Service is an app we’ve covered before – the startup acts as an intermediary between you and businesses where you’ve had bad experiences. So this means whenever your bags are lost by an airline or a restaurant ruins your meal, Service will interface with the business on your behalf to help make things right in the form of a refund, credit, etc.
After being in business a year the company’s app has been downloaded 50,000 times and saved/recouped customers a total of $1M dollars.
But the current version requires you to come to Service with your issues, uploading a description of the issue and attaching proof of purchase. Not only was this a hassle (you may forget to submit the request after your awful meal) but it also leaves users with a burden of doubt (was that delay long enough to make a fuss?).
So, the startup is launching Protect, a way to streamline the process to file a case. It works by connecting to your email account and monitoring your email inbox for things like flight itineraries and receipts. If you have an issue with a good or service that has an email record you just automatically tap on that transaction within Service’s app to file a case.
Plus, Service will proactively monitor your flights for delays or cancelations by parsing the flight data from your email. If the delay is over 2 hours or the flight is canceled they will proactively reach out to you and ask if they can help you get compensated.
Eventually, Service plan to expand this proactive monitoring feature to things like missed deliveries and and incorrect billing situations – essentially this is the start of a proactive commerce assistant that protects your purchases – almost like a 21st century version of a credit card’s consumer protection features.
The new feature is bound to help increase usage for the startup, mainly because it just makes it easier to find a claim.
But it isn’t a step towards monetizing, something the young company has yet to build into their product. However, Service founder and CEO Michael Schneider explained that the plan is now to leave Service free for the consumer, and monetize with businesses instead. They plan to do this by using everything they learned helping customers to develop a product that automates customer service for businesses.
Service Protect is live now as part of the app’s new update.
