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Brightware Enables Borders.com to Respond to 40% More Emails Daily

Brightware Allows Border.com to Meet eCustomer Assistance Needs During Holiday Season and Beyond

    SAN RAFAEL, Calif. – Dec. 5, 2000  – Brightware, Inc., the leading supplier of eCustomer Assistance software for the Internet, today announced that Borders.com.com has achieved impressive results after deploying Brightware Email Assistance 5.0, part of the recently announced Brightware 2001 suite of products, to assist in managing email inquiries from customers who are shopping online. With Brightware, Borders.com is able to manage a 40% increase in email volume, establish priorities to ensure an email response within 24 hours and scale to handle the anticipated increase in email volume during the upcoming holiday season without adding additional staff.  

“Customers want to receive the same attention and quality of responses whether they are in our stores, or interacting with us via the Web,” said Charlie Moore, Director of Customer Service for Borders Group, Inc.  “Brightware was the right solution to allow us to interact intelligently with customers and meet their online needs both consistently and accurately.  Not only has the system dramatically improved our response rate, but it’s allowed us to significantly grow our customer base and scale for the upcoming heavy retail season.”

“We are extremely proud to add Borders.com to the growing list of customers who are using Brightware to achieve striking results in the critical area of eCustomer assistance,” said Chris Erickson, President and CEO of Brightware.  “With Brightware in place, Borders.com has the tools required to not only respond quickly and efficiently to its large eCustomer base, but also scale to the needs of customers for the upcoming holiday season and beyond.”  

Prior to using Brightware, Borders.com relied on Microsoft Outlook, a registered trademark of Microsoft Corp., to respond to all incoming customer emails.  The company soon realized however that Outlook was never meant to serve as an inquiry management application.  A solution was needed that would include tracking, problem resolution, outbound distribution and reporting mechanisms.  Through the sheer volume of emails received, Borders.com recognized that in order to maintain and grow the loyalty of its customers, it required a system that would improve customer response time—especially before the busy holiday season when site activity and questions regarding orders, shipping charges, pricing and product information typically sky rocket.  

Borders.com selected Brightware for its user-friendly desktop, ability to control and personalize emails, and its unique intelligent automation technology that instantly comprehends incoming emails, and then selects the best response for customer service agents to review, click and send.  Another deciding factor was the quality of Brightware’s staff who delivered a smooth, rapid transition from the previous manual system to an automated one.

With Brightware, Borders.com takes one-third less time to process inquiries.  Borders.com has witnessed a 40% increase in the number of messages received on a daily basis and the company now responds to about 1000 emails per day, up from 700 per day prior to installing Brightware—without having to add staff.  After just two months of running on Brightware, Borders.com personnel achieved their goal of answering 95% of all incoming email requests in 24 hours or less, while increasing the efficiency of the company’s two contact centers.  

Borders.com plans to expand its use of Brightware in the near future by incorporating additional products from the Brightware 2001 suite for solutions on the Borders.com site.  In doing so, Borders.com hopes to ensure that customers get the same detailed and personalized information they would receive from walking into a store – leading to long-term eCustomer loyalty and higher sales per visit.

About Borders.com
To learn more about Borders, a leading global retailer of books, music, video and other information and entertainment items with stores in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore, visit http://www.bordersgroupinc.com  For information on the over 300 Borders stores across the country including the commonwealth of Puerto Rico, visit http://www.bordersstores.com  For the ultimate online book, music and video shopping experience, with access to nearly 700,000 titles and 10 million books, music and video items in stock and ready to ship, explore http://www.borders.com.  For press information, visit http://www.bgimediacenter.com
About Brightware
Brightware, the leading supplier of eCustomer Assistance software for the Internet, helps companies build better customer relationships, one interaction at a time.  The complete and integrated Java ™ -based product suite includes Web, Email and Live Assistance solutions, plus analytics and eMarketing for closed-loop, insight- driven interactions with eCustomers.  Using Brightware, eBusinesses can dramatically increase eService levels, eSales revenues, and eMarketing effectiveness while simultaneously reducing costs.  Brightware's products, which can often be deployed within a week, leverage proven automation technology to deliver unparalleled scalability, performance, ROI and an exceptional eCustomer experience at every online touchpoint.  For more information, please visit Brightware's Web site at http://www.brightware.com or call (800) 532-2890.


Brightware is a registered trademark of Brightware, Inc. Microsoft Outlook is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corp.  All other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners and are acknowledged.



 
Editorial Contact:
Sarah Bracken
The Horn Group
(415) 905-4020
sbracken@horngroup.com
 
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