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!hey inc. and Answers.com Partner to Provide a Unique Customer Interaction Solution for Live and Self-Service Help Over the WebNORTH ANDOVER, Mass. - PASADENA, Calif., Oct. 10, 2000 - !hey inc., the premier provider of customer engagement solutions and Answers.com, a provider of online customer service tools, today announced a joint marketing agreement that allows companies to implement Web self-help with the ability to escalate to reactive text chat when a self-service answer is unavailable or insufficient. This unique customer support solution enables businesses to quickly, accurately and cost-effectively answer online customer questions. The integrated solution is currently available from both !hey inc. and Answers.com and can be seen at the CRM Support Services Expo in San Francisco on Oct. 24-26, 2000. "E-businesses today are seeking a customer support solution that allows them to provide their customers with immediate assistance while optimizing both their technology and human resources," said Kirsten Cloninger, e-commerce analyst for Cahners In-Stat Group. "The combination of !hey and Answers.com brings together the strengths of live and self-service help, resulting in a unique solution that gives businesses the ability to immediately and cost effectively respond to customer requests." The combined solution allows companies to offer their customers real-time answers to questions. Customers type in a question that is immediately answered by a dynamic, automatic question and answer knowledge base. If the answer does not satisfy the customer, or if no answer is available in the knowledge base, the customer is offered the option of engaging a service representative in real-time chat. "We chose to work with Answers.com because its scalable, flexible self-help Web product, combined with our customer engagement technology, produced a powerful integrated support solution," said Duncan Mackay, president and CEO of !hey. "Businesses using our blended products will be able to offer their customers live and self-service options while making the most of their resources." "This agreement recognizes the growing importance of Web-based customer support," said Bill Fogg, CEO, Answers.com. "We share !hey's commitment to innovation in the field of online customer support and believe our combined solution is a major improvement for companies of all sizes that need to cost efficiently respond to customer inquiries." The current version of !heycentersm, !hey's Web-hosted customer engagement solution, features automated Q&A functionality from Answers.com and includes a new design center. The design center is a browser-based interface that allows businesses to configure, customize, and manage their customer engagement solution through Web-based forms. !heycenter's customer facing features for its chat offering are customizable for branding purposes so that a company's chat solutions can integrate seamlessly with the look and feel of its Web site. About Answers.com Answers.com (http://www.answers.com) is a provider of online customer service tools that help businesses of all sizes manage inquiry volume, minimize costs and maximize customer satisfaction. Established in 1996 by idealab!, Answers.com was recently acquired and relaunched by Net Shepherd, Inc. (http://www.netshepherd.com) to target the business-to-business market. NSI is traded on the Canadian Venture Exchange under the symbol WEB. About !hey inc. !hey inc. (!hey) helps businesses proactively identify, acquire, service, and retain customers through personalized communication. !hey offers a unified customer interaction solution that allows companies to communicate with customers through all communication channels-Web, voice and e-mail-including applications for proactive and on- request chat, interactive voice response, networked voice, inbound and outbound e-mail routing and management, and dynamic FAQ. !hey's e-service applications are available both as customizable enterprise products and as a subscription-based hosted service. Beyond software, !hey offers NetRepÔ resources, live customer service agents with expertise in online customer behavior and sales, who can monitor customer traffic on a Web site and initiate conversations with customers to provide proactive assistance. !hey's current customers span a wide range of industries, including technology, retail, travel, entertainment, real estate, financial services and business-to-business markets. Customers include Microsoft, American Airlines, Cyberstateu.com, Knology, Inc., Network Associates, Bizfon, Supportgate.com, isolve.com and other leading companies. !hey is a founding member of the Personalization Consortium, an international advocacy group formed to promote the development and use of responsible one-to-one marketing technology and practices on the World Wide Web. The company merged with icontact.com in September 2000, and is headquartered in North Andover, Massachusetts, with locations in Fairfield, Connecticut and Chicago, Illinois, and satellite sales offices in California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, New York, North Carolina, Texas, and Washington state. Telcom-Internet Investors, L.L.C., a subsidiary of Telcom Ventures, L.L.C., The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., eCOM Partners, L.L.C. and Broadband Ventures are corporate investors. For more information about !hey, visit http://www.heyinc.com. !hey is a trademark of !hey inc. !heycenter is a service mark of !hey inc. All other products and services are the trademarks of their respective owners. icontact and NetReps are trademarks of icontact.com. Editorial Contact: Jennifer Sanchez Answers.com 626.817.5652 jennifer@answers.com top of page |
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