, saving you both time and money, while also improving data flow.
8) TouchCommerce
Provides an omni-channel that allows a company to engage their customers in every step of their journey, while reaching them through the most efficient communication tools. They also track and optimize each step throughout the customer’s journey toward purchasing a product or service.
When a customer is looking to buy a new tablet they might see an ad online, but they likely won’t buy it immediately. They will want to acquire more information about it, as well as compare it to other models based on price and quality. Often, these inquiries involve contacting the brand that sells the tablet via online chat, phone, email, and even SMS text.
TouchCommerce will then seamlessly integrate each communication tool, so that no matter who is talking to the customer, they will understand the customer’s interest level and where they are in the purchasing process.
9) TalkDesk
Is a cloud based software that allows you to fully integrates all of your data into one simple interface. That includes Salesforce and other CRMs, Google tools, Slack, and many others. This allows a company to make data driven decisions when talking to a customer. The software also provides many other amazing tools to help improve your call center, such as automated workflows, advanced routing, and call monitoring.
TalkDesk’s ability to integrate so many valuable databases, while providing the essential tools for establishing a call center make it a truly unique and effective software to use when starting a call center.
Whether it’s tapping into artificial intelligence, compiling data for advanced analytics, coming up with a new way to utilize CRM platforms, or inventing new ways to motivate customer service representatives, each of these companies has their own unique way of revolutionizing the customer service industry.
The competitive culture that they have created cultivates innovation, which will continue to lead to complex and technologically advanced customer service solutions.
