If only customer support were more … human.
Above: You can get real-time in-app support with RevTwo.
Image Credit: RevTwo
RevTwo is coming out of stealth mode today with a new way to offer support for people while they are using an app. It works for when you are stuck in a game and need a hint, or when your app isn’t working right.
RevTwo has created an in-app community support platform for mobile users, developers, and enterprises. If it catches on, it could make getting help much easier and end tons of customer support nightmares. We should all hope that this company lives up to its billing.
Boston-based RevTwo has a vision of providing universal, built-in support with every app on every device. It is designed to let users connect with app evangelists and other users from across the world in real-time for help.
Typically, when an app user runs into a problem they can't solved, they’re forced to leave the app, search online, and comb through message boards. They have to hope another user encountered the problem, and the answers always come slow. RevTwo flips that model, connecting users inside an app with the push of a button. That lets a user to share their screen with an app expert, who can talk them through what to do.
“At today’s speed of app development, support is nearly always an afterthought, something tacked on long after a release, or often, never included,” said Dale Calder, cofounder and chief executive of RevTwo, in a statement. “At RevTwo, we’re disrupting that model and putting support and human connection at the center of development and the app experience. We founded RevTwo on the belief that fast, easy support is a universal right—and need—for end users of any technology.”
RevTwo provides universal support for every stage of the app lifecycle. RevTwo provides free tools for developer support, throughout testing. That helps improve quality control in app projects.
That can prevent issues long before an app is finalized. The tools also can connect professional help desk support people with users through audio, video, and screen sharing.
Apps that aren’t working are quickly abandoned. Research shows that only 16 percent of users will give a failed app more than two attempts, with 80 percent to 90 percent of apps deleted after one use.
“Our in-app, community-based support will completely transform the user experience,” said Jim Hansen, co-founder and chief technology officer of RevTwo, in a statement. “From a teacher in Alabama helping a student in California solve a math problem to a professional gamer in Japan providing tips and tricks to a player in Holland, for the first time ever, users can get the help they need from their peers without ever leaving their apps.”
The company was founded by entrepreneurs who build Axeda, the Internet of Things platform. They sold that to PTC for $170 million in 2014.
“We started RevTwo because we've seen firsthand how hard it is to replicate problems in testing, and afterwards in production. We wanted to know what the app was doing, and what had gone wrong.” said Hansen. “Realizing that we were encountering a problem that developers face every day, we created a new tool that reveals what’s happening inside the app when an issue is encountered, regardless of where the device is.”
To see inside an app, a developer simply bundles the RevTwo library into any iOS-based app (Android support is forthcoming). The integration takes about ten minutes. After that, the app can open support sessions, initiate and react to voice calls and interact with diagnostic tools like screen sharing, logging, database inspector and file browser. The functionality is built using WebRTC to create fast peer-to-peer connections with devices, helping shorten time to resolution, the company said.