Facebook has acquired a startup, called Customer that is into customer services and chatbots at a huge amount of $I billion. It provides agents with data and a clear picture of users. In a private customer funding round, the Customer was rated at $7100 million. The company makes a platform for organizations to look after customer service in addition to social media apps.
Dan Levy, VP of Ads and Business Products from Facebook will host the company’s data and take care of Facebook’s infrastructure. Facebook will not be using any of Customer’s data to inform business owners about ads that are viewed. Businesses may also get an option to use their data for personal marketing reasons that include separate advertising services.
What is Customer Funding?
A start-up needs funding for the following purposes:
- Product development
- Legal services
- Marketing and sales
- Office space and admin expenses
- Team hiring
- Capital
- Equipment
Customer funding means when the costs of the activities of a company are recovered by charging users for the services provided, based on agreed costs and scope, rather than by funding from member nations.
Investor funding is definitely good, but not as good as customer funding. If any business wants to execute and deliver the product, then customer funding is the best option.
Facebook To Grow Its Customer Service Tools
Customer is the CRM platform for customer experience and support that focuses on customers, enabling organizations to know everything about customers to take informed actions. It provides businesses with a full view of every customer by unifying all relevant data, apps, and systems. The startup was founded in 2015 and has its headquarters in New York City.
Customer CEO Brad Birnbaum and Jeremy Suriel both have raised nearly $174 million in private customer funding from a number of investors. This includes Boldstart Ventures, Cisco Investments, and Coatue to name a few.
This company offers numerous retailers that have seen growth in business with a direct-to-customer brand. The customers in the category are more successful in the D2C trend. Its omnichannel approach is reshaping the industry in such a way customer service continues to shift and consumers are looking for personalized interactions. For example, if someone has bought a dress online that is to be delivered. Then, you may be worried if it will reach on time. You have to call support and offer all information that the organization should have to have the information.
The support agents have the knowledge and are able to send you emails or even SMS to tell you about the delay. It will tell you to offer an option to get another dress with no extra cost and update the address. The company is offering modernized service for the up-to-date consumer.
Facebook has been able to build a huge business by offering customer services to other businesses. Now, the idea is to double that with a platform that can do a lot more as a service. There are nearly 175 million Facebook users, having both who use Facebook to deal with businesses that use it for online identity and those businesses that offer conversation channels on messaging apps owned by Facebook such as Instagram and WhatsApp to contact them.
Final Word
Customer service is a great play for Facebook to be making. The company has invested in creating various features for businesses on its messaging apps. It has made it easier for businesses to allow people to shop, share pictures and even order food from the app.
When a product department gets funding from the customer, then something more than a product is exchanged. The customer says that through this they believe in trust and get better results. As the team can offer a new way of doing things. These non-financial things of customer funding make it best for a new product.
As digital is growing is bringing change in customer behavior, the business process can handle customer data to adapt in a similar way to go beyond customer expectations. Brands and startups can differentiate in this age with a full view of users that are enabled by platforms and services other than siloed applications and traditional systems.
Within this, customer service is a vast industry that goes beyond Facebook.
