A year ago, Parature chief executive Duke Chung told me that the customer service market was ready for a shake-up. At the time, it was possible to see his words as typical startup bluster, but now the company is sharing numbers that show strong growth.
Vienna, Va.-based Parature says that by by delivering its software online, via a multi-tenant architecture, it can deliver its services much more quickly and cheaply than traditional competitors. Because of this approach, Parature board member Rich Wong of Accel Partners previously compared the company to "the Salesforce.com of customer service" (that comparison is a little trickier now, since Salesforce launched its own Service Cloud product).
The company's core product is a customer service "portal," a web site where customers can discuss and find answers to their problems. But vice president of marketing Gary McNeil emphasizes that Parature offers a multi-channel service that goes beyond a web site to include things like in-product chat, Twitter integration, and mobile access.
As for that growth I mentioned earlier, Parature says its revenue has increased 40 percent year-over-year. It now operates 3,000 support portals that receive 210 million page views per month. It also processes more than 3 million support tickets every three months.
"When the downturn started happening we thought, 'Oh wow, how's it going to affect our business?' but it didn't," McNeil says. "Companies are wondering, 'Hey, how can I maximize the value of every customer?'"
McNeil identifies two particular markets where Parature has been well-received, and where the company would like to continue growing. Gaming companies like the product because it's the only one that allows players to ask for help through an in-game chat window, he says. Parature customers include IGN, iWin and Playfish. The other area is education: more than 300 colleges use Parature to manage requests and feedback from faculty and students.
The company has raised $29.5 million in venture backing.