L.A. start-up will make calls to customer service for you

There are few chores dreaded more than calling a customer service hotline to resolve a travel snafu, a late bill payment or a delivery gone awry.

Now a Los Angeles startup calledService says it can save you the hassle by making those calls for you, pledging to secure the best outcome in the process.

The company, which announced Tuesday that it has raised $3.1 million in seed funding led by San Francisco-based venture capital firm Founders Fund, is offering the service free until the end of the year.

The start-up’s goal is to accumulate enough data to bolster its software. That way the company can whittle down the time it takes to resolve problems and better predict outcomes — where to draw the line in asking for compensation for mishandled hotel reservations, for example.

Founder Michael Schneider said the service also benefits merchants because it helps settle customer-relation issues before they spiral out of control. The start-up’s data can also one day be useful for informing businesses about what they do right and wrong, he said.

So how does Service get results? Just making the call is a start, Schneider said. Many people are so turned off by the call center experience that they choose not to do anything about their consumer-related problems.

Second, Service’s agents say they get better results by taking emotion out of the equation. They are impartial, third-party actors, which tends to make customer service agents more amenable.

“That neutrality, calmness and sense of reason is actually a huge benefit,” said Schneider, 34, a native Angeleno. Service will introduce a mobile app this year. Users are urged to provide supporting documentation such as a receipt. Some businesses require oral approval through a quick conference call to allow a Service agent to proceed on your behalf.

It takes an average of 15 minutes to get a case resolved, though Schneider hopes to cut that to less than a minute with enough data.

Travel takes up about 60% of the company’s caseload, and of that, about 70% is with airlines alone.

Don’t expect Service to call the IRS for you, though. The company draws the line at dealing with governmental agencies.

“We only work with companies with an incentive to improve — cultures where customer service matters,” Schneider said.