How many times have you been upset about a company’s customer service? Perhaps you didn’t receive a refund on your airline ticket for your trip to Italy after you found out your grandfather passed away. Maybe you found something non-edible at a restaurant and the owner refused to admit their mistake. You could have spent hours on the phone trying to resolve fraudulent charges on your credit card from a popular website but never making any headway. The examples could go. My guess is you’ve experienced something (if not many things) that a company has done to aggravate you.
Let’s think back to one of those times. You probably were not only frustrated by whatever happened, but the customer service representative either a) didn’t understand you due to a language barrier, b) needed more information from you before they could do anything else and c) the amount of time it took to attempt to solve your problem, and then still didn’t work out in your favor.
This is why you need to consider Service, an assistant that does the dirty work for you.
Customer Service: 1
Customer: 0
Service Technologies Inc is a startup business that was founded by Michael Schneider earlier this year. As we all have probably had bad experiences at some point with a company’s customer service, Schneider wants to change that for the better with his new startup company. Service intervenes when any type of service you receive frustrates or disappoints you. You send in your complaint and they make the phone call to the company. They become the middleman or meddler. At this point, Service is an all-virtual business where you submit your complaints online. It is currently a free service as they begin to learn what works and what doesn’t work. The purpose of Service is to help save you time and money when a company has made a mistake.
How does it work?
Whatever your complaint, you simply provide detailed information about your issue with a company on Service’s website. Service wants you to include as much information as possible, to better serve you. They also give you the option to upload files for documentation. Once you’ve provided the details of your problem, you will be asked to set up an account. Service makes it short and sweet, by only asking for your name, email and a password.
Once you have an account set up you can manage your account settings. You can update your account information such as mailing address, email, or password. When you are signed on, you will be able to view all your cases. Individual cases are set up in a messaging format between you and the team member at Service. You can also create new cases with your account. If you need to contact the team, you may fill out an online form.
My Experience
Over the summer I had a bad experience with a ticket company as I was using their new app. The app was designed for upgrading your concert seats. However, they are still working out the bugs because I was charged twice on accident. When I called customer service that night, they were unable to refund my money because the tickets had gone offline and they said there was nothing they could do. I was extremely frustrated when they weren’t able to refund my money.
Flash forward to today. I recently discovered Service and was curious to see if they could help me resolve this issue, even though this happened a few months ago now. I found the form for complaints to be very straightforward and simple. Even better, they didn’t require you to answer any unnecessary questions. After I submitted my form, I received a reply within 15 minutes from someone on the team. They wanted me to supply three confirmation numbers with my purchases and some basic information about myself. I was only able to provide them with one confirmation number because unfortunately, that was all I had in my records. I also gave them screenshots of any information that could be used with my case.
I enjoyed the messaging format when I communicated with their team. It made things organized and easy to read. It actually reminded me of Facebook’s Messenger interface. I found it to be clean and simple. I also received emails whenever the team member responded to my case, which I found to be helpful so I didn’t have to keep looking at my account.
Due to the overwhelming response from being featured on ProductHunt, they were unable to finish my case in one day. In fact, the team member notified me to apologize for the delay with my case. On the next business day, I received a phone call from the ticket company. Because Service had already communicated with them, I didn’t really need to explain my story to the representative. Within 10 minutes my problem was resolved and I should see my refund in the next few days. Very awesome! Service for the win!
Is ‘Service’ for You?
My question for you, is does an online service such as the one Schneider created, sound like something you would use? Do you feel comfortable giving strangers your information? After watching an interview on YouTube with Schneider, I was able to feel comfortable providing personal information to their team. They are a startup company and with an understanding as a small business ourselves, you have to start somewhere. It takes time to build a reputation and trust. So they need more people like myself, to take that leap of faith and give them a try. Plus, it doesn’t cost you anything, which is always an added bonus.
