Patents cover a better way to provide support.
GoDaddy (NYSE: GDDY) has filed a couple of patent applications (pdf, pdf) for an improved customer service experience. Whether or not you think it should be patentable, I sure wish companies would adopt this idea.
The patents have two main elements to them:
1. When someone is within their account at GoDaddy and needs to contact support, they can use a one-time passcode to validate with the customer service representative. The screen may display this one-time code or it could be texted or emailed to the customer. Ideally, they wouldn’t need to provide other supporting information to validate their identity to the representative.
2. When the user provides that code, the customer service representative will see the history of what the customer has been doing on the site prior to the support call. The patent gives an example of someone building a website and calling in for support.
My typical experience when calling a company for support goes something like this:
1. Enter my account number on the IVR
2. Answer an IVR question about what I’m calling about
3. Get transferred to live rep
4. Live rep asks me my account information AGAIN and what I’m calling about AGAIN
So GoDaddy’s system is an improvement, especially when you’re doing something like building a website.
As a GoDaddy customer, what I’d love to see is better logging. For example, why have the last three times I’ve added domains through the Domain Listing Service has the listing failed? I don’t even get an email from the company saying the process didn’t complete.
Observer says
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICsIG4d0S0E