Releasing a product or service into the market is considered the penultimate milestone for startups. However, it is merely the first of multiple checkpoints along the startup growth journey. Once products reach the hands of users or customers, startups will find that customers require technical support and feedback resolution. Failure to do so will lead to customers abandoning the product. At this stage, providing customer service becomes an imperative and determinant for a startup’s perseveration.

On the matter of customer experience, the Zendesk Startups CX Benchmark Report 2020 points out that startups surpassing performance benchmarks are those that have invested promptly and heavily in customer service. The research, based on the analysis of the timing, tools, and results of customer metrics among 4,414 startups, found that fast growers have doubled customer support agent numbers within 18 months or less between publicly disclosed funding rounds.

Also read: Future-proof your startup and Fast Forward with Hewlett Packard Enterprise

However, less than a third of startups have plotted a customer strategy, which is a disservice to future growth. Meanwhile, startups who have nimby deployed resources, tools, and communication channels to build a seamless customer experience since the early days are already reaping the rewards of fast growth.

The correlation between solid customer experience and fast growth is undeniable. Constant engagement with customers enables startups to collect feedback critical for product improvement. Moreover, establishing a solid relationship with customers is a sure way to win their trust and loyalty.

Time is of the essence

With time being a determining factor, startups looking to achieve fast-growth status preferably set up customer support within 10 months of funding, then cascading that into adding messaging within 14 months and live channels within 17 months. Once established, help centres should have the capacity to process 30 articles within six months as startups expand the number of apps within that time period. The longer, two-year goal is to decrease first response time (FRTs) between 3 to 8 hours.

Other benchmarks involve efficacy, a lesson gleaned from fast-growing startups. In two years, the response teams of fast-growing startups have cut the initial wait time of 14 hours by half when resolving tickets and responding to customer questions. To further optimise customer service, these fast-growing startups escalate the efficiency of their response teams, whereby the volume of tickets per agent is on average 42% higher for fast-growing startups compared to others.

Achieving the above calls for startups to build the necessary groundwork. Fast-growing startups adopt customisations and setting protocols, in the form of APIs, apps, and automation tools, to collect higher volumes of customer data via ticket forms, prioritisation of incoming requests, and goal-setting. Additionally, this group of startups utilise additional public apps that give agents fast and easy access to data.

Also read: Future-proofing Singaporean SMEs for a stronger digital future

This customer-focused approach pays big dividends, as evident among leading startups. Michael Wystrach, CEO and Co-Founder of Freshly, a meal-delivery service startup, shares that “CX has been a top priority for Freshly from day one. As soon as we shipped our first meal, we knew the questions, comments, and concerns from our customers would immediately follow. How we dealt with those touchpoints would define our reputation as a customer-first brand.”

Similarly, Rich Waldron, CEO and co-founder of Tray.io, a general automation platform pioneer, notes that “We’ve seen startups, as well as successful firms such as Outreach and Tucows, grow quickly by using automated workflows to close internal process gaps across their tech stack. The key to startup growth isn’t just automating time-consuming manual work, but also scaling out processes across the entire organisation to convert more leads, win more deals, respond more quickly to customer requests, and do more, faster.”

Fast-growing startups such as Freshly and Tray.io do not only focus on deploying customer service rapidly, they also carefully consider what customer service channels they should employ. Omnichannel and live channels are the primary options among fast-growing startups. The Zendesk report shows that within the first two years, one out of four fast-growing startups implemented omnichannel and 20% appended live chat.

Superior omnichannel and live channel options

Omnichannel involves arranging a wide option of touchpoints – phone, email, chat, SMS, social messaging – to connect with customers. Combined with a robust backend integration, the omnichannel affords startups with a consistent support experience because agents are uniformly informed about accounts and issues, enabling these agents to respond to customers speedily and accurately.

Live communication features such as chat and phone support, all part of the self-service approach, yield good results as well. Chat support, alongside omnichannel, have been proven to decrease wait times and enhance agent efficiency, enabling fast-moving startups to double resolution times by their second year. Taking further cues from market leaders, unicorns have been 61% faster in picking up self-service features compared to non-unicorns.

Also read: Residency and acceleration programme to bring global startups to South Korea

Plus, fast-growing startups layer their omnichannel and live channel features with other tools that boost effectiveness. Fast-growing startups amp up email support by choosing solutions that allow customisation, are highly extensible, and integrate smoothly with other platforms and data sources. They are also equipping agents with the tools, from apps and integrations that streamline workflow to macros that send consistent responses, to ease work. Also, fast-growing startups deploy solutions to divert low-complexity customer requests towards self-service and live channels, therefore easing the load of agents while quickly tackling customer needs.

Dig deep to learn more

Overall, startups need to build up a customer service experience that corresponds with long-term business objectives, rolling out new features in a timely manner while consistently emphasising on service speed and efficiency.

If you’re interested in learning more key insights on the startup ecosystem, you can access the comprehensive CX Startups Benchmark Report 2020 here.

– –

This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by 
Zendesk

We can share your story at e27, too. Engage the Southeast Asian tech ecosystem by bringing your story to the world. Visit us at e27.co/advertise to get started.

– –

Photo by Olha Ruskykh from Pexels

The post Want to fast-track your growth? Fast-track your way to improved customer experience appeared first on e27.

FPT, a leading technology corporation in Vietnam, has acquired majority stake in local SaaS company Base.vn.

The details of the transaction remain undisclosed.

As per a press note, this cooperation will enable the two sides to promote the comprehensive digital transformation ecosystem for 800,000 enterprises.

Pham Kim Hung, founder and CEO of Base.vn, said: “Base.vn has been solving three big issues of businesses, including productivity enhancement management, information transparency, human resources management and development.”

“We plan to develop other major solutions such as financial management, customer management and business development on one unified platform. The cooperation with FPT, a leading technology company with a wealth of experience and human resource, will help Base to save at least 10 years to become a comprehensive digital transformation ecosystem for the world’s leading business,” he added.

Base was founded in 2016 by Stanford University alumnus Hung. The company has developed over 20 apps that cover two verticals — human resources and productivity.

Its apps include job application tracking system Base E-Hiring, task and project management platform Base Wework, and internal request management platform Base Request.

Also Read: [Updated] SaaS platform Base.vn secures funding from Nextrans

As per the press release, the Base.vn platform easily integrates with FPT digital transformation solutions so that it will bring more than 100 digital conversion solutions on Base.vn itself.

Base.vn products also inherit the latest core technologies from FPT such as FPT.AI, blockchain, cloud, and digital signature to provide more effective solutions.

Thanks to a network of branches in 30 countries, FPT will also help Base compete fairly in the global market.

Established in 1988, FPT is an IT group operating in three core business areas: technology, telecommunications, and education. With a presence 26 countries over the world, the company claims to have a client base of 5,000 customers across a wide range of sizes and sectors.

“Over the past years, FPT has always been alongside large Vietnamese and global enterprises on the journey of digital transformation. FPT’s strategy is to build a comprehensive digital transformation platform for small and medium enterprises to be the number one in that market. Accompanying Base.vn is one of the shortest ways for FPT to achieve that goal,” said Nguyen Van Khoa, CEO of FPT.

Base.vn has previously raised US$1.3 million in a pre-Series A funding round, co-led by Alpha JWC Ventures and Beenext.

—

Join our e27 Telegram group, FB community, or like the e27 Facebook page

Image Credit: Base

The post FPT acquires majority stake in Beenext-backed SaaS platform Base.vn appeared first on e27.

India is in the middle of a catastrophe.

The staggering number of COVID-19 cases and the fatalities from the second wave of its spread have set alarm bell ringing around the world, with experts predicting the worse is yet to come.

India’s healthcare system has been heavily overloaded and there has been a massive shortage of hospital beds, oxygen cylinders and concentrators and other basic medical equipments. Footages of patients gasping and dying at medical facilities have shaken the conscience of the nation.

As of writing this piece, India has reported 382,315 new cases, taking the overall case count to more than 20.5 million.

Also Read: How data can help the global fight against COVID-19

Although an inoculation drive is on, covering the entire 1.3 billion population in the near future is an impossibility. If the contagious virus is not bridled now, India could slip into an abyss sooner or later.

What is so heartening amidst all this suffering and anguish is that many foreign governments and private agencies are coming forward to lift India from the cataclysm. The tech/startup communities in and out of India are also doing their bit.

In Singapore, several agencies are already working towards this cause. The husband-wife duo of Prantik and Dipti Mazumdar was one of the first in the city-state to launch a crowdfunding campaign. Titled Let’s Help India Breathe!, the duo intends to raise a total of US$25,000 from donors.

“Over the last month, we have been deeply concerned about our family, friends, colleagues and loved ones back in India, given the emergence of the new variant that has hit India like a tsunami. The country has been reporting 300,000-400,000 COVID+ cases per day,” said Mazumdar, a venture investor and mentor at NUS Angel Ventures.

“This made us feel very helpless and hence we decided that being outside, the least we could do is to galvanise and mobilise the diaspora and our friends, colleagues and network in Singapore through a dollar-for-dollar matching crowdfunding campaign on Milaap,” added Mazumdar, who is part of the executive leadership team at dentsu International.

For the campaign, the Mazumdars have partnered with Swasth Alliance and ACT Grants (the brainchild of around 40 marquee investors like Accel Partners, Lightspeed Ventures and Kalaari Capital).

Currently, Swasth and AGT are focusing on procuring and delivering oxygen concentrators from overseas markets like China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, the US and the UK.

“An oxygen concentrator could cost anywhere between S$1000-S$2000 depending on the capacity and we started out with a humble target of raising U$25,000 that would allow us to purchase anywhere between 20-30 odd concentrators,” he shared.

The response has been encouraging, he said, as the campaign has managed to raise over S$185,000 from over 839 donors from 10 nations (Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Australia, New Zealand, the US, HK, the UK, and Dubai).

Temasek and Giving.SG are also part of this campaign. These organisations are helping with procurement, logistics and delivery of the oxygen concentrators to India.

Also Read: Has COVID-19 pushed us into the digital future?

TiE Singapore, a global entrepreneur and investor foundation, is also running a fundraising campaign, titled Mission India, which aims to raise US$1 million in total.

“TiE is requesting and calling upon companies, executives and individuals to contribute generously to this fundraiser. Help us spread the word through your friends, families, colleagues and alumni so that we can collect the funds. All proceeds are funnelled through our credible partners to procure and deliver oxygen concentrators and other medical equipment to hospitals across multiple cities in India,” reads a statement on TiE’s campaign portal.

All proceeds will be disbursed via the Singapore Red Cross.

Alternatively, TiE also facilitates donors to donate via Milaap. All proceeds from this crowdfunding platform will be disbursed via TiE’s preferred partners like Swasth, ACT Grands and Mission Oxygen.

In addition to these campaigns, several India and US-based startups and investors have also launched various initiatives to lend a helping hand to India in the time of distress. They include Amazon India, Zomato, Paytm Foundation, Razorpay.

LogiNext, a global technology and automation company, is another company that is working on giving oxygen supply a boost in India.

“While there is a fair supply of oxygen that exists, there is a disconnect when it comes to distribution chains. LogiNext is in the process of launching a service in collaboration with over 50 delivery platforms in the country to help deliver oxygen cylinders. The service will integrate an oxygen delivery option in addition to the regular delivery requirements that the platforms address,” said Dhruvil Sanghvi, CEO, LogiNext.

—

Photo by Firos nv on Unsplash

The post How Singapore’s tech community is helping India in its battle against COVID-19 appeared first on e27.

Turn Capital, the family office of 17LIVE’s co-founder and non-executive chairman Joseph Phua, has agreed to acquire Dapp Pocket, a blockchain company in Taiwan.

Turn Capital will work with Dapp founder Anderson Chen and his team to develop OMO, a cryptocurrency exchange focussed on Southeast Asia.

OMO will be open for business both on app and at www.coinomo.com in June 2021.

Also Read: ‘Companies shut down not because of crises but only when founders give up’: Joseph Phua of M17

Dapp Pocket has two key products under its belt — a DeFi wallet under the same name, and Cappuu, a yield aggregator designed to allow users to easily on-ramp fiat to USD Coin (USDC) through credit card purchase.

While Cappuu is still in beta phase, Dapp Pocket’s products have achieved over 140,000 users.

“Anderson has built an amazing product suite with Dapp Pocket and Cappuu. We believe with the fast-growing retail adoption of cryptocurrencies, we can leverage his products and expertise to jumpstart our launch of a Southeast Asia focused retail exchange. Our goal is to put cryptocurrencies in 100 per cent of the eligible internet population in the region. I look forward to working closely with Anderson and his team,” said Evie Zhang, CEO of Coinomo (parent of OMO) and Partner at Turn Capital.

OMO merges Dapp Pocket Wallet and Cappuu into a single platform and is aimed at being the gateway for Southeast Asia’s new and mainstream adopters to the world of crypto.

As per a press statement, OMO will offer a high-quality user experience and eliminate unnecessary details and confusion.

The other product is OMO finance, a platform that serves as a higher order product, catering to more seasoned crypto investors, to join and enjoy the raging waves of crypto movement on the main street. Diligently crafted investment-grade products will be offered exclusively on this platform.

The crypto space has seen a strong resurgence in the last 12 months, with significant rise in interest in the industry as an alternative asset class coming both from institutional investors and retail investors alike.

Also Read: How 5-year-old live-streaming app 17LIVE acquired 60M users globally

“Bitcoin’s market cap passed a trillion for the first time recently. The global crypto market cap stands at over two trillion. A whole industry was built in just over a decade. We are at the verge of going mainstream,” said Chen.

“Major industry disruptions have been occurring in the space, for example the recent launch of Partior, by JPMorgan, DBS and Temasek, a public-private partnership on blockchain payments platform experimentation. I trust we are only seeing the tip of what is to come in the next 12-24 months,” he added.

Established in 2020, Turn Capital seeks to invest in and/or acquire companies across stages, supporting founders and management with its operational expertise, together with its venture and private equity partners.

Ticket sizes range from US$500,000 from venture investments to US$10 million for private equity investments.

In January, Singapore-based investment firm Kollective Ventures and Turn Capital jointly acquired Taiwanese podcast platform SoundOn.

—

Image Credit: M17

The post Joseph Phua’s Turn Capital acquires Dapp Pocket to create SEA-focused retail crypto exchange appeared first on e27.

Entering the new era of technology and innovation requires cross-industry alliance and mutual cooperation and collaboration across multiple sectors. It is through this synergy that we can truly develop a seamless form of interconnectedness through advanced technology that will ultimately improve everyone’s quality of life.

With that, as the 5G era of application service becomes an increasingly prominent fixture in today’s world, it is important to spark initiatives that will cultivate a culture of co-creation and partnership among all relevant stakeholders.

5G application service is a revolutionary technology poised to eradicate barriers in terms of access, bandwidth, performance, and latency limitations on worldwide connectivity. It has the potential to fundamentally change the way we live through new applications, industries, and business models among many others. With such great things in store, the world’s best thinkers and innovators must work together to nurture these potentials and create a collaborative environment.

The Asia Pacific Telecom 5G Accelerator

One particular institution spearheading initiatives to bridge gaps and meet the demands of the future is the Asia Pacific Telecom, a leader in the provision of wireless telecom needs in Taiwan. Through the Asia Pacific Telecom 5G Accelerator, APT hopes to inject new creative resources, promote new innovations and international exchanges. Investment and business matching not only apply ideas, but also find business models, join hands with new ventures, and jointly create new 5G business opportunities.

Co-organising the event is the SME Division of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, a government arm designed to create an environment that is beneficial to the establishment and growth of Small and Medium Enterprises in Taiwan. With the assistance of their participating partners, AIS Startup and Globe Telecom, and their community partners, Malaysia Global Innovation & Creativity Centre, the programme is expected to reach a strong roster of global startups that can help catalyse the future of 5G.

Also read: Want to fast-track your growth? Fast-track your way to improved customer experience

The goals of the Asia Pacific Telecom 5G Accelerator are simple: to expand international recruitment, connect foreign telecommunications to support domestic startups, and introduce outstanding foreign startups to Taiwan.

Over at APT, they believe that the idea of entrepreneurial themes is stimulated to effectively connect innovative ideas and industrial needs, and enable participating startups to find out the core values and risks of entrepreneurship in the planning process, make the overall entrepreneurial plan closer to the needs of the market, and then improve the entrepreneurial vision and implement it.

With these goals in mind, the programme seeks to bridge gaps in the market, co-create innovative solutions to present problems, open up opportunities for both Taiwan and the rest of the world to expand and interconnect, and ultimately improve the lives of everyone.

What’s in store for participating startups

The programme provides opportunities for national 5G startups and international startups to observe each other, promote learning, communication, and exchanges among participating teams, and guide the entrepreneurial trend of 5G startups in the future market.

Moreover, APT will assist outstanding entrepreneurial teams to introduce fundraising rounds in order to address problems of initial funding at the early stage of entrepreneurship. In addition to the priority to join the programme, participants get to enter the Linkou New Venture Park to accelerate the cultivation and improvement of their entrepreneurial pursuits.

Also read: Residency and acceleration programme to bring global startups to South Korea

With 5G+AIoT as the central theme of the event focusing on but not limited to entertainment, medical care, and transportation, the innovative 5G application solutions of participating startup companies shall serve as the basis for future cooperation or as channel partners for the Asia Pacific Telecom’s 5G accelerator. Through 5G as a primary vehicle to carry innovative application solutions, the programme seeks to help solve industrial problems, create better service process experience, and even open up opportunities for startups to demonstrate or undergo 5G test verification through the APT or other foreign telecom partners.

Interested participants stand to win as much as 250,000 NT$, trophies, and certificates. The programme also offers a slew of other benefits including international landing in Taiwan, Linkouhan cooperation, international testing or display, cooperation with domestic and foreign exhibitions and 5G verification, and the special telecommunications award to be given to the highest scoring startup adjudged by foreign telecommunications companies.

Who are eligible to join?

The members of the proposal team must be natural persons with full capacity, or legally registered persons or groups. If the proposer is a minor, their legal representative should read, understand, and agree to all the stipulated and the revised contents of the proposal contract of this category in order to participate in the competition.

The proposal team shall guarantee that all the information provided by it is correct and cannot register in the name of a third person. If the team information is incorrect or inconsistent with the facts, the conference has the right to disqualify its participation.

The team that received funding from APT 5G Accelerator/Venture through the final election, established a company in accordance with the specifications of APT 5G Accelerator.

The selection criteria are as follows:

• Innovation and market feasibility of 5G products and services [40%]
• Start-up company strategy and marketing strategy [20%]
• Professional and executive ability of startups [30%]
• New venture company economics, financial planning, and risk management [10%]

Changing the world together

With its key focus on entertainment, medical care, and transportation, the accelerator is able to encompass vast aspects of human life — not only in Taiwan but across the world. As such, the power of innovation and technology as catalysed by the global startups of today can immensely fuel the Asia Pacific Telecom’s efforts to introduce 5G technology to the world.

Also read: Future-proofing Singaporean SMEs for a stronger digital future

Given the slew of perks that come with the programme, the networks and opportunities that are opened up, and the integral role that startups will play in building the future, the Asia Pacific Telecom 5G Accelerator is the perfect place for startups to grow and expand.

For more information, interested participants may visit the official Asia Pacific Telecom 5G Accelerator page here.

– –

This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by 
APT 5G Accelerator

We can share your story at e27, too. Engage the Southeast Asian tech ecosystem by bringing your story to the world. Visit us at e27.co/advertise to get started.

– –

Photo by Kaique Rocha from Pexels

The post The 5G era is here, and you can be part of the revolution appeared first on e27.