Self Service Technologies

Hi Evet

I have some material that you should find useful on online customer solutions including interactive virtual assistants and online chat  solutions, I will put it together and send it over.  It fits in well with the comments you have received from Stephen but the virtual assistants can be less labour intensive, from the internal teams point of view, than some of the other solutions you will come across e.g. chat and forums etc.

I have listed a few examples from different sectors using advanced online customer self service systems.  You can find their virtual assistants at www.nationalrail.co.uk (lisa), www.bmsolutions.co.uk/ (red), www.ikea.co.uk (anna) and www.support.philips.com/support/html/index_us_en.html

As mentioned I will gather some material together and send it across to you.

atb

Nick Wilson

Director

www.thevirtualzone.co.uk

On 17:40:08 28 June 2008 Evet wrote:

 

Hi stephfox

Loads of useful information for me to read over and consider, thanks again  for the web links

 

cheers 

 

On 15:30:16 26 June 2008 stephfox wrote:

 

Hi Evet,
There are a couple of recent trends for customer support we've seen recently which stem from modern development techniques:

1) Q & A style websites: Users support users - often backed up with support representatives from your organisation. See:

http://answers.yahoo.com/
http://www.linkedin.com/answers

Creating a system like this is simple and easy BUT relies on a body of queries and a community of users.

2) Knowledge Management systems. Knowledge managment tools require a dedicated content management resource within your support team, however. See:

www.kana.com

3) Forums: And you can always go very Web 1.0 and have a standard message board/forum structure. People are used to these sorts of functions and forums can get very busy. Of course, if it's a support mechanism, you need your own support people to be part of the conversation on these forums to provide answers and support.

All of these solutions rely on a few things:
1) A critical mass of knowledge
- Work hard to produce a depth of knowledge based content, be honest about the short-comings of your products, acknowledge faults, propose work-arounds and solutions. Yes it's a competitive risk, but your customers will appreciate knowing that your company actively engage with the issues and are prepared to resolve them - If you DON'T do this, or have enough content then it's not self-help, it's a waste of your customer's time...
2) An active user base - You must allow customers to post issues and respond to others. Sending a complaint into the ether with no promise of a reply or a resolution is not customer service
3) Good customer communications, such as email or DM to let them know where to find support - Invite your customers to participate, they won't just stumble across it. This means you need good customer data, and they need to opt-in to participate

We have experience in developing these sorts of integrated campaigns tosupport online comminities and development, so if you need any assistance or advice, we'd be happy to help. Just get in touch via our website: www.bplmarketing.com

Good customer service online is not easy but should significantly boost your ecommerce returns...

Good luck with it,

Stephen Foxworthy
Digitial Director
BPL Marketing