Think back to the last time you tried to fix something around the house that broke unexpectedly. What did you do?
Maybe you searched Google and YouTube and found some articles or videos. One or two might have been helpful. You might have searched a manufacturer’s website for a product manual or FAQ, and if things got really desperate, you might have called customer service or tried an online chat.
Or maybe you just went to a store to talk with someone face to face.
However you did it, it might have cost you a good deal of time and aggravation. Believe it or not, companies are aware of your pain and would like to prevent it. They know it leads to customer dissatisfaction, negative online reviews, and lost business.
They just haven’t found a good solution, according to Mike Betzer, CEO of Humanify, a Denver-based company that makes customer service and engagement software.
“The consumer revolution is here, and brands now realize it,” Betzer said. “They recognize it’s a problem, and they’re desperately trying to solve it.”
Humanify exited stealth mode today, and Betzer is hoping that soon, those brands will be turning to his company for solutions. It’s not a far-fetched hope, as Humanify has an important ally in TeleTech, a billion-dollar company that quietly has become a key player in helping global companies engage and assist their customers. But more on that later.
Betzer said the objective of Humanify’s software is to direct consumers with customer service problems or questions to the right online content or the right person. That could be a video or article, or it could be the right person in a call center or even a sales clerk in a nearby store. Ultimately, that could improve customer satisfaction, lead to repeat business, and give Humanify’s clients a lot of valuable information about their customers.
Betzer described someone doing a home repair project. Say you discover an important piece of equipment like a drill isn’t working properly, and you need to fix it quickly before finishing the project.
One solution Betzer envisions is for you to load a mobile app for the hardware store where you bought the tool. If Humanify developed the app, you’d start by creating a profile. Along with information you entered, Humanify would add additional data from public sources to form a detailed picture of you.
In its simplest case, the app would find the best YouTube video. The retailer or an amateur might have made it, in which case the retailer would have approved it. Either way, Betzer said the goal is to find the best piece of content to try to fix the problem without leaving home.
But some problems are more complicated. In that case, the app could direct you to a real person. That could be someone at a call center who has been trained to deal with the type of problem the customer is experiencing. In that case, the app would be a much faster way to connect the customer with the right person, sparing you the hassle of navigating a customer service hotline.
Humanify has bigger ambitions, too. Betzer wants the app
