South African company iBleat, has launched a customer service app that privately connects customers with any business, brand or outlet in an effort to simplify customer service and defuse social media outrage.
According to co-founders Niel Campbell and Grant Campbell - the free iBleat app aims to draw customers away from social media and chat apps, and encourage the use of its dedicated customer service channel. The app also integrates with customer relationship management tools such as Zendesk and Salesforce.
The app, which operates similar to Twitter, allows a company to register as a business on the platform for a fee depending on the customised requirements.
The business would then alert customers on the platform that allows direct communication between client and business. The user would then 'bleat' a comment, complaint or compliment and the 'bleat' will then notify the organisation concerned.
The app also allows businesses to pass credits, coupons and QR codes within iBleat to a user as a means of making amends. Companies managed on the platform include retailers, restaurants, product manufacturers as well as portal where users can report road abusers.
"Facebook and Twitter are not private and issues can go viral very quickly. While social media seems to be the go-to platform for customer feedback - 67% of all social media posts relate to customer service - posts can often be jumped on and derailed by a large number of other users. This means issues not directed correctly fall through the cracks," explains iBleat CEO Grant Campbell.
"Businesses have to monitor, mine and search social media for posts directed to them. Social media posts may get incorrectly tagged and fall through the cracks, thus not reaching the company. This compounds an existing problem as 60% of consumers who reach out to a business on social media expect a response within 1 hour or less. Should they not receive that response, their dissatisfaction increases. From our experience posting publicly usually occurs when an issue has not been satisfactorily resolved and posts are out of frustration, with the need to name and shame," he noted.
iBleat is available for download on Android and iOS.
Share