GE 231: How MindTouch Completely Revamped the Customer Self-Service Industry (podcast)

• 01:11 – Aaron and Steve co-founded MindTouch, which started as an open-source project.
• 01:31 – As CEO, Aaron’s day involves strategy and vision, but he is still actively involved in sales.
• 01:51 – MindTouch helps people get support without having to call a customer support center.
• 02:33 – It’s an elegant solution for combining content types and creates a great customer self-service experience.
• 02:57 – An example is the Cisco Meraki documentation for a VPN. MindTouch gives answers and uses machine learning to identify other useful content.
• 03:36 – By driving engagement, average time on site has increased from 40 seconds to 12 minutes because users are finding useful information.
• 04:14 – Companies already have the content, but the way they deliver it needs to be customer first.
• 05:01 – Delivering effective content in a micro moment.
• 05:44 – They also drive 80% of organic search traffic in the product’s category.
• 07:18 – The software is cloud based and the pricing is value based on the amount of usage.
• 08:48 – MindTouch is seamlessly integrated in the brand.
• 09:39 – There is a touch point feature that layers the content across the customer’s journey. The well-structured content is injected throughout the website and self-service support journey.
• 10:56 – Value-based pricing is based on metrics and engagement.
• 11:32 – The way to set up value-based pricing is to take a guess and then adjust and find the engagement metrics the business values.
• 13:17 – Engagement, touch points, and usage are what the pricing metrics are based on.
• 14:13 – MindTouch started out as an open source project in 2006. The cloud based system was released in 2012 and they now have over 300 customers.
• 17:54 – If you stay at something long enough with a positive attitude and focus on value you will win.
• 19:56 – How distribution of open-source was completely disrupted by the distribution of cloud software.
• 20:49 – Customer referral rates are 96% and most customers come to them by referral.
• 21:44 – Having a marketing engine would be great.
• 22:09 – What makes self-service so important is if you have a subscription based business model, you need to provide continued value to the client. MindTouch helps customers achieve value from their purchase.
• 23:32 – Businesses that sell through distribution channels are at risk because they don’t have a direct connection with their customers.

Resources From This Interview:

• MindTouch
• MindTouch Customer Stories
• Aaron on Twitter
• Cisco Meraki Documentation Example
• Product Help Whirlpool Example
• Must-read books:
  • The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee
  • Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harar
  • The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires by Tim Wu
• Legacy

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