Answering the call for better service
Editor’s note: Here are five Bay Area startups worth watching this week.
In a world short on patience, investors have funneled millions of dollars into a startup that wants to solve one of life’s tiny inconveniences: calling customer service and not getting a quick answer.
Here’s how Talkdesk CEO Tiago Paiva says he’s solving that “first-world problem”: Say a customer orders food from restaurant delivery service DoorDash, which uses Talkdesk’s software. The food never shows up. The customer is upset and calls customer service, Talkdesk’s software fills the representative in on what the customer ordered.
That saves both parties the extra seconds of explaining the problem.
“In the on-demand economy, we want things now,” Paiva, 30, said in his 12th floor office in San Francisco’s Financial District. “If a customer wants to actually talk to someone, it’s urgent.”
Customer service has always been an important part of a company. But today consumers are spoiled by things that simply work, said Gartner analyst Michael Maoz, who specializes in consumer relationship management.
“You used to not have stable networks, and everything broke all of the time and no one really cared,” he said. “But now, when has Facebook, Uber or Amazon ever crashed on you?”
Since this expectation is only growing, he said, Talkdesk is in a good niche — as long as it can differentiate themselves from competitors.
“Being a call center sounds really outdated ... in a world where talk is diminishing as a medium,” he said.
Talkdesk is tiny compared to its competitors, which include Salesforce.com, the largest tech company in San Francisco. But Paiva says Talkdesk has gone from 10 employees two years ago to nearly 300 now, and he plans to add 150 to 200 employees over the next year.
Last week, Talkdesk held a conference in San Francisco called OpenTalk, where speakers from clients such as Target, Netflix and Box spoke about the importance of pleasing customers. Buzz from the
conference may have boosted Talkdesk’s ranking on Crunchbase, a database of technology companies.
Paiva is betting on artificial intelligence for the future of customer service. He said software bots will one day read customers’ Twitter and Facebook profiles, as well as emails they’ve sent to a company, and glean their personality from that text. Bots will then match them with a compatible representative.
Talkdesk is investing heavily in making this a reality, he said. People, after all, are only going to get less patient.
Also trending: Betabrand
An online store where designers upload fashion creations and users vote on which ones they like.
What happened: CEO Chris Lindland said it is not clear what drove attention on Crunchbase this week; more than a dozen apparel concepts are added every day.
Why it matters: Designers often have vast portfolios of products that never make it to market, Lindland said. The website gives them a place to give those ideas exposure.
Headquarters: San Francisco
Funding: $24.7 million
Employees: 50
Thunder
A software marketing technology company that creates personalized ads.
What happened: The company struck a partnership with marketing agency Kepler Group and made other announcements.
Why it matters: Thunder is part of a competitive and growing industry of consumer marketing technology. CEO Victor Wong said his company can specifically tailor ads to a person down to gender and location.
Headquarters: San Francisco
Funding: $11.35 million
Employees: 50
InsideTrack
Offers technology to academic institutions to help students stay “on track” by offering services such as webinars and personal coaching.
What happened: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation picked Inside-Track to be part of an initiative “to improve student outcomes” at four U.S. community colleges with low-income, minority and firstgeneration student populations.
Why it matters: Education tech has generated a lot of buzz recently. Companies like InsideTrack claim they can modernize the way people learn and improve graduation rates.
Headquarters: San Francisco
Funding: $22 million
Employees: 300
Prowl
Currently under test in two San Francisco locations, the Prowlbox gives stores more security and control over their Wi-Fi networks — even data on the songs customers are streaming.
What happened: Prowl is talking to more potential clients, according to CEO Bernardo Urquieta, potentially spurring interest in the company.
Why it matters: As networks are increasingly vulnerable to hackers, Urquieta said Prowl protects users from malicious activity. At the same time, retailers want to know more about their customers in exchange for the free Wi-Fi they provide.
Headquarters: San Francisco
Funding: $175,000
Employees: 5 Trisha Thadani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tthadani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @TrishaThadadni