Teikametrics automatically prevents user frustration using Heap's Intercom integration

Proactive guidance to explain a sophisticated product

Teikametrics offers eCommerce vendors a sophisticated package of AI-enhanced tools for optimizing their listings on marketplaces like Amazon and Walmart.  Much of its interaction with users is through Intercom, a conversational messaging tool that combines live chat with chatbots.

Last year Brett Colangelo, the Customer Support Operations Manager who runs the Intercom team, began to use Heap in order to identify areas of the site where users were having difficulty and program Intercom to proactively offer guidance. “I don't have a ton of analytical background,” says Brett. “Heap lets me take what I do know and leverage it.”

Learning how to head off problems before they occur

“We analyzed the pages on our site that have the most sellers starting inbound conversations,” Brett says. “That started painting a picture of where the sellers were getting confused.”

“I'm a big believer in stopping problems before they become big things. Using Heap, I can take what I know about customer issues and leverage it with proactive messaging.”

Triggering helpful messages at the right moment

“We were able to define Heap events that trigger when users get to one of the pages we know people have trouble with,” Brett says. “And we have other events that watch the flow of clicks and trigger if it looks like the user isn’t progressing the way we would expect.”

“When those events trigger, we use Intercom to serve them a message right at the point of frustration that will tell them what they need to know. That heads off a call when they are upset.”

Personalizing messages to each user

“It’s great that we can trigger messages based on the history of a user’s clicks,” Brett says.  “If somebody clicks on a page they haven’t been to in more than a week, we can trigger a message to remind them how to use it. And if we see that over a 14-day session people are making more changes than we would recommend, we can give them information about how they may be hurting their performance.”

From data to insights to action

“Heap made a big difference recently when things weren’t displaying the way some users expected” Brett recalls “It turned out they wanted information that wasn’t available because of a limitation at Amazon.”

“Using Heap, I found the best place in the process to insert a popup that says, ‘Here's the state of the world. If you're looking for this and not seeing it, here's why. If you have more questions, reach out to the team. And if you have feedback, here's a place for that.’”

“Since we created that popup, we haven’t had one message from a user confused about the issue.”