To state the obvious challenge: companies are often choked by the problem of their customer interaction, yet still need to improve, or at least hold steady, the level of customer satisfaction. The situation is more aggravated by the explosion in cell phone and Internet use, combined with the demand by customers for self-service. The resolution, however, is less obvious. The customer interaction gap seems to be as capacious as the Hudson River, and the bridge, therefore, to traverse the gap between the results of their current methods and the demands of the new marketplace is necessary to be as considerable as the George Washington or the Tappan Zee.

ClickFox, Inc., a provider of self-service optimization solutions, has announced the availability of a closed-loop Customer Behavior Intelligence solution to improve self-service applications. It will allow businesses and government organizations to translate complex customer interactions across a bevy of self-service applications�interactive voice response (IVR) (news - alert) systems, speech recognition, Web applications, customer relationship management (CRM), (news - alert) interactive kiosks and mobile devices�into fact-based decisions that optimize single-channel and cross-channel business performance.

The new suite by the Atlanta, GA-based company will allow organizations to analyze, understand and optimize their customer interactions within their self-service applications and can dramatically reduce operational costs, improve customer satisfaction and revenue generation. The suite provides the ability to �see� what customers are actually doing when inside self-service systems�not samples of behavior or post-experiences surveys but the actual behavior in aggregate.

ClickFox has added two phases in a closed-loop system to link between the measurement and act phases that often take place randomly and as guesswork with current customer interaction management (CIM), (news - alert) frequently subjective and ineffective.

The first step models the existing IVR or Web system, allowing the measurement step to become fully automated and based on actual customer behavior. The second step uses computer analysis tools to help decide which action to take, eliminating the guesswork. The remaining expedient is to actually make the changes suggested�the action.

This comprehensive decision support platform includes system modeling, flow and behavior visualization, root cause analysis and reporting and an advanced recommendations engine. The suite can be applied to a variety of IVR/speech, Web and cross-channel self-service applications.

The key features of this suite include: behavior and application visualization; cross-channel modeling and analysis and automated optimization engine.

The mentality behind the ClickFox software�s function is that companies are challenged with trying to simultaneously maximize cost efficiency and customer service. The IVR and Web channels are cost-effective, but companies are confronted with the quandary of trying to understand if these self-service channels are serving their customers well. The ability to see how customers are actually interacting within the system, and to be able to see that behavior, provides valuable information that can be used to align the customers� wants with the business goals for the company, resulting in happier customers and significant cost savings. This dual response�customer satisfaction and cost savings�is the counter to which the new suite is responding to the industry�s latest developments.

ClickFox technology began as a Web solution but was enhanced to include the ability to optimize all self-service channels because the mass of customer interactions was still happening over the phone. There was, and is, room for improvement for IVR and speech systems. The Mecca of Customer Behavior Intelligence adoption and implementation is improved relationships with clients and significant cost savings.

ClickFox, privately owned with investors, was founded in 2000 by former Georgia Tech faculty and researchers Tal Cohen and Nissim Harel, and it has 27 employees and over a dozen Fortune 1000 customers implementing the company�s technology.

David R. Butcher is the assistant editor for Customer Inter@ction Solutions Magazine.

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