Picture This: Net Perceptions Takes Call Center Marketing To New Level
with Net Perceptions Sales Coach(TM)
======================================================================
TORONTO, Oct. 25 /PRNewswire/ -- Net Perceptions(R) (NASDAQ:NETP), the
leading supplier of realtime personalization solutions, today announced the
launch of Net Perceptions for Call Centers 2.0 with its new Sales Coach(TM)
feature, a call center tool that allows customer service representatives
(CSRs) to dramatically increase up-sell and cross-sell rates.
Introduced at the Direct Marketing Association Annual Conference and
Exhibition, the Net Perceptions' Sales Coach feature supplies CSRs with
realtime personalized recommendations through a user-friendly computer screen
pop that displays both text and pictures of suggested products. This makes it
easier than ever for CSRs to effectively up-sell and cross-sell products.
"It's the classic case of a picture being worth a thousand words," said
Steven Snyder, Net Perceptions president and CEO. "By including product
images with our delivery mechanism, we've dramatically increased the ability
of CSRs to cross-sell and up-sell effectively by as much as 50 percent."
Net Perceptions for Call Centers is a realtime, 1:1 personalization tool
designed, piloted and already successfully deployed in the consumer catalog
industry. The Sales Coach screen pop builds on this knowledge to deliver more
advanced features to the same customers. It prompts the agent with highly
personalized, individual and distinct cross-sell recommendations for every
customer who comes on the line. The software draws upon the same powerful Net
Perceptions realtime recommendation engine used by some of today's most
successful Internet businesses.
"Our Sales Coach feature is the culmination of more than a year-and-a-half
of learning about what works best in a variety of both large and small scale
call center environments," said Steve VanTassel, Net Perceptions vice
president, Product Management. "The technical design of our Sales Coach user
interface is so elegant in its simplicity that it makes integration with
legacy systems easy, allowing for far quicker deployment and -- as a result
-- a more rapid accrual of performance benefits."
The bottom-line implications of such an easy-to-use, realtime,
1:1 personalization tool have caught the attention of leaders through the
industry:
"Catalog merchants have been grappling with the problem of getting the
most from data mining for the purposes of cross-selling, and this is
especially true for the inbound call centers," stated Rich Tehrani, Group
Publisher, C@ll Center Solutions magazine. "Database marketing and data
mining were originally designed for outbound mail, not for realtime inbound
communication. Technology like that offered by Net Perceptions, gives your
call center the edge over competitors, raises the cross-sell rate 20 percent
to 50 percent and makes the customer feel an incredible connection to your
company."
Donovan F. Gow, Senior Analyst, Aberdeen Group, said, "Net Perceptions for
Call Centers works in near realtime allowing the CSR to make up-to-the-second,
informed suggestions during the call. As a result, Net Perceptions' customers
have seen 30 percent to 40 percent increases in acceptance of cross-sell
recommendations. Call centers that move aggressively to implement
personalization technologies such as those offered by Net Perceptions will
gain a significant competitive advantage over those that do not."
"Smart marketers (on the phone or on the Web) are the ones who understand
that successful sales to repeat customers depends on the best possible
customer service," said Ernie Schell, president, Marketing Systems Analysis,
Inc., and editor of Marketing Software Review. "To achieve that in today's
environment requires call centers with enabling online technologies that
support realtime customer profiling and analysis to anticipate customer needs
and make intelligent cross-sell and up-sell recommendations. That's the
minimum price of admission for viable direct commerce, and those who do it
best will enjoy the most long term success."
Support for Net Perceptions for Call Centers has been fueled by impressive
results both by current users and in pilot studies. In a study, conducted
with GUS (Greater Universal Stores) Home Shopping, Britain's largest catalog
retailer, Net Perceptions realtime personalization technology increased
up-sells by 50 percent and the average value of each up-sell item by
60 percent.
"The results are a clear hat-trick," said David Main, commercial director
of GUS Home Shopping Division. "We increased our up-sell acceptance rate,
boosted the average value of each up-sell item and showed that personalization
technology, when properly applied, is significantly more efficient than more a
manually intensive approach."
Donna Avery, president Rivertown Trading (Dayton Hudson) said, "The
overall sense we have is that Net Perceptions call center technology has given
a significant lift to our ability to add dollars to sales through up-selling
products that are more targeted. It allows us to highlight products that seem
a good fit."
"Armed with this individually tailored information, call center agents now
have greater insight of customer purchase histories, preferences and tastes,"
said Snyder. "Agents can offer highly personalized recommendations to every
customer they talk to, resulting in far greater cross-sell success."
About Net Perceptions
Net Perceptions is the leading supplier of realtime personalization
solutions that enable businesses to market to customers on a true one-to-one
basis a multiple touch points. Net Perceptions solutions increase new and
repeat business by learning more about each customer's individual needs,
tastes and preferences with every interaction, then making increasingly
personalized product and service recommendations. Net Perceptions, based in
Minneapolis, is a publicly held company (NASDAQ:NETP) which operates
additional offices in New York, San Francisco, and Reading, England and a
joint venture office in Japan. Customers include many of the world's best
known brands including: Art.com; Bertelsmann; Billboard TalentNet; CDnow;
E!Online, Micron, SkyMall, Tower Records and Ticketmaster Online. For more
information about Net Perceptions products visit netperceptions.com
or call 800-466-0711.
Net Perceptions is a registered trademark of Net Perceptions. All other
trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
This news release contains forward-looking statements that involve a
number of risks and uncertainties. Among the important factors that could
cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by such
forward-looking statements are the company's limited operating history, delays
in product development, development of the Internet market, changes in product
pricing policies, competitive pressures, and the risk factors detailed from
time to time in the company's periodic reports and registration statements
filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission
SOURCE Net Perceptions
-0- 10/25/1999
/CONTACT: Jacqueline Hanson of Net Perceptions, 612-918-1793,
jhanson@netperceptions.com/
/Company News On-Call: prnewswire.com or fax,
800-758-5804, ext. 139066/
/Web site: netperceptions.com |
