Startups - Get To Know Your Users
blog.intercom.io
blog.intercom.io
Also, I'm suspicious of a product that promises a seamless integration of disparate data sources. Anyone who has tried to do that within a company, and I imagine many of us have, knows just how tricky that can be.
I guess some additional details would be nice to have before I'm sold on the promise.
I understand where you're coming from. Your recent post on Privacy was very good.
It's up to each customer to choose what information they're comfortable sharing. On top of that business data we include communications, and usage data and we source publicly available profile data (though you can disable this if you wish).
In terms of seamless, the screenshots aren't faked. It's all there. It all works.
Send me a mail (des at intercom dot io) and I'll happily provide any extra details you want. You might find answers in the docs alternatively. http://docs.intercom.io/
Regards, Des
BTW, you should link that privacy policy from all your pages...
Sure it may help in converting some new customers. May help existing customers. But is this where you want to spend your time and effort?
"How important is it"
Learning from your users is really important for start-ups. It's how you know when you hit MVP, it's how you know what your key values are.
But your userbase isn't one big mesh of people. There are active users, premium users, people who signed up once after clicking a HN link and never returned.
Being able to break your users down into groups (such as "ActiveMonthly") or "Enterprise" helps you get targetted feedback.
On a single user level, if you intend to talk with customers, it's massively useful to know exactly who you're talking to. You'll give a different pitch or response if you know the user has never created an invoice (filed a bug / uploaded a photo/ whatever).
As always, the best way is to give it a try. We find it incredibly useful.
San Francisco and Dublin (Ireland)
Des