E-sales, E-service and buying the Web way

Call Center CRM Solutions, Jan 2000 by Lownsbury, Erik

Among the many companies that have made the transition from a purely brick-and-mortar business to a successful online product provider is cameraworld.com (formerly Camera World Company), a Portland, Oregon-based retailer of photography, digital imaging, video and consumer electronics equipment. Established in 1977, cameraworld.com turned to eFusion, Inc. to establish channels for its online customers to get help from its call center representatives.

eFusion's Push to Talk (PtT) technology allows cameraworld.com shoppers to connect directly to call center agents from the Internet without disconnecting from their online session. The Push to Talk (PtT) button gives cameraworld.com consumers immediate access to answers, and a convenient way to complete online transactions. When a visitor presses the Call For My Price button, eFusion's Push to Talk (PtT) technology automatically detects whether or not the caller's computer is able to place an Internet call. Then, based on the capabilities of the caller's computer, the system will present the caller with up to three options for completing the call: call cameraworld.com from your computer, where the system will initiate an Internet call to the cameraworld.com call center over an Internet telephony connection (VoIP option); have cameraworld.corn call you, also referred to as the Call Me Now option, where the system will initiate a telephone call to a number supplied by the caller and to the call center and then connect the caller and agent; and chat with a cameraworld.corn agent, which initiates a text chat session between the caller and the agent.

cameraworld.com President and Chief Operating Officer Walt Mulvey said that "the company with the most channels for consumers is going to win," and in September, cameraworld.com had over 31,000 calls from the Internet (a number that was sure to grow as the holidays approached), versus 9,000 calls from their catalog, with an average call time of four and a half minutes. Mulvey said that his company wants to simplify purchasing for its customers, and the technology from eFusion is helping to do just that. The company expected to reach $60 million in Web-based revenue for 1999.

A Web site that will certainly be busy after the holiday gift season and muchballyhooed turning of the year is that of NoWonder (www.nowonder.com). "NoWonder's mission," explained NoWonder President and CEO Anthony Lye, "is to create an open marketplace where customers and their problems can be matched up to experts." Through NoWonder's Web site, individuals and companies are put in contact with thousands of application-specific support experts around the world.

A vital part of the NoWonder online support marketplace is NoWonder's Talkback desktop agent, which collects hardware and software data from a user's computer to aid in problem diagnosis, thus cutting down the time needed to come up with a solution.

Through the NoWonder site, customers can build relationships with resource providers, and the users provide a grading system of resource providers. Users can also access selfhelp through NoWonder's knowledge base, applicable support communities within NoWonder and other sources available on the Internet. NoWonder also provides users with a single invoice for services and offers online reporting and monthly billing.

Microsoft recently announced it would deploy the Talkback Support Server to improve its support for users of Microsoft Windows. The Talkback software solutions interact with Windows systems to gather information on more than 150 system elements. This information is sent back to Microsoft product support or development staff via the Internet. The information can then be used by Microsoft to identify and solve software problems more quickly. Other companies that use NoWonder solutions to enhance their customer support include About.com, Autodesk, Inc., BellAdantic.net, CNET, Excite@Home, Netscape Communications Corp., Remedy Corp. and Pivotal.

"E-ho, e-ho, e-ho," Said Electric Santa

Being one who severely abhors the crowds and frustrations of shopping at the mall during the Christmas season (or any season for that matter) and who also would rather not wait on hold on the phone, I figured I was a perfect candidate for online shopping, so I plugged in the computer and a-shopping I went.

The first purchases I made were for my nephew from eToys.com. Luckily, my brother provided me with the brand of wooden toy trains, Richard Scarry's Busytown made by Brio, so that was a breeze. I then went to Williams-Sonoma and quickly ordered a pasta maker, colander and pasta bowl for my sisterin-law. Being just two weeks before Christmas, UPS 2nd Day delivery came in handy. (To avoid a massive shipping bill, I did break down and make one trip on a rainy Tuesday night to the Williams-Sonoma store in the mall to buy a KitchenAid mixer, but made it in and out in 20 minutes with the mixer, a toaster and a few stocking stuffers.)

Amazon.com was a frequent stop in my online shopping sojourns, buying a lovely book about Cistercian abbeys and one on the meaning of classical architecture, several CDs, video tapes of "The Avengers" and even a Black and Decker hand sander. Amazon.com's order history is a nice feature, providing you the ability to check order status. I also had a go on their auction section, and bought a $35 book, John Julius Norwich's A Short History of Byzantium, for the beginning bid price of $15 (1 was the only bidder). My only problem with the Amazon.com site is that they make it too easy and one could very quickly max out one's credit card if not paying attention. At least in a brick-and-mortar bookstore one is limited by the sheer weight of the books one can carry.