Good morning Harry!
I thought you might be interested in reading some information that a friend posted to me on another thread a few days ago. Sorry, but I do not have the link to this research summary. As Answers.com will be providing live and 'Real Time' Customer Support, with the infrastructure of the ICMS behind it, I think it is safe to say that the following study backs up some of my wild claims that the potential market for them is staggering. It also explains the very impressive growth of Ask Jeeves.
Enjoy!
Crazy Canuk
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99 Percent of e-tailers Lack Live Customer Support.
Without such service, e-commerce sites are losing billions in sales, finds study.
New research from Data monitor reveals that just one percent of e-tailers offer live customer support. Datamonitor says this means that those e-tailers who have failed to implement online customer service may lose up to US$3.2 billion in sales in 1999, or twice last year's figure.
Datamonitor claims that 10 percent of lost sales could have been salvaged by providing live contact with a customer service representative.
The research concludes that companies with an online sales presence need to invest more on customer service than on customer acquisition. Datamonitor maintains that these companies need to reign in excessive spending on marketing promotions, in favor of investments in live customer support online.
Datamonitor notes that the technology is available, making it incumbent on e-tailers to make the investment. Specifically, Datamonitor recommends companies invest in instant messaging, call centers, or Internet relay chat (IRC) technology, to provide live customer service.
Looking ahead, the research forecasts that 40 percent of companies engaged in online sales will offer multimedia customer support by 2003. |
