It’s not often that an industry-standard tool gets out-competed. And when it happens, the users of the more popular, established solution are slow to react and switch to the new competitor. But you, my dear readers, will learn about one of these disruptive tools in advance!
Today, I’ll be looking at HelpWire, a free remote support software. It innovates in a simple, but significant way – by challenging the traditional support tool monetization model. But there are many other differences as well. I’ll use TeamViewer – the current go-to remote support solution – to illustrate them. Now, let’s discover what exactly changed and why it’s significant!
H2: TeamViewer Issues
TeamViewer represents the current paradigm of remote support software. The technician and the customer have separate TV versions installed. The former can connect to a lower client version, but not a higher one. In addition, free users that work with a personal license can get suspended if the company suspects business use. This is the way the app is monetized.
This creates several major implications. First off, it’s not great that customers have to find and install TeamViewer by themselves. The website presents lots of options, so it’s easy to get lost in them. This looks like an obvious step to simplify, but the monetization model depends on it. If clients do it themselves, they are likely to find and install a newer version, thus also forcing the technicians to upgrade.
Secondly, there’s the fact that free users are constantly faced with the threat of TeamViewer being disabled. Who would voluntarily work with a solution that could lock you out at any minute?
And finally, updates become a lot less substantial under this model. If they were optional, technicians would only buy them if they wanted the improvements that the next update provides. This would create an incentive to fix any of the following, commonly cited issues:
- Poorly-documented, overly complex features
- Poor reliability and performance
- Lack of features that are often requested by users
For now, TeamViewer developers can’t even gauge the usefulness of any particular update – it will be purchased either way. And why is this the case? Mainly, the lack of competition. TeamViewer is an established brand with a large user base. So, let’s move on to the free TeamViewer alternative and see how it changes things up.
H2: How HelpWire Improves on This
The creators of HelpWire took a bold step. When you need to connect to a customer, it generates a link that they can use to install the app then and there. And suddenly, all the problems evaporate – specialists with older app versions can still provide support, and there’s no need for the client to search for or troubleshoot anything.
This approach would certainly work with a paid solution. Eventually, individual techs and businesses notice how much better a remote support app can get when it’s not being hobbled by poor monetization. And it’s going to be difficult to go back to solutions that work like TeamViewer.
In part, the company accomplished this by focusing on a single, universal, cross-platform solution for all customer categories that works (at least on macOS and Windows, so far).
There are no confusing licenses to choose from. There’s no risk of it shutting off for free users, either.
Right now, HelpWire is free, even for businesses. So stay ahead of the curve! Start adapting to HelpWire and develop a new, simplified procedure for support. It’s a new, ambitious project, so enjoy the free access while it lasts. HelpWire’s model is the obvious next step, and pretty soon, support specialists will accept nothing less.