The world that tech startups exist in is one of constant change. Every day, new companies appear, thrive, fade away, get bought out by a larger company or become The Next Big Thing. The risk is significant, but the potential for reward is equally great. It’s likely the next few years will see an influx in tech startups as the bar for entry becomes lower with the proliferation of skilled developers and software platforms.
While tech startups are often on the bleeding edge of the industry, they still have to abide by some of the oldest trends there are, namely those of market forces and customer satisfaction. Even the best product could fail if customers don’t understand how it works or if support networks for users fail. Keep reading to learn how mystery shopper services can improve customer satisfaction rates in the tech industry.
Beyond beta testers
When it comes to squashing bugs and improving UX and UI, beta testers are key to creating an easy-to-use product. But even for apps and products that undergo a strenuous beta testing period, more problems inevitably crop up when the product is made available to the public. There’s simply no way to test on the scale of a wide release. Mobile Business Insights noted that a release can present immediate problems — but the solutions may be slow in coming.
Imagine an app that has gone through the beta phase and has just been released on to the Android and Apple stores. If the app has been well marketed pre-launch, it will get a significant number of downloads within the first few hours and days of release. This is a strain on servers first of all, which could cause a few initial hiccups — but beyond that, new users may encounter problems that a Q&A section missed. Some may report the bugs, while others may simply turn to social media to vent their problems with the app. This can be a major headache for the developer if they aren’t able to push out an update quickly enough. Mystery shoppers can help by testing out the bug reporting system and having interactions with the customer support team. They can then report on their experiences and help make adjustments to improve the end-user experience.
Customer support in the digital age
Most consumers are familiar with the experience of calling up the customer support service of a large company, which generally involves speaking with an expert at a call center. Often, that call center is located in another country. Tech startups often do not have the resources to hire a call center. Instead, they rely on a small, dedicated team that answers questions by phone, email and social media. Because this solution is, by necessity, small, it needs to be highly optimized to answer questions and solve issues quickly.
Mystery shoppers may use this service, answer a questionnaire about it and provide valuable feedback that will improve how problems are dealt with. In the same way that mystery shoppers would provide feedback for a brick-and-mortar retail store, they can provide that same quality service for digital sales and services.