In the ultra-crowded world of IT help desks and service management software, Freshdesk in mid-2015 raised another $50 million to better serve -- wait for it -- the millennial crowd. I'm always skeptical when a tech company says it caters to millennials. It often sounds like a publicity stunt -- especially when a company can't afford to ignore GenX and the Baby Boomers while allegedly opening their arms more widely to Millennials.
Still, when it comes to IT service management, Freshdesk's focus on millennials is likely wise. As a member of GenX, I grew up using phone support and email support services. But the self-service world, often driven by millennials, demands a multi-channel (as in: multiple communications channels) approach to service management.
Founded around 2011, Freshdesk is a cloud-based customer support platform. The mission: Make it easy for brands to talk to customers and make it easy for users get in touch with businesses. So far, Freshdesk has attracted 40,000 customers and the company has grown to 300 employees.
In some ways, it sounds like Freshdesk's IT service desk approach competes with ZenDesk, Salesforce's Desk.com and so many other cloud-based IT service management tools.
FreshDesk's feature list is extremely long -- with muti-channel support across:
- Phones
- Incoming and outgoing mailboxes
- Twitter accounts
- Facebook pages
- Live chat
- Social media syncing
About Those Millennials
Backed by $50 million in Series E funding, Freshdesk President Dilawar Syed says the company will add more product features to "keep up with the expectations of millennials." What types of features?
I don't have the shortlist -- yet. Stay tuned.
