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Eddie Bauer Delivers Service with an e-Smile This Holiday Season
New “Ask Eddie” Online Customer Service Feature Built On Servicesoft Technologies’ eCenter Solution Suite
Seattle, WA and Natick, MA – December 6, 1999 – Specialty retailer Eddie Bauer® brings service with an e-smile to the Web this holiday season with its new “Ask Eddie” online customer service program. Award-winning e-retailer Eddie Bauer announced today that it has selected Servicesoft Technologies’ eCenter™ solution suite to deliver world-class customer service on the Web, meeting online holiday shoppers’ demand for real-time, high-level service.The new “Ask Eddie” feature at eddiebauer.com helps make shopping online for the holidays a breeze, giving customers complete, around-the-clock, Web-based customer service. Using Servicesoft-powered “Ask Eddie,” customers can research information on their own, request and receive e-mail information promptly, or chat live with a customer satisfaction associate.
Eddie Bauer recognizes the impact online customer service will have on this holiday season’s e-sales. A study recently commissioned by Servicesoft Technologies, the leader in Internet Customer Service, revealed that 87 percent of online shoppers who spent $2,000 or more on the Web in the past six months will abandon a merchant’s Web site and click to a competitor’s if they experience bad customer service. The study also revealed that good online customer service increases customer loyalty. For example, 79 percent of big ’Net spenders claim to have increased their patronage and spending on a Web site when the customer service experience is favorable.
“When building our Web strategy, it was important that our long-standing commitment to customer service remain front and center,” said Mark Staudinger, divisional vice president of interactive media at Eddie Bauer. “Servicesoft gave us the solutions we needed to provide excellent customer service on the Web for the holiday shopping season and beyond.”
Using the Web Advisor® component of eCenter, “Ask Eddie” delivers intelligent self-service via the Internet and assisted service to Eddie Bauer customer satisfaction associates resulting in consistent, high-quality and easily accessible answers to customer questions. Information about the history of the company (and Eddie Bauer himself) together with other frequently asked questions make up the Web Advisor database.
Using the E-mailContact™ component of eCenter, Eddie Bauer can now easily manage and monitor the rising tide of inbound e-mail to improve customer satisfaction. If customers are unable to find an answer to their question in the eCenter database, they can write Eddie Bauer directly and receive a response within two to twenty-four hours, depending on the nature of their question. E-mailContact also allows Eddie Bauer to acknowledge receipt of an e-mail immediately.
LiveContact™, the third component of “Ask Eddie,” provides a human element for the online customer, creating an environment built on personalized interaction through text chat. The live interaction component of the eCenter suite will be launched on the Eddie Bauer site by mid-December. “We felt it was important to let customers determine how they wanted to contact us,” Staudinger said. “Our goal was to provide our customers with an array of options but let the choice be theirs.”
“With 10 million new Internet shoppers expected and an estimated $9 billion predicted to be spent this holiday season, Internet Customer Service is fast becoming essential to all businesses with an e-strategy,” said Chris Butler, CEO and president of Servicesoft Technologies. “Eddie Bauer chose Servicesoft eCenter because it goes beyond basic e-mail response to help customers find answers to their questions faster, more accurately and through more channels of communication, including self-help and live interaction. Servicesoft eCenter will help Eddie Bauer attract more customers and retain their loyalty by providing the same high level of service online that they have come to expect from Eddie Bauer’s catalog and 500+ retail outlets.”
About Eddie Bauer
Eddie Bauer, a leading specialty retailer, offers active, casual lifestyle clothing, accessories and home furnishings and décor for the bed and bath through its two concepts: Eddie Bauer® and Eddie Bauer Home™. In its 79-year history, Eddie Bauer has evolved from a single store to an international company with catalogs (1-800-426-8020), more than 520 stores in the U.S. and Canada, and online at www.eddiebauer.com. Through joint ventures and licensing agreements, Eddie Bauer also markets its sportswear in Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom.
About Servicesoft Technologies
Servicesoft Technologies Inc. (http://www.servicesoft.com) is the leader in Internet Customer Service. Its flagship eCenter™ delivers the industry’s only complete end-to-end solution, comprised of best-of-breed applications for self-help, e-mail response and live customer interaction, all driven by the industry’s most robust knowledge base. This complete offering is crucial to enabling companies to leverage the promise of the Internet in achieving a paradigm shift in customer service to drive initial sales, generate loyal customers, obtain repeat business, and do it all more efficiently than traditional methods. Major companies worldwide, such as Getronics-Wang, GTE (NYSE: GTE), Intel (NASDAQ: INTC), Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO), Motorola (NYSE: MOT), Verio (NASDAQ: VRIO) and NB Tel rely upon the company’s award-winning offerings. The company’s partners include leading call center, system integration and customer relationship management companies. Investors in Servicesoft include Sigma Partners, Internet Capital Group (NASDAQ:ICGE), Gemini, Sofinov, JL Albright, Grey Advertising (NASDAQ:GREY), FT Ventures, Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) and CIBC Capital Partners. Privately held, Servicesoft Technologies is headquartered in Natick, Mass., and has offices throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe.
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Servicesoft, eCenter, Web Advisor, Knowledge Builder, E-mailContact and LiveContact are registered trademarks or trademarks of Servicesoft Technologies, Inc. All other brands and products referenced herein are acknowledged to be registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective holders.
Editorial Contact:
Cynthia Keeshan
Servicesoft Technologies
416/256-1419 ext. 227
cynthiak@servicesoft.com
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