Lucent Technologies Introduces Software to Provide Rapid, Personalized Customer Assistance On E-commerce Web Sites

Business Wire, Sept 12, 2000

Business Editors

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 12, 2000

Lucent Technologies (NYSE: LU) today introduced software that will make it possible for e-commerce Web sites to easily and automatically offer their customers online assistance when they need it. This new application, called Contact Assist, quickly identifies customers encountering difficulties and offers them immediate assistance through customized help screens, or live agent contact via phone callback, voice over IP, fax, online text chat or escorted browsing.

The announcement was made at the Fall 2000 Voice on the Net (VON) Show, an industry conference and exhibition.

"Contact Assist addresses one of the most critical challenges facing e-commerce companies today, closing the sale," said Curtis Holmes, vice president for intelligent network and messaging systems at Lucent. "This new application will enable Web site operators to offer help to their customers before they become frustrated and log off without making a purchase."

According to a new report - entitled "The U.S. Market for Internet-based Customer Service" - from the market analysis firm Datamonitor, for every online transaction that is completed, nearly four times as many are abandoned. "7.8 percent of abandoned online transactions could be salvaged and converted into sales," the report said. "This translated into $6.1 billion in lost eCommerce sales in 1999." If this trend continues, Datamonitor forecasts a cumulative loss of more than $173 billion in potentially salvageable sales in the subsequent five-year period.

Contact Assist uses a unique "decision engine," developed by researchers at Lucent's Bell Labs, to quickly identify customers who are having difficulties.

"The decision engine automatically determines whether to offer assistance based on rules established in advance by business managers," said Narain Gehani, director of database systems research at Bell Labs. "This offers a tremendous competitive advantage by eliminating the need for continuous human monitoring, an expensive and time-consuming process." Once an offer of assistance is made, the customer can then decide whether to reject or accept it, and choose from the help options offered.

This new application will enable e-commerce sites to provide much more effective customer service. For instance, take the case of someone searching for a particular toy, but has no idea of the manufacturer, price or name of the product. While visiting a retail toy Web site, this person clicks back and forth between pages in a manner that the system identifies as an unsuccessful or frustrated search. The system would then offer help in the form of a pop-up screen asking if assistance is needed. The person then accepts the offer, and is connected with a customer service agent via a Web chat session or voice over IP call. The customer describes the toy to the agent, who then directs the customer to the appropriate location on the Web site, where the toy is shown and described and the customer can purchase it.

Contact Assist is a network-based application that can be deployed by service providers -- such as Application Service Providers (ASPs), Web-hosting companies, or Cyber Carriers - or directly by enterprises such as Internet Service Providers (ISPs) or retail Web sites. It is one component of Lucent's Network Contact Center (NCC), a suite of applications that will enable carriers to provide enterprises with the same customer service capabilities previously available only in premises-based systems. Lucent's NCC will enable enterprise call/contact centers to handle both voice and Web-based contacts, according to customer preference, and will help manage these communications more efficiently and cost-effectively.

Contact Assist will be generally available in the fourth quarter of 2000.

Lucent Technologies, headquartered in Murray Hill, N.J., USA, designs and delivers the systems, software, silicon and services for next-generation communications networks for service providers and enterprises. Backed by the research and development of Bell Labs, Lucent focuses on high-growth areas such as broadband and mobile Internet infrastructure; communications software; communications semiconductors and optoelectronics; Web-based enterprise solutions that link private and public networks; and professional network design and consulting services. For more information on Lucent Technologies, visit its Web site at http://www.lucent.com

All product names and trademarks mentioned herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of Lucent Technologies or their respective owners.