When does a social oriented service becomes anti-social? – the answer is simple, when the users become abusers. Facebook, twitter, reddit, instagram and others all have their share of trolls, abusive users and the various forms of Internet abuse that we’ve been accustomed to over the past 3 decades. However, what happens when a socially oriented platform becomes the driving force behind an abusive trend – not because it aimed at that, simply because it’s there?
Recent reports from the Asian social media, indicate that services such as Uber and Grab had been suffering from an increasing number of “Driver Originated Harassment”, where drivers who render transportation services via these platforms had been harassing female passengers, following the exposure of their private mobile phone number to the driver – as a means of communicating between the driver and the passenger.
Video:
Links:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-32970448
http://paultan.org/2015/03/12/first-reported-uber-harassment-case-in-malaysia/
Now, when examining the situation, other services worldwide are exposed to the same issue. Ranging from the ever popular GetTaxi, to the plethora of services that are rapidly coming out. They all provide a valuable service, they all provide a means of communications between the service provider and the customer – and they all suffer from the same fate, the enablement of direct communications between the provider and customer is volatile and sensitive – and worst of all, they can’t protect it.
One would say: “It’s their responsibility – they must protect us”, the answer would be: “well, they can and they can’t at the same time”. Technically speaking they can, the technology is available. From an economical standpoint, they can’t – the available technologies that they currently have are simply too expensive. And building their own – again, it may not be as expensive, but now they are walking into a new realm of technology, which is surely not their core competency.
This was the case for one of our customers, who had evaluated the various available services and rapidly realised that enabling such a service, atop of their existing pricing and service model, will simply kill their existing revenue and budget and made the entire possibility a mutt point. Thus, enter our iVox Cloud and Clear2Voice SDK.
Unlike traditional services, who calculate your usage according to minutes and accounts, our iVox Cloud platform is flat-rated – enabling a service provider a simple, to the point and concise billing methodology. The cost on a per-user basis becomes almost negligible – thus, keeping the existing service cost and value to the customer and service provider in tact. How does it work? very simple.
When a user makes a call from the “social application” to the service provider, the call is traversed using a secured and encrypted tunnel, maintaining the privacy of both the caller and the service provider. Calls can be recorded, just like within a call center. Calls can be signed, analyzed and kept for a pre-set of time, to maintain customer service satisfaction, monitor service providers responsiveness and etiquette and analysis of a multitude of other KPIs. Secured, Encrypted and private communications between customers and service providers is no longer a luxury, it is an imperative part of any social or smart-phone oriented service. The ability to control both the transit, the medium and the privacy of such is a must for every online/mobile service provider – be it a taxi service, a bank, an insurance company or even your local medicare. Service providers need to care about their customers well being and privacy, not only for the fulfillment of the service.
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