“Everything has come down to the four inch mobile device. That is the new definition.” That’s what Tushar Makhija, Helpshift’s VP for business development will tell you when he’s talking about marketing and selling to customers.
Old school CRM, in Makhija’s terms, is no more than customer record management. If you want to manage an actual relationship, communications need to be much more intimate–and they need to take place on the customer’s device of choice.
An in-app customer engagement platform, Helpshift was specifically designed for mobile. Today it announced a 500 percent increase in revenue since its series A funding closed last year, and the appointment of Kevin Grant, formerly of AT&T and Boku, as its Chief Revenue Officer.
Helpshift empowers brands to respond to customer’s questions, concerns, and feedback, without pushing them out of the app to an alternative communication channel. Features include an in-app Help Desk and FAQs, but also more dynamic engagement opportunities like in-app messaging with an iMessage-type interface. Disappointed customers are encouraged to provide in-app feedback.
Brand agents use a dashboard to review and react to customer input, and analytics are available on KPIs like resolution time. Helpshift is available for Android and iPhone.
Like Facebook Buy Buttons and Pinterest Buyable Pins, in-app CRM represents another facet of the current trend to cater the entire user journey within the mobile environment without driving prospects or customers to less favored channels to complete their brand interactions. New CRO Kevin Grant agreed: “In-App CRM or Helpshift is exactly that kind of idea. We want consumers to find high quality service without leaving our clients app. We see that it’s just a flat out easier, faster, and less confusing way to get answers and then get back to it.”
