In The Chat Communications

In The Chat Communications Inc. was a Canadian company established in 2010 by John Huehn, who served as its President and CEO. Huehn's background includes a 12-year tenure at Rogers Communications, where he ascended from a call center representative to Vice President of Client Management, overseeing contact center strategy. This experience directly informed the creation of In The Chat, which he started to provide a more efficient way for companies to handle customer service through digital channels rather than traditional phone calls. Initially focused on social media, the company observed a user preference for private messaging and expanded its offerings to include SMS, web chat, and messaging apps.

The firm developed an enterprise-grade digital customer service platform that allowed organizations to engage with customers across various digital channels from a single, unified solution. This omnichannel platform was designed to increase customer satisfaction while reducing contact center costs. It utilized text analytics to intelligently route customer inquiries to the most suitable agent, enabling representatives to manage multiple conversations simultaneously across different digital formats. The business model targeted large enterprises, charging a personalized platform fee and then adding users to the system.

The company was situated in Waterloo's Accelerator Centre and grew to employ around 22 people. A significant milestone was its partnership with Facebook to integrate Messenger into its platform, becoming one of the first to offer this for enterprise customer service. After nine years of operation, In The Chat was acquired by Pegasystems in May 2019 for approximately $10.9 million. The acquisition aimed to integrate In The Chat's technology into Pega's AI-powered customer engagement solutions, enhancing their digital and omnichannel communication capabilities. Following the acquisition, John Huehn joined Pegasystems to help integrate the technologies and later took on other leadership roles within the company.

Keywords: digital customer service, omnichannel communication, customer engagement platform, text analytics, social media customer service, enterprise chat, contact center solutions, customer satisfaction, digital transformation, SMS customer service, Pegasystems acquisition, John Huehn, Waterloo startup, Accelerator Centre, customer service automation, chatbot integration, private messaging, unified communications, enterprise software, SaaS