Sparkcentral, provider of a customer relationship management (CRM) platform, launched an in-app messaging solution that allows businesses to provide their customers with a live customer service agent without leaving their app.

Forcing customers to leave the native app every time they have a question or problem “is completely contradictory to what customer service should be”, the company said in a statement, while CEO Davy Kestens added that the ability to chat to an agent within an app “fixes the last missing piece in the mobile experience.”

Michelle Matson, director of social media services at T-Mobile, said the new solution will help it “raise the bar on customer service to completely new heights”.

The firm believes the solution will help businesses improve key performance indicators and customer satisfaction and will also give insight into user trends and feedback.

Weak mobile customer service is harming customer engagement, according to a Gartner report from earlier this year mentioned by the company.

The study revealed that “no rallying principle in the enterprise matters more than the creation of superior customer engagement” and that by 2017, one-third of all customer service interactions will still require the support of a human intermediary.