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Digital Media Exchange Using Parature's Customer Support Software for In-game Support

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TMCnews Featured Article


March 16, 2010

Digital Media Exchange Using Parature's Customer Support Software for In-game Support

By Patrick Barnard, Group Managing Editor, TMCnet


Massively multiplayer online games, or MMOGs, such as FarmVille by Zynga, available on Facebook (News - Alert), are getting more popular by the day. FarmVille alone boasts more than 82 million registered users.

 
Think about that for a minute: 82 million people – all potentially playing the same online game simultaneously.

And with the proliferation of advanced mobile broadband services and devices – which also give users access to MMOGs – the online gaming industry is poised to blossom into something huge over the next several years.
 
Most MMOGs are fairly intuitive, user-friendly and simple to figure out. But there are those occasions where users get “stuck” in a game, not knowing how to proceed, or they might have some technical questions regarding a MMOGs features and/or capabilities.

Obviously it’s not feasible to support all the users of these MMOGs using live customer support. It’s not like you can set up a call center and give everyone a toll-free number to dial every time they have a question. Nor would it even make economic sense, since many MMOGs are offered to users free of charge and thus aren’t necessarily “revenue generating.”

So how do the companies that provide support for these games handle the millions of not tens of millions of users who are online at any given time?
 
Simple: They automate customer service by providing Web-based self-service solutions.
 
As such, Digital Media Exchange (dme), one of the largest online games services providers in Southeast Asia, is partnering with Parature, a global leader in on-demand customer support software, for in-game support. According to a press release the partnership “will enhance the level of customer service for dme’s roster of games under the mobius brand as well as for future engagements for game service agreements with dme.”
 
“The benefits of using Parature’s (News - Alert) integrated software within our customer service team are substantial,” said Scott Countryman, CEO of dme, in the release. “A primary concern of any gamer is customer support, and as a game publisher, we want to maintain a high level of customer service that will distinguish us from our competitors.”
 
“As a game service provider, we are proud to have agents trained to use Parature software to support our clients,” Countryman added. “By combining Parature Customer Service software with dme customer support agents we are able to deliver a high-quality, cost-effective service for our customers. The value of this relationship will reduce training costs and implementation time for our clients.”
 
With Parature’s customer support software, gaming companies can establish Web portals on the sites where their games are being hosted. These Web portals can offer numerous self-serve resources which gamers can use to find their way out of various jams – or to ask simple, basic questions about features and functionality.

Self-service options supported by the portal include a knowledge base (i.e. FAQ) where gamers can get answers to basic questions without having to wait on hold to speak with a live agent -- and forums where they can start discussions with other gamers about game strategies or to solve problems. In addition gamers can open up a chat session with a live agent, if chat is made available. What’s more they can download documentation – such as a player’s guide or schematic – directly from the portal via a download module.

The beauty of the system is its flexibility: The gaming company or the Web site operator decides on which self-serve elements are included on the portal (for example, live chat might not be an option), thus optimizing the self-serve experience. In addition the portal can be designed to match the rest of the Web site – it can include the gaming company or host’s branding, logos, art, colors, fonts, etc. so that a user never knows he or she has left the main Web site.

The other huge benefit of deploying Parature’s customer support software is that it acts as a central repository for all customer (or in this case gamer) interactions. Gaming companies can use the user feedback captured by the system to improve game designs, troubleshoot problems and learn more about what gamers are looking for in their online game experiences.

During a recent interview with TMCnet, Gary McNeil, vice president of marketing, Parature, said the company is seeing rapid growth in the online gaming vertical, thanks to the fact that its customer support software, which is delivered via the software-as-a-service model, is ideally suited to online gaming platforms.

“Online gaming is a very large and fast growing market for us,” McNeil said. “For example, the massively multiplayer online games, or MMOGs, are huge: We sold LEGO, we sold IGN, which is under the FOX brand, we sold Turner -- you’re familiar with the Turner brands, amongst them NBA.com, NASCAR.com, FusionFall -- very, very fast growing.”

“Second Life powers it support with Parature,” McNeil continued. “So if you’re in Second Life and you have your avatar on an island somewhere, and you need to figure out how to pay someone or move off the island or change your avatar, anything to do with support, normally you would have to leave the virtual world in order to get your answer. That means you might become disengaged. But we have in-game chat now for gaming: You can just click on that button while you’re there: launch a chat, get your answer, and boom, you’re back in, doing what you want to do, which is play game, not waste time asking questions. Linden Labs, the maker of Second Life, uses Parature to support all their users around the globe, using both knowledge base and in-game chat.”
 
As McNeil explained, in the online gaming world “it’s all about customer self-service – it’s all about deflection – because you get millions of users. For example, IGN, they have millions of users, but they only have six customer service reps. But what’s nice is – the customers answer their own questions – they go to the knowledge base, or they go to the chat.”

The trend continues with Parature’s new partnership with Digital Media Exchange – which last week announced that it is now the exclusive business partner in the Philippines for the Facebook featured game, Nindou.
 
“As a leader in on-demand customer service software with a strong presence in the gaming industry, we are delighted to enter into a partnership with a proven global games services provider,” said Parature Founder and Chief Strategy Officer Duke Chung (News - Alert). “Parature is one of the fastest growing customer service and support software companies in the United States and this partnership is a logical next step to further expand our footprint globally within the gaming community.”
 

Patrick Barnard is a senior Web editor for TMCnet, covering call and contact center technologies. He also compiles and regularly contributes to TMCnet e-Newsletters in the areas of robotics, IT, M2M, OCS and customer interaction solutions. To read more of Patrick's articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Patrick Barnard







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