In the last 18 months, Web-based customer service has pushed full speed ahead. These advancements go beyond conventional e-mail customer service. According to Internet World Media, customers complete only 30% of on-line shopping transactions, so an element of human touch is necessary to appease shoppers who expect and enjoy feedback while they shop. Offering a degree of personalized customer care is particularly important when selling complex products and services such as wireless. Customer-service formats on the Internet include: self-service, deferred service and assisted service, or bridging.

By 2003, two out of three billing inquiries will be handled through Web-based self-service. Self-service is the simplest form of Internet customer service, where customers can locate the information they need on a Web site at their own convenience. This service may include on-line bill presentment and payment or a selection of enhanced services. It is most economical to let customers serve themselves before you resort to more expensive and complex communications methods.

Deferred service is enabled primarily through e-mail, either free-form e-mail or Web forms that the customer transmits as e-mail to the contact center after he completes them. Customers currently expect a response within one business day, but this time frame will shorten progressively.

Using e-mail for service can be economical for carriers, providing they do it correctly and can handle issues in one interaction. Modern e-mail-processing systems can enhance CSRs' productivity by routing the messages to subject-matter experts, constructing suggested responses using stored knowledge from text analysis and automating responses for frequently asked issues. With rapidly growing e-mail volumes, employing modern systems and expert methodology will enable you to keep pace and satisfy customers.

ASSISTED SERVICE OR BRIDGING Assisted service, or bridging, combines the Internet's immediacy with live CSRs' personal touch. It is the missing link that Internet users need to facilitate shopping and researching to accomplish their Web objectives. There are three primary communications means to execute bridging: multisession chat, callback and call-through or click-to-live.

Multisession-chat interface is implemented as a click-for-help icon that appears on your Web site to allow shoppers to click on it at any time and request assistance. The message goes to the company's service center, and a CSR responds by entering an on-line 1-to-1 chat session. The Internet user and CSR chat by typing their questions and comments into a text box. The customer remains on the same site and communicates on a higher level than with e-mail because it gives real-time interaction. Also, customers prefer chat mail over e-mail because it comes closer to approximating an in-store experience.

Multisession chats offer you a lower-cost form of on-line live-agent customer service because CSRs can handle more than one request simultaneously. It is well suited for Web-oriented carriers that don't have a public presence yet. You may consider chat interface as an auxiliary component to complement your call center and lower your toll-free call volume. Chat interface is easy to set up and can be running in one day.

CALLBACK Another convenient form of Web-based customer service is callback. Callback allows customers to enter a phone number and click a button to receive an inbound call from an expert. The user only needs a free phone line to surf the Web while receiving a callback from a CSR. Callback is easy to use and predates chat as an interface. However, it could cost more, because it doesn't offer multisession efficiency. Callback service does encourage customers to deepen their personal connection to you and your CSRs.

Click-to-live is the most tailored and advanced technological solution to Internet customer services. Also called live-agent interactivity, it allows you to obtain new revenue from existing customers as CSRs can cross-sell and up-sell products and services. The revolutionary notion behind click-to-live is that users have a visual and a voice medium at the same time. CSRs have control over the user's browser and can push sites and information to his screen, guiding him and feeding him information. For example, when a customer gets to the point where he needs on-line assistance with his query, he may choose the click-to-live icon. This might be accessible via a button that he will see on the Web site. This button is the bridge to expert help.

Click-to-live agents open a voice connection over the existing Internet connection. The customer connects to an available agent in the call center and uses his computer's speakers and microphone for voice communications. Here, the Internet connection becomes live, meaning the CSR has a real-time connection with the user. In order to facilitate his search, the customer can use voice over IP to talk over the Internet at the same time he sends data. CSRs typically record the Web pages he has viewed since accessing the site and may identify the user's demographic data even before they connect to him.

Such a system is expensive, depending on the number of agents you need. It requires investing in a special collaborative server available through application-service or outsourcing-service providers. It takes time to set up as well, because you must create an information-flow depository where information is accessible to CSRs. This back-end integration enables CSRs to access your telephone, teleweb and directory sources.

Click-to-live will help improve customer acquisition as potential customers surfing the Web can get detailed and tailored information pertaining to their needs. Expert agents can direct users quickly to a site and can influence their choices when they are making brand decisions. Click-to-live captures the users' attention while they may have questions and are on the verge of moving to a competitor's Web site. It serves as a low-cost mechanism to acquire customers.

RETENTION TOOL Customer retention also heightens when current customers find answers to their more difficult questions. CSRs can offer service comparable to personal consultants available at the click of a button. Competitors who do not offer the service may pale in comparison. It will allow you to gain new revenue from existing customers as CSRs cross-sell and up-sell products and services.

Bridging's core benefit is the long-term brand loyalty that results from customer satisfaction. A customer who is comfortable using the Internet for all his queries can stay on-line to entertain all product questions. This service brings the customer the richest experience, the most choices and allows CSRs to provide the highest service level to the most valuable customers.

SCREEN CALLERS Prioritizing customers into an array of parameters will increase your opportunity to screen out "infancy" callers who offer low value and pose unnecessary costs. You can isolate these callers before you answer the call.

Conversely, you can plan loyalty programs and rich customer-service experience for high-value customers, cementing a long-term relationship with them, as well as tailor necessary programs to high-value customers in order to serve them better. You also can segment customers into narrowly defined markets based on geographical market, purchasing power, usage frequency and other categories.

Customers don't need to switch from the computer screen to a voice-only phone connection to inquire about a product. Moving from computer to contact center is swift and seamless, and requires less organization. There is no need for them to search for phone numbers, wait for an interactive-voice-response unit to read a list of options or to be put on hold.

When click-to-live agents are experiencing an unusual call volume, they can replace the click-to-live button with an e-mail form to eliminate user frustration. This way, click-to-live is a major convenience, instills satisfaction and, ultimately, increases customer loyalty among a key demographic target base.

Currently, only a handful of Web sites offer click-to-live help buttons. Hewlett Packard's on-line shopping site (www.hpshopping.com) and Cisco (www.cisco.com) are two examples.

Additionally, Lands' End currently uses click-to-live with its "personal shopper" Web page and "shop with me" feature (www.landsend.com).

Click-to-live is expected to escalate in the next three years as carriers realize the importance of quality customer care in differentiating their brands, and customers will begin expecting this service level from their current carriers.

Video soon may add to the real-time Internet equation. Technology companies are integrating video with voice and data communications over one network. Web-based customer service's value is immeasurable when considering the cost and time efficiencies you can achieve when dealing with an explosion of calls that require quality service. According to the Yankee Group, the 55% to 64% of companies that do not use the Internet for customer service today will do so during this year. Also, the MetaGroup expects 35% of customer service to be via non-traditional means by this year.

Click-to-talk buttons are becoming an essential tool for e-businesses to retain customers and increase on-line sales. Pac-West Telecomm has signed an agreement with WebDialogs to sell and jointly market WebDialogs' NetCollaboration Service. WebDialogs' "Click 'n Call" solution enables Web businesses and visitors to interact live and share data over the Internet, providing real-time customer service and sales assistance.