Untappd is a technology company in Wilmington, North Carolina that develops social and data driven consumer and business software products in the beer and alcohol space.

Their software is used by thousands of businesses and millions of consumers around the world, and has won numerous awards, including:

• #53 on Deloitte’s 2018 Fast 500 North American Technology Company List
• #150 on the 2018 Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing US companies
• #98 on the 2017 Entrepreneur magazine’s list of 360 most entrepreneurial companies
• ‘Best New App’ in the Apple App Store
• Features in dozens of leading media outlets including Time, The Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, and Forbes

Emma Johnson is the VP of Customer Support at Untappd. She and her team provide support for the Untappd app and business product, and are developing systems and processes for some exciting new products on the horizon.

“I’ve been with the company for almost four years, and have seen our business product scale from its inception through today. I’ve been directly involved building the customer support team and processes from the ground up. It’s been an amazing learning experience, and I’ve really gotten to know our customer base over the years.”

The human touch is sometimes lost when providing support for software, especially in the time of self-service and automation. It’s really important for people at Untappd company to provide real, human service and connect with their customers.

“The human touch is sometimes lost when providing support for software, especially in the time of self-service and automation.” They want their customers to feel like they can sit down at their bar over a beer and explain their business problems and strategies with untappd and receive helpful, constructive advice.

Untappd’s mission as a company is to advance the global beverage industry through innovative technology.

“We currently have over 90 employees and we’re growing quickly. Our headquarters are in Wilmington, NC, but we also have teams in Durham, NC, New York, NY, and Los Angeles, CA and Lebanon, IN!”

“The customer support team works in house. We’re a very collaborative team – it’s important to make sure that knowledge is shared so that we can resolve customer issues and identify bugs as quickly as possible.”

Problem

Untappd uses Freshdesk as their support system and email is their primary channel for support, although they do offer live chat and phone support as well. “One thing we struggled with as our customer base scaled is assuming customers were happy and satisfied with our service, and then discover when it was time to renew that questions customers had weren’t answered.”

When they only had a couple hundred customers it was easy to reach out to everyone, but now Untappd has over 16,000 verified venues on the business platform in addition to several million monthly active users on the Untappd App.

Solution

“I know I personally dislike when I get follow up emails and surveys from companies – It feels like such a time intensive ask! Being able to click a single button within the existing email chain is so effortless and easy.” Nicereply also lets Untappd’s customers see that they are listening and that they care about their customers experience.

Some companies believe there should be no tickets and inbound questions, but at Untappd, they believe that opening a support inquiry is a sign of a healthy customer. It means someone is engaged, and wants to make sure the product works to benefit them and their business.

“Nicereply makes it so easy for us to keep a finger on the pulse of our customer base, and allows us to be proactive with our customers without taking up too much of their time. Since implementing Nicereply we now know when we haven’t provided the best possible support experience to a customer.”

A rating lower than a 10 gives their team the opportunity to reach back out to the customer to ensure a satisfying resolution. Untappd maintained a 97% satisfaction rating since rolling this out. This is a number that they’re so proud of and it is a true testament to their customer support team and their dedication.

Untappd uses Nicereply in their Freshdesk workflow primarily for CSAT scores. “The ratings go out with every email, so that customers can rate individual support interactions. We track to make sure that our customers receive consistently positive experiences.”

“We know our customers are the lifeblood of our product, and we wouldn’t exist without them. The success of our customers is the success of Untappd, and we know that providing reliable and effective support is an important part of why people use our platform. A product is worthless if you can’t figure out how to use it!”

“As a support team, one of our core values is to empower our customers.” People at Untappd encourage creative use of the product, and customers creative workarounds have informed features they’ve ultimately built in to the product.

One of the reasons Untappd chose Nicereply is that it integrates with their support system, Freshdesk.

“I also love how easy it is for customers to rate. It’s casual and inviting for the customer,and it doesn’t feel like a big ask, which means we see a big uptick in feedback. In turn, that helps us ensure that we provide top notch support and are able to optimize our product for our users.”

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