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Bells and dog whistles - Kiplinger.Com

McCutchin has lots of bells and whistles on the site, most notably "Chester B. Chatsworth," a cartoon Great Dane who can answer your real estate questions in an online chat, basically by offering to take your questions to his "master." (Folks at an Internet call center in Chantilly, Va., field calls for Chester when there's no human on the line in Texas.)

You may not want to take advice from a dog, but the real teeth of McCutchin's operation are her listings. That's what customers want most from a Web site -- and she has it in spades: All the homes in the area's multiple-listing service are there, and the list is updated daily. Multiple-listing services are run by local boards of Realtors and include most, if not all, of the homes listed for sale throughout the area.

Realtors have long kept MLS info close to their vests, because it's the listings that attract buyers. Buyers attract sellers, and sellers sign the listing contracts that yield commissions. But now agents increasingly figure that they must make the MLS accessible on their Web sites if they're going to stay competitive.

McCutchin's site offers the real deal, too, complete with addresses, photographs, and often 360-degree panoramas of the outside and interior rooms. These details spell an end to the frustration caused by vague, real-estate-speak descriptions of home locations -- "prettiest street in the Fernwood area" -- that force you to call the agent for a better description.

MLS-browsing buyers who pass through McCutchin's online real estate store make good fishing for sellers like the Emighs. But what appealed to Scott most was the "private websuite" feature that McCutchin offers to those who hire her. Sellers can log on to their own password-controlled Web page and follow all the information that affects their home sale. They can see a copy of any ads that have been placed and read reports from inspectors and appraisers.

To Scott, the most useful aspect was that he could log on daily and read comments agents had passed along after showing his home to buyers. "We discovered one trend," he says. "Comments regarding the pricing of the home as a little aggressive were steadily increasing over time. It convinced my wife and me it was time to drop the price."

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Online Customer Service:  The Real Thing or Just Lip Service?

By Jennifer Praeger 

According to J.D. Kathuria, Director of Operations at Live Assistance, while the major objective is converting browsers into buyers, there are several other issues that make online customer assistance of particular interest to small and medium-size companies. 

"The smaller company is at a disadvantage in terms of credibility, everyone knows the major players," Kathuria said. "Online customer service establishes instant credibility. When browsers find that there is someone prepared to respond to their questions, right then, it really makes them feel much more secure about the company." 

When a customer is online and is confused, or has a question, it's like a stop sign. They might not be able to call the company's 800 number because then they will loose their Internet connection, and an e-mail response could take days. 

Online customer service can respond immediately to product and site issues. Site navigation can be a major issue, especially with novice Internet users, and online customer service allows the rep, working through the shopper's browser, to help them find what they are looking for. An added bonus is that companies often find after implementing online customer service that they receive fewer e-mails and calls to their 800 number. 

The cost for online customer service? There's a range, but you might expect around $750 for setup and $4 per live chat that is outsourced, or $200 per month per operator if the chat is not outsourced. 

Before you get ready to sign on, make sure you have the basics in place. Give site visitors fewer reasons to have questions and get confused: 1) Have a well organized site that's easy to navigate; 2) Describe your products or services clearly, offering as many levels of detail and pictures and photos as necessary; and 3) Make it easy for people to buy. 

Whether or not you decide to offer online customer service, there are several other options you should consider: 

FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions 
A search feature: A natural language searchable knowledge base 
E-mail response: Accepting written customer service and sales questions by e-mail - and being set-up to respond in a timely manner 
Providing an 800 number on your site, and handling sales and customer service inquiries by phone 
Providing your customers with a place to provide a phone number, then calling them back in real-time 
Community building: providing a forum for your customers to communicate with each other (and answer each other's questions). 
Customer expectations are driving customer service innovations. As evidenced by abandoned shopping carts, the buy-and-click model needs to be revisited and revamped. It seems that customers are calling the shots -- and they're not buying. The issue is "transparency." Customers want to feel that someone is on the other side. They want someone to answer their questions when they ask them. They want reassurance. They want "the human touch." It makes sense, but can e-businesses afford it? Can they afford not to do it

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by Michael J. Russer 

"Chester", the dog is very much a central part of Judy McCutchin's highly successful DallasHomes.com Web site;one that generated over $13,000,000 in closed online business for her in 1999 alone! 

In addition to being a very endearing branding theme, Judy uses Chester as a way of enhancing the context of her site content. For example, Chester appears as a school boy (complete with knickers and schoolbooks) when visitors view the Dallas area private school information on her site, or as a "Maitre 'd" when searching for fine dining. 

In a very clever and unique twist, visitors can chat live with "Chester" for more information or to set appointments through a service called Live Assistance. Judy had the service customized to show Chester in the chat window and instructed the chat operators to "think and act" just like Chester - including throwing in a "bow-wow" here and there in the course of helping visitors with their questions. Thanks to Chester, you might say that the DallasHomes.com is somewhat of a "dog" - but a gold plated one at that! 

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Chatting Up a Sale Online shopping sites use 'real-time rooms' to aid customers

Wall Street Journal - Karen J. Bannan, October 25, 2000 

Shopping online was supposed to be so easy. But too often, we require a human being to handle a problem, even if he or she is only in the "chat room" typing messages back and forth to us. 

I learned this when I received a 20%-off coupon to use at RedEnvelope.com, a gift-buying site. Browsing through the site, I found a gold-and-pearl necklace, expensive, but with my coupon, affordable. I placed my perfect gift into my online shopping cart, and clicked to the site's checkout. 

After spending five minutes entering my personal information and credit-card number, my coupon code was rejected. I could have abandoned my shopping cart and headed to another site as do many frustrated shoppers. But instead I clicked on the site's real-time chat service and connected online with a live customer-service representative. Within minutes, the problem was fixed, and I was off to find a card and wrapping paper online. 

Because RedEnvelope.com had the foresight to add its Java-based, live, customer-service link, the company was able to ring up my $335 purchase -- and a degree of loyalty too. 

More Web sites are discovering that live Web chat rooms can boost sales and reduce the number of shopping carts abandoned in cyberspace, says Chris Martins, a research director with the Aberdeen Group, a research firm in Boston. "We believe that intervention will increase customer retention as long as companies make sure their site design and order process is as good as it should be," says Mr. Martins. 

Best of all, smaller businesses can outsource the customer-service work to companies that provide representatives who do the live, online chat. And once it's outsourced, those businesses can provide customer service 24 hours a day, seven days a week, something few small companies could otherwise afford. Companies such as Chantily, Va.-based International Business Systems, which offers a product called LiveAssistance, charges companies $4 per chat in addition to a small monthly fee. 

Indeed, one of the most significant benefits of chat-based customer service is its price: between $4 and $10 per incident, according to the software manufacturers and application service providers (ASPs) that offer the service, far less than the telephone equivalent that some estimates put as high as $30 per incident. Moreover, customer-service staff are more productive in chat interactions, since they can chat with more than one customer online at once. 

Stephanie Cone, the co-founder and chief executive officer of PurpleSkirt.com, an online boutique, says she's saved about $17,000 since adding her live customer-service option several months ago. Ms. Cone's site, which launched Dec. 1, 1999, originally used e-mail and an 800-number for customer service. "Once we added Web-based customer service, productivity went up and we didn't have to add another customer-service position," she says. 

Before a business can go online with live chat, there is a learning curve, especially if the actual customer-service representative will be outsourced. In that case, businesses have to work with their outsourced staff to educate them about their sites and products, something that has to be considered. Unless the customer-service representatives are in-house, there will always be a ramping-up phase. 

>From a customer perspective, services such as live chat are just about a prerequisite. 

More than 90% of online shoppers want some kind of human interaction while they shop, according to New York-based research company, Jupiter Communications. When it is available, 4.8 million shoppers, or 37% of Web consumers, request information or help via e-mail, chat, or telephone, according to Forrester Research, a Cambridge, Mass., research company. 

Once installed, Web shopping sites that add chat also report higher per-order sales figures. Mobile technology retailer iGo.com added live chat to its site a year ago. Since then, the Reno, Nev., company has seen its average sale shoot up more than 50% to $168 from $108. Ken Hawk, the company's founder and chief executive officer, says the increase stems from more completed orders and add-on sales that his customer-service representatives are able to suggest to users.

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Marketing -  It's All About The Customer Service, Baby

by Geneva J. King  9/12/00

Go Live!

Providing live chat assistance is JD Kathuria's business. As director of operations for LiveAssistance, he touts the importance of instant access to customer service. "When a customer e-mails a company, they don't know how long it will take for a reply. It may take one hour or 100. By providing real time assistance in a chat format, you give a powerful first impression of exceptional customer service. On the Web, real time customer service is critical to succeed."

Real time assistance means all-the-time assistance. "The interesting thing about e-commerce is that customers can shop with you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and customers therefore have the expectation that you have personnel available to serve them 24/7," Travis Fagan said. The Buy.com site responds by answering e-mails within 24 hours, although the company averages less than 12 hours and their internal service level is to answer 90 percent of e-mails within four hours. "Part of it is appropriate expectation setting with the customer, then making sure you staff properly and have enough resources on the site to ensure that you can deliver and exceed the expectations that you set."

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Myers to spread chat  - INMAN NEWS

Myers Internet Services, a division of BestRate.com Inc. and developer of mortgage Web sites, has entered into a strategic alliance with International Business Systems Inc. to deliver live chat to Myers clients. 

Under the agreement, Myers will be able to offer its customers a private-label version of IBSI's LiveAssistance real-time chat software, which will let consumers access mortgage professionals online. 

Chantilly, Va.-based IBSI was founded in 1986. San Jose, Calif.-based Myers Internet Services, a leading Web development, hosting and marketing firm in the mortgage industry, provides Web sites to mortgage bankers, brokers and banks.

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Contact: Manny Kathuria, 
CEO
IBSI
(703) 620-8838
Nabeel@ibsiweb.com

LiveAssistance Wins Inman Innovator Award

Chantilly, Virginia (July 22, 1999) -- International Business Systems, Inc. (IBSI), a leading provider of on-line customer service software called LiveAssistance has been awarded the Inman Innovator Award for most innovative Web application in residential real estate. 

The award was presented at the 3rd Annual Inman Innovator Awards, hosted by Inman News Features at Real Estate Connect 99. More than two hundred firms specializing in technology and real estate were considered for honors. The list had been narrowed down to two-dozen finalists, showcasing the best Web sites in online real estate in six categories. The Inman Innovator Awards are designed to recognize the people and companies that are transforming real estate through technology. Past winners include Intel, Microsoft's HomeAdvisor, and Intuit's QuickenMortgage. 

"We are very excited and honored to win this prestigious award," says J.D. Kathuria, Director of Operations for IBSI. "This award shows that we are on the cutting-edge and innovation for on-line customer service in the real estate industry. The number of real estate related web site clients are rapidly growing every day." 

LiveAssistance's outsourced technology allows Web site visitors to engage in real-time, one-on-one text chats with customer service representatives, providing consumers with a Web-based forum for questions and assistance. By providing Web sites with the ability to directly interact with their customers from the point-of-inquiry, LiveAssistance enables these sites to convert more web surfers into customers and improve overall customer satisfaction. Furthermore, LiveAssistance is the only full service solution allowing companies to outsource to IBSI's operators 24 hours a day or lease the technology and provide their own operators. It is the most cost-effective live customer service solution available, which requires no hardware or software installation and can be activated on a site in less than one hour. 

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