The 2018 CRM Service Rising Stars: CallDesk

Fresh off a $2.5 million funding round that it completed in October, French start-up CallDesk has set its sights on “delivering happiness through customer service.” To that end, it offers an intelligent virtual agent that many consider to be significantly different than standard automated answering systems, which for the most part offer a very narrow focus. 

CallDesk’s product enables companies to deploy voice-enabled virtual assistants that can handle common support calls, but with a unique form of artificial intelligence and natural language processing capable of supporting a much wider range of customer interactions. Rather than just responding to touch commands (“press 1 for…”) or processing basic keywords and phrases, the virtual agent actually understands what customers want to achieve during their calls. It can also carry on conversations beyond single exchanges by recalling what was said earlier in the call.

Also unique to the product is a programming interface that can pull additional data from companies’ internal systems to move the conversation along. 

The ultimate goal of the company, which was founded in 2016 in Paris, is to offer an intelligent virtual agent that handles repetitive calls so that human agents can focus on more high-value interactions with customers. Its other stated aims are to deal with customers quickly, to be cost-effective so that companies can reinvest the money they save into developing a better overall customer experience; and to serve calls from the cloud and integrate seamlessly with the IT infrastructures that companies already have in place.

For now, CallDesk’s virtual agent is best suited to appointment taking, plugging into a calendar and handling appointment negotiation in natural language; multifactor authentication by phone numbers, first or last names, postal addresses, or custom IDs; intelligent call routing, information collection, and ticket filling; and order management, including tracking and cancellations. 

With the influx of funding it just received, CallDesk plans to add more customization capabilities to its platform so that customers can individualize their virtual agents to perform tasks and fulfill needs unique to their businesses.