Sometimes you just need something right away. And while some have turned to Wolfram Alpha-powered juggernaut Siri for their quick burst of knowledge, hitting a search engine is starting to seem like something you used to do before you discovered better things. And FastCustomer looks to put that same kind of rapid knowledge in your hands without making you go through Siri.
FastCustomer is the first such program from the company of the same name, and it’s available on both Apple and Android devices at this point. The app essentially acts like an actual concierge might: you search for a customer service line number, like, say, that of 1-800-Flowers. The app then gets on the line for you, and waits for you on hold. When it makes contact with a real person, your home phone–or similarly arranged number–rings, and you can pick right up and be right on the line with a real person. Essentially, the app waits on hold for you while you go about the rest of your day, and when you finally get hold of a real person, you get to carry out your business. There’s also a telephone version available, which you’ll be able to use soon.
This particular app has two key functions for you as a business. One, if you’ve got a customer service line number, you’re going to want to find out how to get it in here so that people can take advantage of this service in conjunction with it. And two, chances are this is going to save you some time on your own customer service contact needs. Whether you’re out to order new supplies for the office or perform expansions and you need a bank contact, much of FastCustomer’s offerings will apply on some level.
And on a broader front, it also provides an excellent object lesson. When even the co-founder of FastCustomer, Stephanie Hay, says that people are tired of bad customer service–her response was actually much more forceful…and profane–you can easily tell that, indeed, people are tired of it. This gives you and your business a great opportunity to focus on that which matters most: the customer. And there are plenty of things you can do to put some life in your customer service; start with some cloud-based telephony services like hunt groups and find-me, follow-me messaging to reduce the hold time a potential customer faces. Minimal hold time keeps customers happy, and that’s worth its weight in repeat business.
So whether you’re listed on FastCustomer, using FastCustomer to keep your own wait time at a minimum, or just using it as an object lesson on the value of customer service, FastCustomer will have plenty of value to offer your small business.