EGAIN COMMUNICATIONS: UK companies adopt web self-service in droves, but fail miserably in quality of answers Latest survey by eGain reveals 81% of websites offering self-help failed to deliver accurate answers
Slough, United Kingdom, Jul 25, 2001 (M2 PRESSWIRE via COMTEX) -- eGain Communications Corporation (NASDAQ: EGAN chart, msgs), a leading provider of Enterprise Interaction Management software, today announced the results of its latest survey into the state of online self-service in the UK. New research from eGain reveals that UK organisations are failing to provide reliable self-service to online customers and to fully capitalise on the benefits of self-service. Although 63% of the 140 websites surveyed offer some form of self-help, 100% failed to fully answer accurately and only 19% partially answered accurately. Furthermore, 58% of websites do not make it easy to locate self-service tools online. Given huge potential benefits with using self-service tools to enhance customer satisfaction and reduce costs, companies have much to gain by improving the state of Web self-service.
The survey, conducted by Hewson Consulting on behalf of eGain, investigated self-service capabilities of UK's leading organisations in nine market sectors (personal finance, branded clothes, automotive, mobile phones, computers, business travel, business schools, adult entertainment and home furnishings). The survey investigated if tools for self-service were offered online, and if so were they easy to locate and did they provide accurate answers to a genuine customer query or search.
The results show companies seriously failing to help customers effectively help themselves online. Of 140 websites surveyed, 37% do not offer any form of self-service, such as a search engine or FAQ list. For those that offer self-service, 58% do not make it easy for customers to locate these tools online. Alarmingly, 100% failed to fully answer accurately, while 81% failed to even partially answer accurately.
Cars and Home Furnishings were the worst sectors with nearly 75% of them not offering self-service, while the Mobile Phones sector was the best with 86% offering self-service.
Vice President of International Marketing at eGain, Ryan Rosenberg explains, "Many companies today recognise the advantages of Web self-service, but have yet to do it right. Companies need to have appropriate eService tools for appropriate situations, knowledge content and processes in place in order to improve the state of online self-service. The self-service channel should be integrated to email, phone and text chat so that a customer could be escalated to other channels for further assistance. Companies also need to aggressively promote these self-service solutions to their customer base. If done right, the return on investment for Web self-service is huge."
McAfee.com, a leading provider of Web security services, can testify to the benefits of self-help as a key part of its eService strategy. At www.mcafee.com/assistant, a virtual assistant named "Lori" is positioned prominently on the customer support page. She manages an average of 2300 self-service sessions per day, with each session lasting 4.3 minutes. Assuming that a human agent can handle 50 calls per day, "Lori"-which is powered by eGain Assistant(tm)-is successfully handling a workload that would take 46 call centre agents to do. Furthermore, less than 1% of the times does she need to escalate customers to email or phone for further help.
No one self-service solution fits all situations. Given today's variety of advanced tools, companies can offer superior service and gain greater efficiency by assigning different tools to handle different support needs. eGain Communications recognises this distinction by offering three types of self-service solutions. eGain Assistant is a life-like, virtual website assistant with human emotions and facial expressions, who interacts with customers in natural language, and escalates them to other contact channels when needed. eGain Knowledge Self-Service(tm) is a diagnostic, interactive search engine that enables users to query directly into the knowledgebase using natural language; this solution is especially useful to handle complex issues such as technical support.
eGain Inform(tm) publishes dynamically-generated FAQs, pulling information from a core knowledgebase and keeping FAQs continuously fresh on websites.
Many of the world's leading organisations such as ABN AMRO Bank, LucasArts and EPSON Europe are reaping the benefits of these Web self-service tools.
Companies looking for ways to contain support costs, enhance customer satisfaction and create a competitive edge should consider Web self-service tools as part of their eService strategy. With the availability of many solutions and user case studies, companies should now have an easier time doing self-service right, enabling customers to be highly self-reliant on the Internet.
About eGain Communications
eGain (NASDAQ: EGAN chart, msgs) is a leading provider of Enterprise Interaction Management (EIM) software for the Internet. Selected by 24 of the 50 largest global companies to transform their traditional call centres into multi-channel eService networks, eGain solutions measurably improve operational efficiency and customer retention - thus delivering a significant return on investment (ROI). eGain's best-in-class application suite includes email management, web collaboration and self-service, and a scalable enterprise-wide knowledge management solution. Headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, eGain has an operating presence in 18 countries and serves over 750 enterprise customers on a worldwide basis - including AOL, Charles Schwab and Verizon. To find out how eGain can help you gain customers and sustain relationships, please visit www.eGain.com or call the company's offices - US: (888) 603-4246; London: +44 (0) 1753 464646; Sydney: +612 9492 5400.
About Hewson Consulting
Hewson Group is an independent UK based organisation. Since inception in 1989, Hewson Group has specialised in market analysis, vendor advice and management consultancy in the Customer Relationship Management arena.
CONTACT: Jessica Ly, eGain Communications Tel: +44 (0)1753 464710 e-mail: jly@egain.com Graham Thatcher/Juliette Doel, MCC International Ltd Tel: +44 (0)1962 888100 e-mail: graham.thatcher@mccint.com e-mail: juliette.doel@mccint.com
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