Live Help Online Make your online customer service come alive.
By Aliza P. Sherman •
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
How can you add the human touch to your Web site while enhancingcustomer service at the same time? Think about adding a live onlinecustomer service feature to your Web site.
Companies such as iContactand LivePerson licensespecial software products that allow your visitors to click on abutton on your site and launch a small chat room window so they canhold a real-time discussion with a customer service rep, eitheryour own or one of their carefully trained helpers.
Once you offer live online customer service on your site, thesky's the limit as to how you use it. Perhaps you can offerpersonal shopping services where customer service reps helpshoppers find suitable items within your online catalog. A niftyfeature that these services offer is the ability for your reps to"push" a Web page to the shopper who's being helpedso the Web site changes right before their eyes, showing them aspecific item.
Costs vary for the software and there are additional costs fortraining your staff or their staff, but there's finally a wayto give immediate service to your online shoppers.
Aliza Sherman is an entrepreneur and author of Cybergrrl:A Woman's Guide to the World Wide Web (Ballantine Books).She is currently working on her next book and new company.
