do another closing in September, he says.
Help Scout is another in a string of area companies we’ve written about recently—like Cambridge, MA-based Yesware and PowerInbox—that are making their money by pumping up existing e-mail platforms with new functionality.
Help Scout exists as a standalone Web app that users can log into separately. But it can also be set up to send notifications directly to inboxes, informing users if a new ticket has been assigned to them, or if a customer has responded do an existing thread. Help Scout users can work through their e-mail interfaces and respond to tasks using simple keyboard commands, without leaving their original screen, Francis says. He says 1.5 million notifications have been sent through that platform in the past three or so months.
The startup has accrued a mix of more than 400 paid and free customers. It charges on a per-user, per-month basis, with a few different plans. Help Scout plans to target a range of industries, but Francis cited e-commerce as a big potential market. He hopes employees there will abandon apps like Google Docs to use his software instead. “They understand the value of personalized customer service,” Francis says.
Help Scout is focused on nabbing more customers and developing additional features like reporting and the ability to forward to an outside e-mail address or vendor, Francis says. The now-Nashville-based team plans to set up its operations full-time in Boston this fall.
