April 2002

By Erik Lounsbury, Customer Inter@ction Solutions magazine

Improving E-Mail And Web Self-Service
Although e-mail has become an accepted if not preferred method of communication, it is not always an effective means of communications. For interpersonal communications, most people have an e-mail address and will respond (eventually) to an e-mail as opposed to a voice mail message. Add to this the fact that, unlike with the phone, if you are trying to market or sell a product, with e-mail you do not have to first go through a gatekeeper to contact someone directly (unless, of course, that person has set up Spam filters and your message is immediately directed to a Spam file for deletion). For businesses, this has also added another channel of communications, one that by its very nature leads to more and more use. Many companies have implemented Web-based self-service options in an attempt to deflect calls and e-mail, but often the implementations do not go far enough in helping people to help themselves, which leads to more e-mail or phone calls. Add this to the already overwhelming task of phone support, the lack of knowledge bases and standard reply formats, and is it a wonder that companies are looking for an effective way to manage e-mail and improve their Web-based self-service capabilities?

One company that is providing a solution to the influx of e-mail and Web inquiries as well as improved Web self-service is IslandData (www.islanddata.com), whose Express Response hosted application is designed to profile the content, intent, tone and urgency of an inquiry through natural language concept finders, which helps identify actions that should be taken, such as offering a cross-sell or upsell opportunity, as well as identifying customer profitability. The Response Fusion technology, the underlying platform for Express Response, has the ability to automatically re-use new responses created by contact center agents as the core self-help knowledge that addresses previously unanswerable questions through the automatic identification, creation, capture and re-use of knowledge. Clusters of common unanswerable inquiry concepts are developed, with each cluster being identified as a knowledge gap that must be filled. These gaps, along with customer feedback, can then be automatically sent to customer service operations personnel to be addressed. Response Fusion also contains a Response Manager module that provides tools to create, review, approve and publish support knowledge.

Other elements of Express Response are a Dynamic FAQ Generator, which automatically determines the most popular documents to present to end users; Express Workflow for agent escalations, which provides agents tools to respond to escalated e-mail along with a session history; and an Administration Portal, which provides analytical and reporting tools.

Keeping Everyone In The Loop
Corporations are often awash with information, which in itself is not a bad thing, as the more you know, the more able you are to serve your customers. Unfortunately, too many times the correct information does not get into the hands of the person who needs it in time for them to act upon it (if it gets there at all). This lack of having the right data at the right time can be especially damaging to sales, as well as support, marketing and even customers and prospects.

KnowledgeSync 2000 from Vineyardsoft (www.vineyardsoft.com) is designed to combat this problem by providing alert messaging to critical persons in the enterprise while there is still an opportunity upon which to act. KnowledgeSync can send alert messages about critical business events via e-mail, fax, pager, PDA, cell phone and the Web. KnowledgeSync for Dynamic Business Intelligence can detect critical client activities in SalesLogix and GoldMine clients as they occur, update the clients record with details of what happened and then schedule a follow-up activity. KnowledgeSync can also create event-based history records and activity records in SalesLogix and GoldMine.

KnowledgeSync can provide Automated Response Actions which can, beside alerting appropriate personnel, respond to critical business conditions by taking corrective measures such as updating sales, CRM, financial, ERP and manufacturing applications with crucial information about the corresponding conditions.

KnowledgeSyncs E-Mail Response System can auto-respond to e-mail, as well as identify if it is of a critical nature and route it to the appropriate recipient. It can also be used to analyze customer profiles and identify targets for specific marketing campaigns. KnowledgeSync also provides Wireless Alert Messaging to provide information to wireless devices that was previously available only on PCs connected to the corporate database. KnowledgeSync 2000 can also monitor hardware and software devices for critical operating conditions, send alert messages and execute corresponding corrective actions. It also provides an Alert Watchdog that monitors the status of the delivery of messages and initiates alternate actions as necessary.

Care To Share?
Many companies have instituted e-mail or self-service options for support in an effort to reduce costs, but e-mail support often takes more than one e-mail to resolve a problem, and many times one cannot find the answers to a specific question with a poorly implemented self-service solution, so the default support solution is still a live agent. When it comes to tech support, seeing how something is done is better than reading about it or having someone tell you how to do it, and having someone do it for you is even better, especially if you are a novice and not familiar with a program or operating system. Offering an ASP support solution is Expertcity, Inc. (www.expertcity.com), whose DesktopStreaming provides for both a Web chat option and screen sharing. Because it is an ASP solution, it is designed to be rapidly implemented, and it also has the added advantages that the end user does not need to install a client, it does not need to know the IP address of the end user, the technology is application independent and supports all major platforms including Windows, Linux, Solaris and Mac, and it can get through firewalls.

Companies providing support through Expertcity place a SmartBox on their Web site where users can ask questions. The support reps use DesktopStreamings HelpAlert matchmaking software to monitor and respond to incoming customer questions. As a support rep responds to questions, the rep connects with customers through a DesktopStreaming communication server and chats in real-time through a ChatLink window. If a session needs to be escalated, the support rep can initiate a small, self-installing plug-in that allows the rep to remotely view the customers screen and control the customers mouse and keyboard. The rep can also push Web pages and transfer files. DesktopStreaming also provides for whiteboarding capabilities, where customer and support rep can draw and highlight on each others screens, as well as management and monitoring tools.

The author may be contacted at elounsbury@tmcnet.com.

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