Helpstream.biz - Collaborative Customer Support

Helpstream offers a robust solution for web-based customer support at no cost. Mohr Davidow Ventures was so impressed by the product that they put their money where their mouth was and invested $8.6 million. The basic service is available at no cost and premium additions are priced reasonably. By placing advertising on the basic service and by charging for premium add-ons and an advertising free version, Helpstream hopes to have a viable business model. The solution is designed to rapidly speed up customer support by automating the business process and by offering a form of community collaboration. The community collaboration feature allows any one to ask a question and have it answered by anyone in the community. These answers can then be stored where they can be used as a reference by future customers requiring assistance.

“We are incredibly proud to have designed a powerful and highly-collaborative on-demand solution that uniquely meets the demanding needs of the customer support market,” said Anthony Nemelka, CEO, Pathworks Software. “By coupling years of customer support and help desk expertise with advanced Web 2.0 capabilities, we are able to offer customers the next generation of on-demand customer support applications that transform self service into a highly-collaborative experience for problem resolution.

By simplifying business processes and by allowing online collaboration at no cost, Helpstream could become extremely popular amongst companies trying to cut costs while offering superior customer service.

The business model is a familiar one, however will it work with this type of solution? It seems unlikely that companies will be willing to forgo their own branding and allow third party advertising to their customers. If this is the case, then the majority of companies will be using the premium service and Helpstream loses a huge selling point (free).