BY DARA BLOOM
Editor, TMCnet.com™

Reality And Fantasy In Live, Online Customer Support

There's often a chasm between fantasy and reality when it comes to deploying any technology. The fantasy of it is the fun part: how these technology solutions would function in an ideal world (the same as in our hypothetical situations, we hope). The reality, as reality is wont to be, often falls short of our expectations. Sometimes, though, a new technology will surprise us -- the gap between fantasy and reality is small and easily bridged. That's true with some of today's online, live customer support options.

We can break down current live online customer support options into three categories: text chat, Web call through (using Internet telephony), and Web call back. Text chat is gaining in prominence right now because of its simplicity -- as more and more companies implement customer service solutions on their Web site, incorporating text chat is often the first logical step. The real-time typing back and forth between customer and agent is also an easier technology for the public to adopt than Web call through, which involves the large obstacle of customers' just generally "getting" the concept of voice over IP. And, text chat makes more sense than Web call back when your customer has only one line over which they can either be online or on the phone. Text chat lets your customers stay online, in your carefully-crafted Web environment, and still get live support.

The beauty of live text chat is that very little of its promise is fantasy. It's true that since agents are often trained to carry on chats with several customers at once, you'll encounter lag times that can lose customers. And your reps need special training that goes beyond your phone agents' needs -- spelling and grammar must be added to the mix. Still, text chat caters to your customers' desire for instant information. And, it can decrease your inbound call volume as queries are handled online -- that's a cost savings to you.

If you're looking for a complete online customer relationship management solution, there are a host of big names to consider. It's a testament to the growth of this technology that the companies providing this functionality are being gobbled up by larger players. Some solutions include NetAgent from eShare (eShare was recently purchased by Melita); WebCenter from Acuity (Acuity just announced its acquisition by Quintus); Customer Interaction Suite from WebLine (Cisco said yesterday that it would purchase WebLine); and Lucent's CentreVu Internet Solutions. That is a woefully incomplete list, but it is an example of the number and size of companies in this space. For more solutions, search our three online Buyer's Guides.

However, if you're simply looking to incorporate a text chat interface between your online customers and your agents, look to the list of providers below to start. They can provide stand-alone text chat solutions that increase the professionalism of your online presence, and improve your ability to retain, respond to, and upsell customers. If your goals include quick implementation and low maintenance, outsourcing your live online support is a good option to consider.

PeopleSupport's eReps Work 'Round The Clock
PeopleSupport is a service provider -- you can outsource your online customer support needs to the company, and they'll provide "eReps" (or, they'll train your existing agents) to handle a variety of tasks for you. Services range from self-help knowledge base creation to live text chat -- you can pick and choose which modules are right for your Web site and call center. And, PeopleSupport can provide 24x7 customer support. That may seem like an obvious feature, but it's not: if the point of instituting live help functionality from your Web site is to increase your interaction with customers, making it easier for them to contact and buy from you, don't dilute that effort by limiting the times they can contact you to business hours. On the Web, business is a 24-hour a day affair.

LivePerson Gives Your Site A Pulse
I love LivePerson's tagline because it goes right to the root of why you need live online customer support. "Give Your Site A Pulse," their slogan demands. LivePerson lets you do so in an outsourced application environment: your customers will actually connect to a LivePerson-hosted server when they access this functionality. LivePerson operators are trained to handle up to four interactions at time, which (unfortunately) means your customers may encounter text chats peppered with agent comments such as "Just a moment please..." and "Thank you for waiting, I'll be with you momentarily..." In fact, that delay can be an overall downer to this technology in the call center -- it lacks the speed and urgentness found in original text chat technologies such as Internet Relay Chat. Sometimes it feels as though it might be quicker to just place a phone call; but then you lose the interaction with the Web site since most of your customers have only one line for phone or Internet.

FaceTime Gives Customers Multiple Connection Options
FaceTime Communications is also an ASP. I wrote about FaceTime in a recent column on escalating your online customers from self-help solutions to live agents (see "Tapping Synergy Between Chatterbots And Live Agents"). The company's complete solution, the FaceTime Message Exchange Suite of Services, includes an e-mail management module. The heart of FaceTime's offering, though, is its live text chat, or Instant Messaging Service. In addition to providing its own text chat interface, FaceTime gives your customers the option of communicating with agents through AOL's Instant Messenger or Yahoo's Messenger, too. Your customers can connect using Java, HTML, or Windows versions of the FaceTime Messenger, which means the largest number of your customers should be able to access this technology. FaceTime will push customers the most appropriate version of their Messenger based on each customer's browser configuration.

Chances are you've invested significant financial and labor resources in your Web site. Increase its effectiveness by letting your customers contact you instantly, without getting offline. The reality is that, whether you have an e-commerce venture or simply an online corporate presence, live text chat will help you convert surfers into customers, and current customers into repeat business.

Dara Bloom welcomes your comments at dbloom@tmcnet.com.