Oftentimes, purchases are influenced by customer reviews.
In fact, Mobile Agent Now CEO Mark Jeffreys said that reviews impact 68 percent of those purchases.
And there's more. The startup worked with Crowdtap on a study that found there was a 2.5 percent bump in companies' products when their representatives responded to reviews, as opposed to those companies that didn't. 40 percent of businesses fell in the later camp.
Jeffreys' startup looks to help organizations large and small join the conversation, allowing them respond to all reviews and mentions on social media. Its methodology also helps companies save the money they'd spend hiring customer service representatives in-house or outsourcing the job to an agency by utilizing "agents," or writers, as responders.
It works like this: The platform pulls in reviews and comments for clients as they are posted to TripAdvisor, Yelp, Facebook or any other platform the client wishes to monitor. Certified mobile agents then get a “ping” on their smartphone, alerting them that a new review has been posted.
“Any company, very simply, has to solve a problem."
The Mobile Agent Now system works in a similar way to Uber, in that the agents can choose to accept an assignment to respond to a customer's online review. Higher pay for quicker and better-quality responses incentivizes mobile agents to respond fast and with empathy for customers. Reactions such as likes and retweets also bring in more pay for agents.
The agents simply begin working whenever they get a ping. While clients get better-quality, faster and more efficient service, good writers also have a convenient way to earn money from home or on the go.
Agents also must become certified by Mobile Agents Now by passing a written assessment to ensure that they can write well. After passing, agents are trained to respond to comments and complete training for whichever brands they choose to represent.
“It’s about a quality response and also, how to pair these agents with the right brands by both passion and affinity as well,” Jeffreys said.
Agents are trained to reply to all types of comments.
“We respond to positive, neutral and negative [comments] because my philosophy is that if you go into a restaurant and tell the owner, ‘I love your restaurant!,' one would hope they would say, ‘Great! Thanks!’” Jeffreys said. “Why should it be different online? Somebody spends three, four or five minutes posting a review, so you should say thanks for taking the time to post a review, not just be concerned about the negative.”
Responding to reviews of all stripes is critical to building a relationship between the brand and customers.
"Increasingly, it’s what consumers expect, especially among millennials," he said. "Sixty eight percent [of millennials] expect a faster response this year than they did a year ago. Everybody expects to get instant response and instant everything, so the expectation is only increasing."
Jeffreys said that everyone has a customer service horror story, and it’s from his own that the idea for Mobile Agent Now was born. Last October, his furnace broke down. After a few days without heat in below-freezing weather, being on hold for hours with the home warranty company and posting complaints on social media, Jeffreys still received no response. All these issues inspired him to imagine a better solution for the customer service industry.
While Mobile Agent Now has only been active for five months, close to 10 brands already use the service. Both small and medium-sized businesses are customers, and Mobile Agent Now is gearing up to assist Fortune 500 companies.
Jeffreys attributes the growth of the company to the widespread "pain point" that the system solves.
“Any company, very simply, has to solve a problem,” he said. “Increasingly, everybody is moving online so the traditional method of customer service — the phone — is declining pretty significantly every year. Everybody is moving online, and this is a pain point.”
