We have all visited websites hosting a little bubble down in a corner. We’ve grown accustomed to being able to chat directly with someone on the other side of that web page. Many services offer this practical functionality. But not that many make it as simple as the French startup Crisp.
Content is King… but so is Customer Service
In times when all companies are into influencers, storytelling, and branding, it becomes tough to make a difference. One thing that will always be unique, is the way you handle customer service. Whether it is done well or not, it will define the company’s image.
So it might as well be done with a lot of care.
One of the key aspects of customer service (for the customer) is the ease to get a hold of a contact. Some use Twitter, some write emails, others want to chat or call. Companies either choose to limit the means of contact or to hire more people to answer all requests. Some choose to regroup all these channels to handle contacts more efficiently.
Crisp: regrouping all communication channels
French startup Crisp has been around for 3 years now. The idea goes way beyond a chat box on a web page. The Saas offers to regroup and link all incoming contacts in a full solution for customer support.
They are not the only one out there but they focus to tailor their offer for medium-size businesses and startups.
At first glance, it may look simple or even limited but it’s a deliberate choice to make the user welcome and not be daunted by all the functionalities.
The idea is to make the interface light and clear, and user-friendly. In time will the user see how advanced it is.
Powerful integrations
The ease of use of Crisp is a testimony to the work put into it. Because they spent an enormous time on collecting feedback from the early adopters, they built Crisp along with them to make it just right.
Collecting valuable feedback is but one of the uses of Crisp. It offers a chat box, emailing, CRM integration, chatbot, in-app messages, Messenger and Twitter integration… And a companion app to manage requests on the go. The setup is kid’s play and it suits early stage startups or businesses that might not have the manpower yet to install complicated automation.
Hard work to make it simple
Both founders, Baptiste Jamin and Valérian Saliou, are wizards who started coding at the age of 12 (Baptiste) and 15 (Valérian). Baptiste spent some time at Orange customer relation service and Valérian created an open-source chat: Jappix. The two put their respective know-how together to come up with what started as a chat box.
Highly rated on ProductHunt, they went from 10 000 users of the V1 to 70 000 users on the current version, V2. Approximately 60.000.000 customers use Crisp utilities every month for support.
Caring for all users
The small team of five (including 2 remote workers) takes great pride in caring for all users even those who were not their primary target. They have found creative users they didn’t expect. Some schools use Crisp to play online shopkeeper, with students playing customers and the teacher answering them via Crisp. Some organizations provide online helplines with Crisp. In the United States, city officials answer citizens’ requests thanks to the platform.
They also provide localization in many languages including those often left behind. They have now become the N°1 customer support solution in Finland. Finland is one of the top EU countries in IT.
Great things ahead
Because Crisp has experienced a massive growth this year and keeps growing, the team has settled into bigger offices in Nantes. They are going to recruit developers and a designer this year and more staff in 2019.
Although it already has a very crisp design (pun intended), an ergonomic makeover is underway. It aims to answer the feedback they’ve had so far to provide a tool designed according to the users’ wishes.
Crisp really cares for its users and word-of-mouth is excellent.
A healthy state of mind for a dedicated team who believes startups should about more than fundraising.