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Picture this: You're an e-tailer. Even though the first autumn leaves are
barely falling from the trees you're thinking of snow. You're thinking of
cold weather, hot chocolate, and rosy cheeks. You're thinking about the
holiday shopping season. It's not that far away, and if the past two years
were any indication, consumers are going to flock their to respective PCs,
and avoid the overly decorated malls.
eSupportNow combines technology, staffing, and management to simplify
online shopping and help dot-com businesses retain customers. What that
means is that the company offers e-tails live chat, e-mail, phone service,
NowReps (specially trained customer service representatives), and site
feedback to complete a customer service package that contains several
means of customer interaction, which is key when you are targeting someone
who is not shopping in a brick-and-mortar store.
"The rise of e-commerce has given customers the option to transact
business in many different ways, such as by phone, the Internet, e-mail,
catalogs, or in a store," said Sam Clark, senior research analyst of
META Group. "This widespread customer adoption of Web-enabled
transactions, whether business to business or business to consumer, is
driving the need for integrated intelligent customer interaction
applications."
After all, what is a potential customer to do if he or she has a
question about a specific product while shopping on line? Perhaps he wants
to know if the merino wool sweater comes in gray as well as hunter. There
are no salespeople around to offer assistance. If a customer can't get the
answer to a question, it's too easy to go somewhere else.
Another company that is helping to improve collaborative customer
interactions is Broadbase Software, who recently announced its
next-generation customer-focused analytic and marketing automation suite,
Broadbase 4.0. Broadbase 4.0 provides sales, marketing, and customer
service representatives the ability to have intelligent, ongoing, and
automated customer interactions. Broadbase's customer-focused analytic and
e-marketing automation applications provide a 360-degree view of a
company's customers across all touch points and channels.
Companies know that they must build solutions capable of managing
interaction through multiple channels in the most advantageous manner,
rather than attempting to dictate what channel a customer must choose.
When there's so much competion out there, why not allow consumers to
contact the company in the manner in which they feel most comfortable?
After all, you have profits to lose, but reliable customers to gain.
-- Carol Drzewianowski
| Customer
Contact News
LivePerson
Adds Real-Time Chat To Siebel's Call Center Solution
LivePerson announced a Premier Software Partnership with
Siebel Systems, a supplier of e-business applications, to provide
integrated real-time chat support to companies doing business on the
Web. LivePerson will integrate its live chat service with Siebel
Call Center, MidMarket Edition, one of the comprehensive e-business
applications for small- and mid-sized businesses that comprise the
recently announced Siebel eBusiness 2000, MidMarket Edition
solution.
No. 530, comsolmag.com/freeinfo
Altitude
Software Introduces uCI 2000
Altitude Software has introduced uCI 2000, a fully integrated
customer relationship management platform that provides a
comprehensive view of all interactions with customers across
multiple channels (or "touch points") including telephony,
e-mail, Web, and Wireless Application Protocol (WAP). The uCI 2000
suite, currently in beta in the United States, Europe, and Latin
America, consists of six software applications leveraging a single
data repository to store and consolidate all customer information
from all touch points. This lets both new- and old-economy companies
gain a complete, well-rounded view of all customer interactions to
optimize customer relationships.
No. 531, comsolmag.com/freeinfo
InstantService.com
Releases Upgraded Version Of InstantService
InstantService.com released its latest upgraded version of
InstantService, its hosted application for live customer
interaction. InstantService is designed to enhance customer
acquisition and consumer loyalty by giving site visitors instant
access to e-commerce sales and support agents on the Web. As
visitors request assistance, they are immediately placed in the
redesigned customer queue, which displays color-coded running clocks
showing the status of each visitor. At a glance, administrators and
agents can now assess the status of the entire visitor queue.
Additionally, the new Agent Room enables instant messaging amongst
all agents and administrators -- ensuring the greatest level of
communication for assisting your entire online staff, as well as
your customers. The introduction of InstantService Customer Session
Monitoring gives administrators and admin-selected agents "fly
on the wall" monitoring of a customer/agent session in
real-time. To ensure maximum customer satisfaction, both Exit Survey
Polling and Emailed Session Transcripts have been added to this
release.
No. 532, comsolmag.com/freeinfo
Servicesoft
Launches Servicesoft 2001
Servicesoft has announced the release of Servicesoft 2001,
an intelligent eService solution that enables businesses to provide
extraordinary, proactive customer service via the Internet.
Servicesoft 2001 is the first eService solution to present a
"single face" to customers through a unique eService
Portal, and includes over 200 new features to help companies
increase customer loyalty and satisfaction, reduce operating
expenses, and increase overall return on investment. Proactive
eService empowers companies to deliver extraordinary customer
experiences by actually anticipating and answering customer
questions before they even know that they have a question.
Servicesoft 2001 enables online businesses to provide preemptive and
instantaneous resolution to issues -- eliminating the disparity
between the quality of eService and traditional customer service.
This proactive approach to eService also increases customer
satisfaction through self-service and personalized Web pages --
empowering customers to help themselves, and in turn free up
customer service
representatives to handle priority and complex issues.
No. 534, comsolmag.com/freeinfo
!hey
software Launches Channel Partner Program
!hey software announced !heyclub, a strategic channel program for
partners with expertise in e-commerce, Web integration, telephony,
and call center technology. !heyclub, designed to help partners
capture the growing product and services opportunity in the customer
contact management and customer service markets, provides sales and
marketing support for the !hey center and !hey voice product lines,
either embedded within a larger ASP solution or sold as modular
components of !hey's software. Partners will include call center
resellers, e-commerce consultants and Web integrators with strong
e-commerce practices who wish to offer additional customer
interaction functionality to their customers.
No. 535, comsolmag.com/freeinfo
Viant
Joins Blue Martini Software Alliance Program
Blue Martini Software announced that Viant Corporation has
joined the Blue Martini Alliance Program at the Strategic level.
Viant will provide complete strategy development and rollout
services including Web site design and systems integration services
for the Blue Martini Customer Interaction System, and the companies
will participate in joint marketing and sales activities. Companies
deploy the Blue Martini Customer Interaction System to build brand
equity through direct customer interaction across Internet-related
customer touch points, such as Web sites, mobile wireless devices,
and on-line trading exchanges and traditional customer touch points,
such as stores and call centers.
No. 536, comsolmag.com/freeinfo
InstantService.com,
MobileUSA.com Launch M-Commerce Initiative
An m-commerce initiative was announced by InstantService.com and
MobileUSA.com. InstantService offers live, on-line text chat and
content push, along with the integration of e-mail management, voice
over IP, ACD/CTI, CRM backends and a variety of other technologies.
The m-commerce initiative allows these offerings over the wireless
Internet. The wireless Internet provides for comprehensive
connectivity with no loss in performance or functionality.
No. 537, comsolmag.com/freeinfo
WebDialogs
Announces WebInteract 2.0
WebDialogs has launched its WebInteract 2.0 service targeted
at B2B and B2C businesses and service providers that want to enable
live, integrated voice- and Web-based customer interaction on the
Web. The WebInteract 2.0 service enables businesses to provide
superior customer service and build long-term customer relationships
by strategically placing contact buttons on their Web site for
customers, prospects, and partners to obtain immediate assistance
online. In contrast to competitive offerings, WebInteract 2.0 is
offered as a service, which allows companies to rapidly implement a
scalable, cost-effective customer interaction solution that requires
virtually no technical integration.
No. 538, comsolmag.com/freeinfo
Chordiant
Acquires White Spider
Chordiant Software announced it has acquired New
Hampshire-based White Spider Software, a specialist in Internet
knowledge management and next generation XML-based software
applications. Chordiant acquired privately-held White Spider in a
stock-for-stock purchase, where 476,515 shares of common stock were
exchanged for all outstanding White Spider shares and assumed stock
options. The two companies' operations will be fully integrated,
with White Spider's development team remaining in New Hampshire
where Chordiant plans to expand engineering resources. White
Spider's Integrated Knowledge Network (INN) syndicates knowledge
from a company's internal sources, business partners, third-party
databases and customers, allowing them to vastly improve the speed,
breadth and accuracy of information and knowledge available to
customers. The company's technology and expertise will extend
Chordiant's multi-channel offering to include intelligent, automated
e-mail response capabilities. Chordiant expects to integrate White
Spider's technology with its leading eCRM solution by the fourth
quarter of 2000.
No. 549 comsolmag.com/freeinfo
Primus,
Apropos To Create Multi-Channel eCRM Solution
Apropos Technology and Primus announced a strategic alliance
agreement that enables the companies to jointly market each others'
products. Apropos' Total Interaction Management solution combined
with Primus eServer and Primus eSupport will provide a solution that
empowers customers with accurate, timely self-service options, and
enables businesses to effectively manage "assisted
service" customer interactions across multiple communication
channels through a single visual multimedia queue. Both companies
will promote this joint offering to new and existing customers
around the world.
No. 550, comsolmag.com/freeinfo
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