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January 2000

A Half Dozen Products For Updating Your Call Center

With all indicators from this past holiday season pointing to increased use of the Internet for shopping, and the main reason customers develop loyalty to sites being that site's ease of use and the ability to get customer service when needed, the following new products should be a boon to companies looking to provide superior service across all channels of customer interaction, further personalize the e-commerce experience and exploit the long-term benefits of integrating Web sites and call centers.


00CCSed.gif (3861 bytes) eGain Live 3.0

eGain Communications’ eGain Live 3.0 (formerly known as eGain Web Collaboration System) is a Web-collaboration solution designed to give the agent a complete view or “memory” of all customer interactions and transactions. Every e-mail, phone call or other contact in the company’s database is called up and displayed for the agent while he or she is answering an online support or service request from a customer.

Built with eGain’s Internet-class Web-based architecture, eGain Live can scale from very simple to very complex interactions. While many requests will need only simple chat capabilities, some customers will require more personal attention. eGain Live’s Two Way Escorting and Forms Assist capabilities let agents help customers with complex questions while the customer is at his or her browser.

eGain Live lets customer representatives answer customer requests that come in over the Internet and provide immediate answers or help. When a customer inquiry comes in, eGain Live automatically matches the customer with the most appropriate customer representative. Customers are routed to the right representative according to their product interest, the Web page they are on, their geographical region and other criteria selected by the company using eGain Live. As soon as a customer contact is made, an agent has a complete view of all of the customer’s prior real-time sessions, e-mail and transactions. To incorporate prior customer interaction history, the eGain Commerce Bridge can seamlessly integrate transaction data from third-party vendors. Using a variety of tools (browser sharing, forms synchronization, text chat, voice-over-IP and Web callback technologies), company representatives can assist online customers with product specifications, pricing information, order forms, etc.

To simplify the process for online customers, eGain Live uses eGain’s WorksEverywhere technology to work with any type of browser the customer might be using. Instead of forcing customers connecting with WebTV or using older browsers to download new software, eGain Live automatically adapts itself to the type of browser and network connection being used.

eGain Live can also be implemented through the eGain Hosted Network, a network of hosted applications for e-commerce customer communications. The solution can also be licensed for in-house deployment.
No. 536, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo

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00CCSed.gif (3861 bytes) Silknet eSales

Silknet Software, Inc. has released Silknet eSales, an e-sales application that assists consumers in their selection of online products and services using a virtual sales assistant that helps them through the online purchasing process.

Silknet eSales is the first solution resulting from the company’s acquisition of InSite Marketing Technologies. Using InSite’s Trusted Advisor technology, Silknet eSales allows e-merchants take the skills of their best sales personnel and incorporate them into a virtual assistant that determines what the customer would like to buy and then maps a selling style to the personal buying style of the customer. The goal of the Silknet eSales virtual assistant is to not only make it easier for a customer to buy products and services, but to also build a higher level of trust and personalization between the customer and the company. To build trust, customers interact with one or more unique virtual sales assistants, or personas, who make recommendations and handle objections based on the customer’s preferences. The tone or style of the persona is mapped to the personal buying style and knowledge base of the customer. Silknet eSales also provides a forum for customers to discuss products and services with the virtual assistant who shows them why specific products are right for them.

Silknet eSales’ Trusted Advisor technology for building trust-based customer experiences was developed in part through research at MIT’s Sloan School of Management. Trusted Advisor technology allows e-merchants to treat shoppers as if they “know” them without requiring them to identify themselves or answer lengthy lists of questions. As customers browse the site, Silknet eSales uses micro-segmentation technology to collect insights into their behavior based on demographic and psychographic information, enabling the e-merchant to understand the customer’s purchasing needs at a personal level. These data are automatically incorporated into Silknet eSales and are immediately used to further personalize the shopping experience.

Silknet eSales can be added to a company’s existing Web site or kiosk without disrupting the existing operation. Each Silknet eSales virtual assistant is customized to deliver the look, feel and approach that is right for the sales situation.
No. 537, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo

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Editors' Choice award Ensemble 2000

Davox Corporation has released its Ensemble 2000 customer interaction management software. The Ensemble customer contact suite consists of integrated software modules to help companies manage inbound and outbound customer contact, generate real-time and historical reports and provide valuable customer information to agents as they need it.

Ensemble provides an integrated inbound and outbound customer contact system. Customer service agents can quickly shift between inbound calls to outbound calls as needed, enhancing agent productivity and improving customer service. Using the Ensemble system, agents can handle a high volume of inbound calls, responding to customer inquiries. Using the same system, those agents could be quickly shifted over to make outbound calls, notifying customers of new services or special promotions.

The Ensemble platform incorporates the outbound call management capabilities of Davox’s Unison module, which features a management console that monitors critical functions, open-systems-based capabilities, a scalable architecture, relational database technology and digital signal processing.

For inbound call handling, Ensemble incorporates Davox’s Concerto module, which is comprised of inbound client/server-based solutions that integrate computing and communications technologies across the enterprise, providing a single system-level interface for connecting front-end applications with back-end services.

Ensemble’s Unison SCALE (Seamless Call and Agent Load Equalization) capabilities use CTI technologies to create a blended environment that can leverage agent skills by re-allocating resources to reflect management’s priorities.

Ensemble also incorporates Davox’s Sixth Sense (agent workflow automation software) and LYRICall, a browser-based scripting product.

Ensemble’s Compose It module is a reporting solution that tracks system activities and telephony information and related data within the switch environment. It can combine that information with data from customer information systems to produce consolidated reports for both single-site and multisite operations.

The historical data captured in third-party help-desk-automation software, customer care systems and other customer relationship management (CRM) solutions can be passed to the Ensemble system and made available to customer service agents as they are talking to customers. In that way, companies can more effectively act on their valuable CRM data. A retailer running a special promotion, for example, can analyze their customer data in the CRM system to compile a list of all likely prospects for the promotion. That list can then be passed to the Ensemble system, where agents can effectively contact those prospects.

Ensemble also integrates e-mail management technology from Kana Communications and offers Web callback capabilities.
No. 538, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo 

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Editors' Choice award GoldMine FrontOffice 2000

GoldMine Software Corp. has released GoldMine FrontOffice 2000, a customer relationship management (CRM) solution designed for small- to medium-sized businesses. The scalable, Microsoft SQL Server-based product is designed to provide a unified view of customer information to support all customer-facing operations and provide real-time access to GoldMine Management Intelligence tools, which can be used to monitor and analyze critical customer-related operations throughout an organization and make adjustments to sales, marketing and support operations. GoldMine FrontOffice 2000 combines GoldMine Sales and Marketing, which is used to automate sales and marketing teams, with GoldMine Service and Support, a call center and help desk application.

GoldMine Sales and Marketing is designed for use by sales, telesales, telemarketing, marketing and sales management. It provides contact, account and opportunity management features; quota and sales forecasting; task delegation and management; and bi-directional remote data synchronization. It also provides real-time pipeline analysis; forecasting and sales cycle analysis; territory alignment and assignment; and roll-up and drill-down reporting. Telemarketing and sales features include call list assembly, auto dialing and order taking. It also includes tools that automate marketing activities such as campaign creation, management and measurement; Web and direct lead qualification, distribution and follow-up; and automated literature fulfillment.

GoldMine Service and Support provides call center agent tools including incident assignment, escalation, tracking and reporting features; problem management and resolution capabilities; and service-level agreements, warranty and contract-management tools.

A resolution database assists agents in addressing customer problems, and a built-in Business Rules Editor allows managers to monitor call center activities. Support teams have a shared view of the sales history and pending opportunities and have the ability to send e-mail.

GoldMine Management Intelligence provides a Manager’s Console that can view both sales and service activities in real-time, set thresholds that trigger automatic notification when critical issues arise, and gauge individual and department performance.

GoldMine FrontOffice 2000 Web features include automatic lead capture, qualification and response; Web marketing through targeted Internet campaigns; Internet synchronization; and business intelligence delivered via the Web.

GoldMine FrontOffice 2000 has also been customized to provide CRM solutions for a number of industries, including commercial and residential real estate, financial services, insurance (property and casualty and life), legal and mortgage lending. These feature custom reports, profiles and fields specifically designed for these markets.
No. 539, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo 

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Editors' Choice Awards NeuroServer 2.0

Neuromedia, Inc. has released two new products, NeuroService and NeuroCommerce, which feature version 2.0 of its NeuroServer product suite, which is used for developing and deploying Virtual Representatives (vReps). vReps are virtual online sales and customer service representatives that dynamically interact with customers via real-time, text-based natural language.

The NeuroServer software suite includes scalable server software, a comprehensive authoring system and customer interaction analysis tools. NeuroService also includes training and consulting services to help organizations create customer service, technical support and help desk vReps. The NeuroServer suite can create and integrate libraries of pre-defined content modules, which allow companies to speed vRep development and implementation. Customer interactions are captured and indexed by topic, subject, date and time, result, etc. Content Wizards are used to automate new content generation based on captured customer interactions.

vReps provide an automated, interactive service customers can access 24/7. Web users can receive a direct answer to a direct question in real-time, providing targeted information in a consistent manner. By reducing the number of FAQ-type hits to a call center, vReps can enable live customer service representatives to focus on more critical customer issues.

NeuroService is designed to integrate easily with existing IT infrastructure and scales to meet the needs of small to enterprise-sized support centers. It can also help companies organize their content and information architecture so customers can get the information they need faster and easier. The authoring and server tools for vReps are designed for content experts, not programmers, making them easier to create and maintain. vReps can also be assigned specific “knowledge domains” and be teamed up for greater effectiveness.

The NeuroCommerce solution also features the NeuroServer 2.0 product suite and is designed to assist e-commerce companies in building and branding vReps. NeuroCommerce also helps companies organize their content and information architecture in a way that makes information access and use faster and easier for customers. E-commerce sites can capture customer interactions for analysis, refinement of sales and marketing efforts, and identification of customer needs. Using Neuro-Commerce, companies can build a vRep that further extends their corporate or brand ‘personalities.’
No. 540, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo 

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Editors' Choice Awards Online Bill Payment And Self-Service From Novazen

Novazen has released three products designed to enhance online payments and customer care: Novazen Internet Customer Care, which provides Internet-based self-service customer care; Novazen Electronic Bill Presentment & Payment, which provides electronic bill presentment and payment capabilities; and Novazen Consolidated Billing, which provides a single customized statement.

Novazen Internet Customer Care allows customers to service themselves 24/7 and provides a single contact point for all company-to-customer interactions. The system is built with standard Internet technologies, utilizing a browser at both ends and thin clients on the agent’s desktop. Using Novazen Internet Customer Care, customers can review and pay their bills, activate and deactivate products and services, and manage their own product portfolio.

Novazen Electronic Bill Presentment & Payment electronically presents bills to customers via browser, e-mail, fax, image, data download, applet and IVR while continuing to support traditional paper, magnetic or optical media. Customers can access, analyze and pay their bills online and also designate the layout and data groupings to be presented in their bills.

Novazen Electronic Bill Presentment & Payment also offers Novazen Consolidated Billing, which is designed to consolidate data from any source into a single invoice for paper or electronic delivery. This one-stop billing solution covers all products and services to which a customer may be subscribed and can be updated as new services are added. Sources from standard relational and object databases, flat files, CD-ROM, tape, etc., can be integrated.

Novazen’s products support the use of notifications via e-mail or fax for various application “events.” E-mail notifications can be used to inform a customer that his or her current bill is now ready for review; a trouble ticket opened by the customer has been satisfactorily resolved; a new user has been added to his or her account; a new product or service is available; a payment failed; etc.
No. 541, www.ccsmag.com/freeinfo 

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