Helpshift Aims To Solve Queries About Mobile Apps. Gets Financial Backing Of $ 3.2Mn

Software as a Service (SaaS) company Helpshift has achieved two milestones in one go. The company recently closed a US$ 3.2 Million Seed Funding round led by True Ventures and Nexus Venture Partners. Additionally, it officially announced its product offering too.

What does Helpshift do?

Helpshift designs & deploys a ready-to-incorporate query solving software within an already built application. With growing number of Smartphone users, the app download & consumption is increasing too. Any such app / service requires the provider to offer assistance in the form of solving queries. Often it’s a very gigantic task of ensuring each query or as it is technically known as ‘Ticket’, is addressed in a time-bound manner. Hence it is important to introduce an automated solution instead of keeping the assistance a strictly human-only affair.

Traditional query-solving mechanisms typically redirect the user to a web-page which lists the common issues & their solutions. Most often this section is called as Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ). But owing to the limited screen real estate & poor search facilities within the page, make it extremely cumbersome for a user to get to the desired answer. So, instead of scrolling endlessly, the user simply raises a complaint or a ticket. Ultimately the volume of such tickets rises despite the solution being readily available. Helpshift wants to address this precise phenomenon explains Helpshift co-founder and CEO Abinash Tripathy, “In stark contrast to legacy customer service tools that focus on ticketing efficiency and address only the symptoms of the problem,  we are focused on reducing overall ticket volume with proactive support and addressing the root of the problem”

How does it work? Instead of re-directing the frazzled customer to a web-page Helpshift’s solution is built right-into the application & can be customized to match the app’s visual & functional layout too. Additionally, Helpshift is designed to be instantly searchable and available even when a device is not connected to any network (offline).  Just in case the user is unable to find a solution via this method, he or she can communicate via short messages about problems they are facing. Detailed, device-specific diagnostics and screenshots can be sent inline with these messages, which enables a customer service representative to quickly and intelligently address customer issues from the Helpshift dashboard in real-time.

As mobile phones continue to sell in large quantities, such solutions will become indispensible for application providers. While VAS continue to have exert their influence on the market, such back-end services will ensure operating costs are kept low. What do you think?

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