I recently had a really 💩 experience with a well-known global company. And the experience forced me to come to one conclusion - the traditional “Contact Us” page needs a makeover 💋💄!

Read about the ordeal I had, as well as the innovative solution I stumbled upon because of this, below 👇👇

My Poor Customer Service Experience 😡

1. The item I ordered online arrived in 10 smashed pieces

2. I head to their website looking for an answer to my problem

3. The FAQs I read are not helpful

4. I begrudgingly speak to the ChatBot. It was no help.

5. I then scroll the equivalent of a half a marathon to find their “contact us” page.

6. Once I land on that page, there was so many different contact options. None seemed to be more enticing than the other:

   • Contact via webform

   • Contact via email

   • Chat with us

   • Call Us

Throughout this entire process, I was given zero guidance on the recommended channel I should use to solve the problem that I had. In fact, I wasn’t even asked what my problem was …

Once I submitted the request (via the webform), it took me 4 separate emails for the customer service team to clarify the problem and (eventually) solve it.

Total resolution time: 10 days! …

Once the ordeal had ended, the entrepreneurial side of my brain kicked in.

What if this process could change? What if I was asked upfront what my issue was, and then provided a recommendation on how to best solve my issue?

I went down many rabbit holes when looking for solutions which was trying to solve my above pain point and eventually stumbled upon Hark. This solution is still in it’s early stages but I LOVE their vision.

Their hypothesis is quite simple. Organisations hold all of the data on contact channel effectiveness yet customers are the one’s who decide which channel to use. Odd, right?

Hark is trying to change this by providing a single interface for customers to submit their request, and leveraging AI & ML to route this request to the most appropriate agent and channel for resolution.

Below, I sit down with Hark’s CEO; Fran Brzyski to learn more about the solution!

_{Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with Hark in any way, nor have I been paid for this post. I just enjoy sharing game-changing solutions to my audience.}

Hark - A Single Source of Truth For Customer Service Interactions 🏠

Put simply, Hark solves three problems for customer service interactions:

1. Contact simplicity - Customers have a single point of interaction. They no longer have to decide which channel is right for them. All they need to do is tell Hark what is wrong.
   

2. Context Capture - Depending on the issue, Hark is able to probe for more context from the customer, ensuring the frontline agent is equipped with enough information to solve the issue - videos, photos, voice notes etc.
   

3. Contact Orchestration - Hark leverages AI & ML to provide intelligent contact routing. Hark aims to take the contact channel decision away from the customer and leverages predictive analytics to tell the agent which channel they should use to remediate the customer in the most effective manner.

In my own mind, Hark works like a smart telephony IVR system, but if the IVR system actually cared about the customer experience.

Q&A with Hark CEO - Fran Brzyski

To learn more about the problem that Hark is trying to solve, I recently sat down with their CEO; Fran Brzyski.

Below, he eloquently explains why Hark could be such a game-changer for the customer service industry.

What Pain Point is Hark Solving?

In 2023, customer service teams have to offer multiple communication channels to meet customers where they are. However, the execution of this omni-channel approach can be time-consuming, expensive, and even frustrating for both customers and agents.

In a recent CX study that surveyed 495 business leaders, it was found that "process maturity scores drop as the number of channels on which firms offer conversational engagement increases." (Forrester, 2023). This highlights the challenge of integrating a complex tech stack to power an omni-channel approach.

I genuinely question the upside to it all… Are we really addressing what customers find convenient today? Do customers need to speak directly live with a human or do they simply want to the ability to provide full context quickly?

With the evolution of multiple channels, customer service has become messier than a showground after a festival.

Hark is here to solve this messiness by creating a single user interface for any type of customer interaction. Hark is the equivalent of a telephony IVR system, but for all channels:

• CRM = Single Source Of Truth For Agents

• Hark = Single Source Of Truth For Customers

Why Do You Place Such An Emphasis On Capturing Information Upfront?

If customers share context up front, we can make their customer service journey more personalized. By doing so, agents can better champion the customer and provide better solutions.

Additionally, we encourage customers to provide context in a channel that’s convenient for them (such as videos or voicenotes) which engages them in a way that's both convenient and effective.

From an agent perspective, more context up front sets the agents up for success. It enables Hark to route tickets to the right agents effectively. A concept Ben has coined “contact orchestration”. We can leverage AI & Machine Learning to route tickets to the right agent according to a number of different parameters e.g. sentiment, contact reason, LTV of customers.

Let’s face it, certain agents can handle situations better than others so our platform really focuses on triaging all tickets and not only getting them to the right team, but also the right agent. Solutions can then be provided via the best channel for both the customer and agent

Is Hark trying to reduce the amount of channels that customers can interact with?

No, not at all. Hark is just trying to simplify the customer support process by:

• Providing customers with a single user interface they can use to submit their requests.
  

• Using up-front context to route relevant interactions to relevant teams. We are removing the contact channel decision from customers and using AI & ML techniques to allow agents to resolve issues in the most appropriate channel for a certain type of interaction.

For example, a customer with a damaged product will be satisfied if the customer service team processes the refund & sends an email update. A customer with an extremely late delivery will likely need a phone call to have their issue resolved. In the current world, both of these customers may have called the contact centre. In the new world, customer service agents (with predictive analytics guidance) have the ability to decide which channel should be used to effectively resolve the situation.

Finally, what’s the coolest feature that Hark currently has?

Our ticket tracking feature is pretty cool. Ultimately, Hark connects into most CRM platforms which allows us to provide real-time progress updates to customers.

If the status of a ticket changes in a CRM, Hark can notify the customer of this. This is extremely important as 58% of customers will be a repeat contact into the call centre if they don’t hear anything within 7 days.

This ticket tracking feature has saved contact centres hundreds of thousands of dollars by preventing repeat callers.

Conclusion

Organisations hold all of the data on contact channel effectiveness yet customers are the one’s who decide which channel to use. Odd, right?

In the next 5-10 years, I firmly believe that this decision process will change. Organisations will start to leverage predictive analytics to route conversations to the channel will probabilistically lead to the highest chance of success.

Whilst I don’t know whether Hark will be the solution who single handedly solves this solution, it’s great to see them pioneering in this space.

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