#hipmob

We've updated our Zendesk integration, and made 2 key changes.

First, we've changed the way tickets are handled to better fit within the Zendesk interface.

Previously each chat was converted into a separate ticket, which meant replies from the same conversation turned into multiple tickets. Now, we track the most recent ticket for every user, and update that ticket with a comment if there is a new conversation/transcript. This essentially means that you'll be able to view subsequent conversations inside the same 'thread', rather than separately.

If the ticket has been marked as resolved or closed, we'll create a new one. This change is instantly available to any Hipmob customers who use Zendesk - you don't need to do anything to be able to access it.

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Second, we now allow public comments entered by your agents in the Zendesk interface be forwarded to Hipmob and then routed for delivery to the customer's chat window.

You can opt into this by visiting https://manage.hipmob.com/integrations/#/zendesk and enabling the 'Synchronize' option.

We expect to make some small changes over the next month, but please try it and let us know what you think. Please note that we rely on the Zendesk agent's email address to locate the user in Hipmob: only comments by agents that also have Hipmob accounts will be properly processed and forwarded.

Hey folks - hope you all had a good holiday break!

For several weeks during the fall, we had to take down our analytics service and rewrite it to handle the scale we're reaching. We're sorry it took so long to bring back up, but in the process we added a key new feature.

You can now download and analyze your customer support data yourself.

To download your data, first go to the dashboard, and hit download:

That should take you to a listing of every day you've had historical data, and the ability to download them all (or just specific, individual days).

Operators connected to Hipmob using the Hipmob web console, a compatible XMPP client or the Hipmob iPhone app can apply tags while in a conversation using the #tag command. If you use these tags for business rules processing, its important that the correct tags be applied, and that there are no typing errors. With free-form text entry into a chat window, it is often easy to make mistakes.

We've just released a new feature that lets you restrict the allowable tags to a previously approved set: you can set it up to only allow previously approved tags, or to require confirmation before adding a tag that hasn't been seen before. This should cut back on tagging errors and make sure your rules operate unimpeded by text input errors.

Slack is one of the best team communication tools out there, and is growing in popularity. With support for real-time message archiving, search and a powerful channel metaphor for organizing streams of communication, we've had a number of our customers ask about adding Slack notifications to Hipmob.

We're happy to announce our Slack integration is now live. Now anytime a visitor to your website or a user of your mobile app has a question, you can have the message pop right into your chosen Slack channel.

Your team members can then hop straight from there into the Hipmob web console and start talking.

We use Slack's OAuth2 support to make connecting your Hipmob account to your Slack account nice and easy. See how to connect your Hipmob account to your Slack account.

Announcing the Hipmob Referral Program - tell your friends about Hipmob, and get a month of service for free!

At Hipmob, we’ve been lucky enough to have you all, our customers, telling your friends about us. Now we’re making it official with a referral bonus. For every friend you refer, - who becomes a paid subscriber for at least 60 days, - you’ll get one month off your subscription, - up to a $50 value.

There’s no limit to how many times you can do redeem this referral deal. If 100 of your friends sign up for at least 60 days, you’ll get 100 months free.

How To Redeem Your Referral Bonus

To redeem your referral bonus, simply have your friend sign up from your unique referrer link. If they sign up from one of the regular links, you (or them) can simply email us, and we’ll hook you up.

You can get your unique referral URL from the Hipmob dashboard here (image below)

A few months back we lost one of our earliest paying customers. This is the story of how that happened and the lesson we learned.

For background, we help you talk to your mobile app users; - you can use Hipmob to improve sales in your mobile app (for talking to a user when they’re about to buy a subscription or complete a purchase) or provide great customer support. For the past year we’ve grown briskly, and frankly we’ve moved too slowly executing on several ideas.

The customer in question was one of our earliest paying customers and was a voracious user - of our webapp and API. Their feedback helped us improve Hipmob, and we often showed them mockups of new features for input. This kind of customer communication is our lifeblood - and it was while reaching out with mockups that we discovered they’d be leaving us for a competitor. I’d noticed their traffic had been down over the past couple of weeks and I mentally said I’d keep an eye on it; it was probably just an ebb. In my mind;

"They’d never leave us without first bringing up the problem and giving us a chance to redeem ourselves."

I was completely, 100% wrong. I sent the customer an email asking for feedback. They responded promptly (as usual) with really generous feedback. In addition, they mentioned:

"… unfortunately we´ll be moving away from Hipmob into something more async …"

Startups are a rollercoaster, and we’ve had our share of ups and downs. That being said, losing this customers was a psychologically crushing blow. We’re not perfect - they won’t be the last to leave us. But to lose one who’d been there from the start, and been so deeply engagedm hit me like a gut punch. I thought we’d been doing all the right things; we talked to customers frequently, iterated the product based on their stated needs, listened, resolved issues quickly, and made ourselves really accessible (all our customers get my cellphone number - many of them call me when they need help). Despite all that, we still managed to not serve the needs of a customer we held really close, and that hurt.

Even worse - they left in search of asynchronous features (such as those we recently released) which we’d been developing, but had been delayed for a few months dude to setbacks and some poor planning on our part. We live on releasing new products and features, and our slowness was now costing us real money. I suspect they were the tip of the iceberg - we were probably not converting far more customers because we lacked these features in the first place, and were only able to bring them to market several months after we first conceived them. The lesson? It’s as important to listen to what your customers don’t say, as to what they do. In our case, it was the difference between a customer who paid, and one who left.

The customer moved on to a competitor, and they’re happy there. I’m happy for them - we work hard to earn your business, but it’s more important to us that you have a good experience no matter where they go, than an average one with us. For those still with us - thank you. Give me whatever feedback you can - I’ll listen to everything you say - and to everything you don’t.

We’ve been doing iOS development in-house at 37signals for over a year! Since the launch of the Basecamp for iPhone app we’ve had a lot of questions about our development & design process going mobile, our opinions on the new environment, and more. Recently our team has participated in some interviews about how we made the app, and I think you’ll learn a lot from them.

Ryan was interviewed by Hipmob about the design process of the app, and the issues we’ve faced on mobile platforms:

The biggest challenge for a company like ours is to change our way of thinking because, we grew up when the web was just a laptop thing. We learned on laptops and we defined our notion of what software is on laptops and desktops, and it’s really changing.

Check out the whole interview transcript for more great perspectives and insights on mobile development.

I was lucky to be invited to the 4th monthly MotionMeetup, a moderated Q&A session with various RubyMotion developers. They asked questions about what I learned making the Basecamp app, what advice I’d give to newcomers to the platform, and why I hate bees: