How Help Scout Revolutionized Customer Support: A Journey from Impersonal to Personal by the Founders.
Company profile
Company business details
Motivation to build the product
The founders were motivated by the desire to create a customer support experience that felt more personal and less transactional. They recognized that traditional help desks often created barriers between customers and support teams, leading to frustration on both sides.Problem that their product solves
Help Scout solves the problem of impersonal customer interactions that often occur with traditional help desk systems. The end users are businesses that want to provide better customer support and improve customer satisfaction. Solving this problem is important as it helps businesses build stronger relationships with their customers and enhances overall customer experience.Their unfair advantage
Help Scout's unfair advantage lies in its focus on user experience and its ability to provide a collaborative email inbox that is invisible to customers, allowing teams to work together seamlessly.Strategies
Pre-Launch (Product Development & MVP)
Customer-Centric Product Development
In the early days of Help Scout, Nick Francis and his co-founders focused on solving a problem they personally experienced while building their own web app. They realized that existing help desk solutions were cumbersome and not customer-friendly. Instead of just creating another help desk, they aimed to build a customer-centric support platform that eliminated barriers between businesses and their customers. This approach was rooted in their own experiences, which they referred to as 'dogfooding' their product, ensuring it met the needs of users like themselves.
Content Marketing for Customer Acquisition
Nick Francis and his team at Help Scout decided to leverage content marketing as a primary strategy for acquiring customers. They created valuable content, including ebooks and blog posts, to attract potential users. One of their first ebooks was titled '75 stats, quotes and graphs on customer service,' which was based on extensive research they conducted for a demo day presentation at TechStars. This ebook gained significant traction, with over 10,000 downloads, helping to establish their brand in the crowded customer service market. They also utilized platforms like SlideShare to promote their content, which led to over 20,000 views in just 72 hours.
Launch Stage
Positioning as the 'Invisible Help Desk'
Initially, Help Scout positioned itself as 'not a help desk' to differentiate from competitors. However, after feedback from industry experts, they pivoted to embrace the help desk label while emphasizing their unique value proposition: being an 'invisible help desk.' This meant providing all the functionality of a help desk without the typical barriers, such as ticket numbers or portals, allowing for a more personalized customer experience. This positioning resonated with users and helped them carve out a niche in a crowded market.
Content Marketing through Podcasting
Canopy launched a podcast series called 'The Heartbeat,' where they interview founders, CEOs, and business leaders about their leadership lessons. In one episode, Claire Lew, the CEO of Canopy, interviewed Nick Francis, CEO of Help Scout, discussing leadership challenges and insights. This strategy not only positions Canopy as a thought leader in the management space but also builds a community around shared experiences and knowledge. The podcast episodes are available on their blog, enhancing their content marketing efforts.
Door-to-Door Sales for Initial Customers
During the launch stage, Nick Francis took a hands-on approach to acquire Help Scout's first customers by engaging in door-to-door sales. While at TechStars, he went around to other startups in their shared office space, asking them about their current customer support solutions and offering them Help Scout for free. This direct engagement not only helped him secure initial users but also provided valuable feedback on the product, allowing him to refine it based on real user experiences.
Learn more about Help Scout
Help Scout's CEO Nick Francis Shares the Evolution of Their Positioning
Episode 41: Interview with Nick Francis, CEO and Co-Founder of Help Scout
