I don’t know much about ITSM, nor do I even know what ITIL stands for, let alone how to implement it. However, as the CEO of one of the top online customer service platforms, I do know a thing or two about customer service on the web. And the advent of social media combined with shift towards online, subscription-based businesses is creating a revolution in how companies staff, respond to, and value interactions with their customers. In this talk (an adaptation of my UserConf 2012 keynote) I’ll discuss how this revolution started, why we think it’s destined to succeed, and what your world looks like on the other side of it. So come find out what’s going on in the neighboring kingdom of online customer service. Because with the consumerization of IT, it may be coming to a service desk near you sooner than you think.

1. The Customer Revolution
& why you should care
Richard White
Founder, CEO
@rrwhite

2. three goals
@rrwhite

3. three warnings
@rrwhite

4. Limited Life
Experience
+
Overgeneralization
=
Advice
Paul Bucheit
Creator of Gmail,
Co-founder of FriendFeed

5. ITIL
@rrwhite

6. ITIL
(I have no idea what this even stands for)
@rrwhite

7. hi

8. We are...
24
1 people in San Francisco &
Raleigh who want to enable you
better help and understand your
2 users all with less effort than you
thought possible.
3
4
@rrwhite

9. UserVoice is...
UserVoice is a true multi-tenant SaaS, freemium platform that helps companies scale not only
their customer support (by driving self-service) but also customer insight (through proactive user
engagement).

10. UserVoice is...
UserVoice is true multi-tenant SaaS, freemium platform that helps companies scale not only their
customer support (by driving self-service) but also customer insight (through proactive user
35,000
engagement).
people have logged into their
UserVoice admin console the
127% YoY last 30 days.
@rrwhite

11. Our history
Founded in 2008, and the originators of
the now ubiquitous Feedback Tab, what
makes us special is how much we care
about the end-user interface. We know
that communication starts with users, not
with surveys or flying banners.
We’ve had a little help along the way in
the form of $3MM in capital raised from
Baseline Ventures (our lead), WTI,
Betaworks, Founders Fund, TAG, Tekton
Ventures and an assortment of amazing
angels.

12. Our history
363
Founded in 2008, and the originators of
the, now ubiquitous Feedback Tab, what
makes us special is how much we care
people see a UserVoice
about the end-user interface. We know widget every second which
that communication starts with users not
with surveys or flying banners. is ...
We’ve had a little help along the way in
the form of $3MM in capital raised from
943MM
Baseline Ventures (our lead), WTI,
Betaworks, Founders Fund, TAG, Tekton
people every month across
Ventures and an assortment of amazing 170 different countries and
angels.
43 languages (translated
110% YoY courtesy of UserVoice users)
@rrwhite

13. Our customers
Are not ITSM & traditional contact centers.
They are predominantly technology companies
and often SaaS platforms, games or mobile
apps.
We work with everyone from startups to
business units of Fortune 500 companies. Most
sales are self-service, credit card & month to
month but we do work with annual billing,
invoices, training and higher level account
management.

14. 120,000 UserVoice sites that
have been setup
170 countries where there’s
an organization using
UserVoice
@rrwhite

15. Helpdesk Launched May 2011
Easy to use & (self-service) setup - Customers can get setup in hours, not days or weeks.
Designed for simplicity but has the backend to handle complicated routing and queuing.
Inspector - Answer messages quicker and more carefully by having the complete social context of who
you’re talking to.
Game mechanics - Our leaderboard drives friendly competition amongst customer teams to respond quickly
and comprehensively
Ticket system emails look like normal emails. End-users never know they’re being tracked. There's no
ticket # or 'reply above this line', People bristle at the notion of being “in a system” - they want human
connection.

16. Feedback
Launched April 2008
Feedback forums are the unique UserVoice
way of helping customers get and respond
to inbound customer feedback at scale.
Feedback is a natural, and highly
successful, way to engage large numbers
of otherwise passive users who wouldn’t
contact companies for support.
Scalability - Get feedback from thousands or
millions with the same level of effort.
Frictionless feedback - 80+% of those who give
feedback will provide an email address and
subscribe to updates. This works wonders for
pre-sales engagement.
Response rates double that of newsletters.
Permission based marketing at its best. Users are
opting into updates on other user generated
content.

17. UserVoice is everywhere users are
We provide the most comprehensive and robust set of tools to help our customer
communicate with their users where they already are: in-app.
Complete set of APIs, Push Notifications
and SDKs make it easy for companies to
integrate UserVoice into their business.
Instant Answers - All embedded
experiences drive customers to self-service
their issues. Up to 40% (and higher on
mobile) of requests are resolved through
suggesting a relevant knowledge base
article or existing forum post.
Feedback tab widget - Embed a complete
customer portal directly into a website with a
couple lines of code.

18. UserVoice is everywhere users are
We provide the most comprehensive and robust set of tools to help our customer
communicate with their users where they already are: in-app.
Complete set of APIs, Push Notifications
and SDKs make it easy for companies to
integrate UserVoice into their business.
Instant Answers - All embedded
experiences drive customers to self-service
their issues. Up to 40% (and higher on
mobile) of requests are resolved through
suggesting a relevant knowledge base
article or existing forum post.
Feedback tab widget - Embed a complete
customer portal directly into a website with a
couple lines of code.
Mobile optimized - All of our interfaces are
optimized to work on desktop and mobile
web. (22.5% of our usage is mobile web)
UserVoice for iOS - A native customer
portal directly inside your iPhone or iPad
app.

19. NEW
In-app engagement
The next generation in (meaningful) in-app user
engagement: bundling together customer satisfaction,
product feedback and support to create engagement rates
that blow away traditional VoC or Helpdesk solutions.
Combined with a robust analytics system to give you a
complete view of your user base from 10K feet down to
individual users.
New features debuted at UserVoice Summit 2013:
Instant Answers
Satisfaction Surveys
SmartVote
Touchpoint SDK & Analytics

20. phew
@rrwhite

21. A HUMBLE OBSERVATION
No one goes to school
for customer service
@rrwhite

23. Two different worlds of
“customer service”
@rrwhite

24. Customer Service
@rrwhite

25. Customer Service
“All agents are currently
serving other customers”
“Your call is important to
us”
“Press 9 to hear these
options again”
Entering your account #
only to have to repeat it
to the agent
@rrwhite

26. Customer Service
“All agents are currently
serving other customers” 20%
“Your call is important to handle multiple channels
us”
“Press 9 to hear these
40%
options again” respond to tweets
Entering your account #
only to have to repeat it 29%
to the agent respond < 1 day
@rrwhite

27. Customer Service Our World
“All agents are currently Highly skilled agents
serving other customers”
Delivering great support on
“Your call is important to any medium
us”
A product issue is solved in
“Press 9 to hear these hours or days not months
options again”
Every customer
engagement is an
Entering your account #
opportunity
only to have to repeat it
to the agent

28. Customer Service Our World
20% 89%
handle multiple channels handle multiple channels
40%
respond to tweets
29%
respond < 1 day

29. Customer Service Our World
20% 89%
handle multiple channels handle multiple channels
40% 87%
respond to tweets respond to tweets
29%
respond < 1 day

30. Past Future
20% 89%
handle multiple channels handle multiple channels
40% 87%
respond to tweets respond to tweets
29% 83%
respond < 1 day respond < 1 day

31. the future

32. the future
is here

33. or is it?
@rrwhite

34. Exceptional customer
care isn’t new.
@rrwhite

35. No, this is different.
Things have changed.
@rrwhite

36. four changes
@rrwhite

37. CHANGE #1
The internet has spawned a
generation of businesses
built around self-service.
@rrwhite

38. Is this really necessary?
@rrwhite

39. 43% of people said they could
have solved their customer
service issue on their own if
better self-service tools were
available.
62% of people age 18 to 24
@rrwhite

40. THE FUTURE IS...
More user self-service
50%
of smartphone users would prefer to use a
mobile customer service application to try
to resolve their customer service issue
before calling into the contact center.
@rrwhite

41. THE FUTURE IS...
More user self-service
Less customer contacts but more
complex issues
56%
of online consumers agree that their
(customer service) calls are more complex
as simple transactions are often automated
@rrwhite

42. THE FUTURE IS...
More user self-service
Less customer contacts but more
complex issues
Less agents but better training
(and pay)
@rrwhite

43. CHANGE #2
Companies are moving to
subscription-based revenue
models.
@rrwhite

44. I know. You’re shocked.
@rrwhite

45. 50% of US businesses have either
adopted or were planning to
adopt a subscription based
model
@rrwhite

46. 50% of US businesses have either
adopted or were planning to
adopt a subscription based
model
90% of mobile game spending
(US) on free to play games.
@rrwhite

47. Ye olde sales funnel.
@rrwhite

48. THE FUTURE IS...
Subscription revenue
@rrwhite

49. THE FUTURE IS...
Subscription revenue
The blurring of the line between
sales & support.
@rrwhite

50. THE FUTURE IS...
Subscription revenue
The blurring of the line between
sales & support.
Better training and pay for agents
@rrwhite

51. CHANGE #3
Social media is the catalyst
but not the medium of the
future.
@rrwhite

52. of people said they preferred
1% to get support via Twitter
instead of traditional mediums.
@rrwhite

53. of people said they preferred
1% to get support via Twitter
instead of traditional mediums.
of US consumers are very to
22% somewhat interested in
resolving customer service
issues.
email: 67%, phone: 90%
@rrwhite

54. THE FUTURE IS...
Social Media level of care
on traditional channels.
@rrwhite

55. THE FUTURE IS...
Social Media level of care
on traditional channels.
Word-of-month matters again. It’s
too expensive to let something spill
out onto Twitter.
@rrwhite

56. THE FUTURE IS...
Social Media level of care
on traditional channels.
Word-of-month matters again. It’s
too expensive to let something spill
out onto Twitter.
Companies want more than “like”
@rrwhite

57. CHANGE #4
The era of (digital)
marketing gimmicks is
coming to an end.
@rrwhite

58. The digital marketing
land rush is over.
@rrwhite

59. The digital marketing
land rush is over.
11% The increase in the average cost per
click (CPC) on Google Adwords in
2011.
56% Increase in app marketing costs in the
last year on iOS platform (70% on
Android)
@rrwhite

60. WHAT DO THESE HAVE IN COMMON?
Groupon, Zynga, eHow,
Swoopo, Turntable.fm
@rrwhite

61. THE FUTURE IS...
Customer retention over
acquisition.
@rrwhite

62. THE FUTURE IS...
Customer retention over
acquisition.
5X how much more it expensive it is to acquire
new customers than satisfy and retain
current ones
@rrwhite

63. Customer retention is the new acquisition
It’s getting more expensive to acquire customers as marketing channels
become saturated. Subscription businesses live and die by retention. The
best way to retain customers is through great service but more
importantly by building the product they want.
Social media is the catalyst of, but not the
medium of, the future
Twitter is the small claims court of bad support.
It’s forcing companies to re-examine the cost of providing poor service
through the traditional channels that users prefer.
Excellent customer service, like performance,
is a killer feature.
Support is increasingly not just a cost center to be shunted offshore. It's
part of your product and your sales process.
@rrwhite

64. PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER...
Business is going old
school.
@rrwhite

65. PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER...
Business is going old
school.
The last 30+ years have been one
big scaling problem.
@rrwhite

66. PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER...
Business is going old
school.
The last 30+ years have been one
big scaling problem.
We now have the technology and
enough incentives to provide old
fashioned service at web scale.
@rrwhite

67. The customer portal is dead.
Be where your users are... and it isn’t Facebook: it’s inside your app.
Make getting support or giving feedback a great in-app experience.
@rrwhite

68. The customer portal is dead.
Be where your users are... and it isn’t Facebook: it’s inside your app.
Make getting support or giving feedback a great in-app experience.
Drive ever more self-service
Especially with Freemium or Free2Play.
Without sacrificing quality as a bad experience is now expensive.
One to many communication when possible
@rrwhite

69. The customer portal is dead.
Be where your users are... and it isn’t Facebook: it’s inside your app.
Make getting support or giving feedback a great in-app experience.
Drive ever more self-service
Especially with Freemium or Free2Play.
Without sacrificing quality as a bad experience is now expensive.
One to many communication when possible
Support teams are looking more like sales teams.
Not scripted. Given liberty to solve the issue.
@rrwhite

70. The customer portal is dead.
Be where your users are... and it isn’t Facebook: it’s inside your app.
Make getting support or giving feedback a great in-app experience.
Drive ever more self-service
Especially with Freemium or Free2Play.
Without sacrificing quality as a bad experience is now expensive.
One to many communication when possible
Support teams are looking more like sales teams.
Not scripted. Given liberty to solve the issue.
Agility over process.
This is what you get with these sorts of support teams.
@rrwhite

71. The customer portal is dead.
Be where your users are... and it isn’t Facebook: it’s inside your app.
Make getting support or giving feedback a great in-app experience.
Drive ever more self-service
Especially with Freemium or Free2Play.
Without sacrificing quality as a bad experience is now expensive.
One to many communication when possible
Support teams are looking more like sales teams.
Not scripted. Given liberty to solve the issue.
Agility over process.
This is what you get with these sorts of support teams.
Proactive engagement before there is a problem
Create ways for users to engage outside of when they have a problem.
Get out from behind your help desk.
@rrwhite

72. The customer portal is dead.
Be where your users are... and it isn’t Facebook: it’s inside your app.
Make getting support or giving feedback a great in-app experience.
Drive ever more self-service
Especially with Freemium or Free2Play.
Without sacrificing quality as a bad experience is now expensive.
One to many communication when possible
Support teams are looking more like sales teams.
Not scripted. Given liberty to solve the issue.
Agility over process.
This is what you get with these sorts of support teams.
Proactive engagement before there is a problem
Create ways for users to engage outside of when they have a problem.
Get out from behind your help desk.
Drive meaningful, win-win engagement (with analytics).
That which is actionable to the company and important to users. Move beyond the
shallow pond of “likes” and “follows”. No flying banner 10 minute surveys either.
We can do better than social media vanity metrics.
@rrwhite

73. So what?
@rrwhite

74. A HUMBLE HYPOTHESIS...
Maybe employees and
consumers aren’t all that
different.
@rrwhite

75. A HUMBLE HYPOTHESIS...
Maybe employees and
consumers aren’t all that
different.
BYOD
@rrwhite

76. A HUMBLE HYPOTHESIS...
Maybe employees and
consumers aren’t all that
different.
BYOD
74% companies that allow some form of BYOD
(bring your own device) usage

77. thanks
@rrwhite