Help Scout

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Help Scout PBC
FormerlyBrightwurks
Company typePrivate
IndustrySoftware, SaaS
FoundedApril 17, 2011; 12 years ago (2011-04-17)
FoundersNick Francis, Jared McDaniel, Denny Swindle
Headquarters
Boston, Massachusetts
ProductsHelp Scout Help Desk, Docs, Beacon
ServicesHelp desk software, email management, support automation
Number of employees
100
Websitewww.helpscout.com

Help Scout, legally Help Scout PBC, is a global remote company which is a provider of help desk software and is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.[1] The company provides an email-based customer support platform, knowledge base tool, and an embeddable search/contact widget for customer service professionals. Help Scout's main product (also called Help Scout) is a web-based SaaS (software as a service) HIPAA-compliant[2] help desk.[1][3]

Founded in 2011, the company serves more than 10,000 customers in over 140 countries including Buffer,[4][5] Basecamp, Trello,[6] Reddit, and AngelList. Many employees are remote workers with over 100 employees living in more than 80 cities worldwide.[7][8][9][10] In 2020, the company sublet its office in Boston[11] and turned the company into a distributed company (entirely remote).

History[edit]

Nick Francis,[12] Jared McDaniel, and Denny Swindle ran Brightwurks, a web design consultancy in Nashville, Tennessee for six years before building Help Scout, a help desk software.[13]

The co-founders launched Help Scout publicly while participating in Techstars Boston, a startup accelerator program.[13][14] Help Scout raised $800k in angel funding soon after Techstars and was profitable for nearly two years before raising $6 million in Series A funding in 2015, from Foundry Group and Converge Venture Partners.[15][16][17][18][19] Brightwurks was renamed Help Scout in 2015.[citation needed]

Features and technology[edit]

Help Desk[edit]

Help Scout's support software operates like a shared email inbox. Help Scout enables large teams to provide customer support via email with their tool.[20] The platform features integrations with live chat, phone systems, CRMs, and email marketing tools.[21]

Docs[edit]

In addition to its help desk platform, Help Scout offers a feature called Docs, a self-service knowledge base for customers to find answers to support questions. Docs was launched as a feature in 2013.[22]

Exporting documents requires API access and programming knowledge, there is no export to ZIP file containing HTML source code/CSS/assets, or PDF offerings at this time.[23]

Beacon[edit]

This embeddable widget provides users on a website with quick access to Docs and/or serves as a contact form.[24]

Mobile[edit]

Help Scout launched its iOS app[25] in January 2016 and its Android app[26] in February 2017.

Open source contribution[edit]

One of the developers at Help Scout created an open source CSS framework that is available to the general public. It is currently being used to style the marketing website.

  • Seed's code base written using Sass, following the naming architecture of BEM and ITCSS.
  • Its collection of modules (called "Seed Packs") and components draw inspiration from a handful of libraries and frameworks such as Bootstrap and Tachyons.
  • Unlike traditional Sass/CSS methodologies, Seed's architecture is more similar to modern Javascript code bases and workflows.
  • Techniques like scoping, modularization, and dependency management are heavily utilized and baked into the core of Seed.
  • Additional information about the framework as well as Getting Started documentation can be found at seedcss.com.

Work culture[edit]

Help Scout is an entirely remote company.[27] To communicate company-wide, they often use video to share important updates.[28]

Help Scout does not operate a traditional commission-based sales team. They instead hold a non-commission structure with the sales team members receiving a fixed salary.[29]

Branding[edit]

Formerly known as Brightwurks, Help Scout officially changed its name to match their central Help Desk product in 2015.[citation needed]

Help Scout's original logo was a literal Help Scout (rather like a Boy Scout) before changing to a medal, then a laurel wreath, and is now currently three diagonal lines which denote the initials HS (Help Scout).[30]

Awards, recognition, and philanthropy[edit]

In December 2011, Help Scout (known then as Brightwurks) participated in a fundraising initiative to benefit Acumen, a charity that helps tackle poverty.[31] They designed and sold a poster of Steve Jobs' famous quote “Here’s to the crazy ones” and were able to donate over $100,000 to Acumen.[16]

In November 2015, Help Scout was named by AppStorm as one of six customer service software offerings to delight customers for Mac.[32] In 2015, Help Scout was also named a “marketing tool to know” by Business2Community[33] and a “game-changing software solution” for startups by Business.com.[34] Since raising their Series A, Help Scout has been featured on multiple ‘best of’ lists in both marketing and customer service publications. In 2016, they were featured in BostInno’s “16 Boston Startups To Watch in 2016”.[35] Help Scout also publishes a blog on customer support and a newsletter that has over 70,000 subscribers.[36][37]

In 2015, Help Scout won “Best Job Description” from The Workies Awards by Workable.[38]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Help Scout Draws Funding To Bring Affordable Email Collaboration And Support To Startups. TechCrunch. 2011-10-08.
  2. ^ Scout, Help. "Help Scout and HIPAA - Help Scout Support". docs.helpscout.com. Retrieved 2017-02-23.
  3. ^ "Farm to keyboard: why software is the next "craft" industry". Quartz. Retrieved 2017-02-22.
  4. ^ "Respond by Buffer | The 7 tools we use for support and customer development". Respond By Buffer. Retrieved 2017-02-22.
  5. ^ "8 Essential Online Tools For Getting More Work Done". Fast Company. 2013-12-13. Retrieved 2017-02-23.
  6. ^ Cervino, Brian. "How The Help Scout Integration For Trello Is Transforming Support Teams". Retrieved 2017-02-22.
  7. ^ Higginbottom, Karen. "How Agile Working Has Impacted Our Workspace". Forbes. Retrieved 2017-02-22.
  8. ^ "The Right Way to Build a Remote Culture". Inc.com. 2017-03-18. Retrieved 2017-02-22.
  9. ^ "Becca Van Nederynen - Help Scout - Remote Work Interview". Pajamas. 2015-08-24. Retrieved 2017-02-22.
  10. ^ Zapier. "How Successful Remote Teams Evaluate Employees: A look inside Automattic, GitHub and Help Scout - The Ultimate Guide to Remote Work - Zapier". zapier.com. Retrieved 2017-02-22.
  11. ^ "Leah Knobler of Help Scout about hiring remote talent, onboarding and intentional communication - NoHQ Remote Work Guides". nohq.co. 28 January 2020. Retrieved 2020-10-14.
  12. ^ "145 — Nick Francis". From Founder to CEO. 13 September 2016. Retrieved 2017-02-23.
  13. ^ a b McCarty, Brad (22 July 2011). "Frugality and determination make Help Scout a startup to watch". thenextweb.com. Retrieved 2017-02-22.
  14. ^ "TechStars' new galaxy of start-ups". Boston.com. Retrieved 2017-02-22.
  15. ^ "A 'Bootstrapper at Heart,' Help Scout Raises $6M Led by Foundry Group". BostInno. Retrieved 2017-02-22.
  16. ^ a b "The Road to Growth - Help Scout". www.mbbp.com. Retrieved 2017-02-22.
  17. ^ "Email support software startup Help Scout raises $6M". www.bizjournals.com. Retrieved 2017-02-22.
  18. ^ "BRIEF-Help Scout Inc files to say it raised about $6.2 million in equity financing". Reuters. 2017-02-07. Retrieved 2017-02-22.
  19. ^ Francis, Nick (2013-01-22). "12 Benefits of Being Under-funded". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 2017-02-22.
  20. ^ "Stuff We Like: Help Scout – Lewis Croft". lewiscroft.com. Retrieved 2017-03-15.
  21. ^ "'Drunk user testing' mixes cocktails and coding". Retrieved 2017-02-22.
  22. ^ Scout, Help. "Knowledge Base Software | Help Scout". Help Scout. Retrieved 2017-02-22.
  23. ^ "Data Export Options - Help Scout Support". docs.helpscout.com. Retrieved 2024-03-07.
  24. ^ Scout, Help. "Beacon | Help Scout". www.helpscout.com. Retrieved 2017-02-22.
  25. ^ "Help Scout on the App Store". App Store. Retrieved 2017-02-22.
  26. ^ "Help Scout - Android Apps on Google Play". play.google.com. Retrieved 2017-02-22.
  27. ^ "6 Companies Who Rocked Remote Workflow in 2016". Move Your Business Forward | Worldwide101 Blog. 2017-01-31. Retrieved 2017-02-23.
  28. ^ "Tired of Endless Meetings? Video Might be The Answer". business.com. Retrieved 2017-02-22.
  29. ^ "Commission Vs. No Commission: Sales Pros Take Sides". BostInno. Retrieved 2017-02-23.
  30. ^ Scout, Help. "The Evolution of the Help Scout Brand". Help Scout Blog. Retrieved 2017-02-22.
  31. ^ McCarty, Brad (6 December 2011). ""Here's to the crazy ones" gets its own beautiful, letterpress poster to benefit charity". thenextweb.com. Retrieved 2017-02-22.
  32. ^ "Slick Customer Service Software For Mac To Delight Your Clients « Mac.AppStorm". mac.appstorm.net. Retrieved 2017-02-22.
  33. ^ "100 Awesome Marketing Tools You Should Know". Business 2 Community. Retrieved 2017-02-22.
  34. ^ "11 Game-Changing Software for Startups - business.com". business.com. Retrieved 2017-02-22.
  35. ^ "16 Boston Startups to Watch in 2016". BostInno. Retrieved 2017-02-22.
  36. ^ "Managing the Double-Edged Sword of Teaser Emails". smallbiztrends.com. 19 January 2016. Retrieved 2017-02-22.
  37. ^ "How Help Scout Went from 0 to 250K Visitors a Month | SEJ". Search Engine Journal. 2015-05-13. Retrieved 2017-02-22.
  38. ^ "2015 Workies Award Winners: The Best Recruitment Strategies". Inside Workable - news, company announcements, new features from Workable. 2015-12-11. Retrieved 2017-03-15.

External links[edit]

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Help_Scout&oldid=1217201250"