Ten years ago, the big problem was telemarketers: people calling at all hours to talk to you about your cable provider or their latest timeshare offer. These days, it’s impossible to get a company representative on the phone. It’s common to spend hours trying to resolve a problem or get a question answered.
Two guys are trying to save us all from this insanity, the co-founders of GetHuman, Paul English (@englishpaulm) and Christian Allen (@ChristianTAllen).
English created a database that essentially circumvents the automated prompts on phone menus, and can place a caller directly with a person. He also added something called ‘problem solvers’ also known as humans. English explains that the original vision was to answer ‘how do I break through these interactive voice response systems (IVRS) to get to a human being. “We would publish secret phone numbers. We would do things like publish a phone number for a company. They would find out that we knew about this secret phone, and they’d change the phone number.” If the number change occurred, sometimes an employee from the business will contact English and share with him the updated number. He calls it a Wiki for public records information.
Allen realized that sharing the secret number was not enough. Customer service still involves waiting and being placed on hold. They felt like we could more, and possibly do that entire process a client. Allen says, “I think a lot of us just aren’t built to want to confront anybody. Usually when you’re calling customer service, it’s not just you have to wait on hold. You have to talk to somebody and usually it’s something kind of confrontational. Surprisingly, Allen shared that the number one customer service request is to contact Facebook. “A lot of new-age web companies-it’s not that they have bad customer service, but they have no live human being you can talk to, no customer service.”
English shared that the cost of this problem solving service is between $5-$25. If the problem is not solved, the cost is completely refundable. English calls the people who are contacting customer service the champions that are fighting for the customer. They are fighting on the customer’s behalf. Allen shared that they have solved 95% of their ten thousand problem-solving requests.
Jim searched for clarity, and asked if someone were to have an issue with an airline they can log on to the website and for a fee have their problem solved? Allen answered yes, essentially. The customer pays and gives the conflict and resolution process over to their company. “That’s part of it. And you shouldn’t have to waste your time, as a customer.” Someone else, somewhere else will handle it.
English was the founder of the website Kayak, and Allen worked there with him during the earlier days. Jim asked if it was fair to describe Paul English as against humans in the beginning (creating Kayak), and now being for humans. English answered that they didn’t intend to be a part of something that replaces humans. “The industry has shifted a lot more online. In the U.S. right now, I think the latest data from last year 56% of travel is booked online which means, 44% percent is booked on the phone. It’s kind of shocking.
Lola is a new app that English created, it allows you to directly message a travel agent 24/7 regarding any questions about travel. Whether someone is a business traveler or a first-time traveler, the app will help. “It can be anything from a vacation your planning next summer to I need to be in New York for lunch tomorrow,” said English.
Do these technological innovations prove that humans still matter? Allen closed by saying, “I think people are turning to services like this because they need help with something. And you can’t always accomplish whatever it is with just computers. And you can certainly offer a better experience if you can incorporate humans.”
