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Product review
HumanClick
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By Paul Lang, Editor, Sell It!
In many of my recent articles I have concentrated on the fulfilment problems that online retailers face, explaining that whilst the processes of building a Web store and taking customer orders are becoming much easier, designing a cost effective order fulfilment system is still a major challenge. Although this is true, it is nevertheless a simplification and ignores one important factor: consumer expectations of e-commerce are continually increasing. Not too long ago, e-commerce was a novelty and consumers were fascinated with the ability to place an order online and were therefore much less concerned about the quality of their shopping experience. However, all that has changed and consumers now expect a level of customer service online that matches, if not exceeds, that provided in the brick and mortar world. In addition, online stores with first-rate customer service capabilities can gain a significant advantage over their competitors. This point was illustrated clearly by some recent Dataquest research that concluded: "It is vital to win the customer loyalty at this early stage in the development of e-commerce. Internet merchants have the opportunity to gain competitive advantage if they can provide outstanding and imaginative online customer service." So how do you go about providing "outstanding and imaginative customer service"? Clearly it makes good sense to try and imitate the techniques that have long been successful in the brick and mortar retail world, where shop assistants provide the first line of customer service. The challenge then for Web merchants is to offer in their Web stores the same ever-present customer support that a shop assistant normally provides offline. On the surface, the solution to this support challenge is far from radical: the merchant simply installs software that enables potential customers to have their queries answered in real-time using online chat. However, this approach is usually totally unsuitable for the small, online business as the software can be very expensive, with set up costs of around $5000 dollars plus monthly hosting costs running at up to $2000. All this is about to change though with the launch of a new service from HumanClick which is specifically targeted at small businesses. The HumanClick software does more or less everything that competing systems do, but has one very special feature: it is completely free. HumanClick plan to make money either by selling advertising or additional services to their clients. However, at present the system is free of third party ads. Installing HumanClick could not be simpler: merchants simply download an executable file that is about 1.6 MB in size and takes around five minutes to transfer. At the moment there is only a Windows version available although it is planned for future versions to be Web based. Running the executable installs the HumanClick Web Operator Window (WOW) and automatically launches a wizard that generates custom HTML code for installation on the merchant's Web site. Merchants have the choice of manually inserting the code themselves or having HumanClick automatically insert it into their Web pages. It is important to point out that only merchants need install any software. The chat client itself is JavaScript based and customers don't need to install any software, plug-ins or download a Java applet. As long as they have a JavaScript enabled browser (i.e. version 3.0 and above of either Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer) they will be able to chat with the merchant. On every page where a merchant inserts the HumanClick HTML coding, visitors will see a HumanClick icon that will invite them to contact the merchant for help. The merchant can use the HumanClick WOW to specify their current status and this determines what icon the customer sees: if the merchant is online the customer is invited to join a live chat; if the merchant is offline then the customer is invited to send an e-mail; or if the merchant specifies that they will be "back in five minutes" the customer is told that the merchant will be back shortly and is invited to leave a message. To initiate a chat session with a merchant, a potential customer clicks on the icon and a small chat window opens up for them. At the same time a ringing sound is generated by the merchants PC and a pop up window appears asking them if the wish to accept the chat request. Clicking "yes” opens a WOW window that is split into three panes: the top pane lists all the users that are currently on the site, the middle pane contains the chat history whilst the bottom pane is where the merchant types their text messages. However, the HumanClick service is a lot more than an online chat tool. The WOW interface also allows the merchant access to important information about the person they are chatting to, for example which page there are currently viewing, which pages they have previously viewed, and how long they have been on the site for. And if the visitor has previously visited the site they can also see what pages they viewed on previous visits and also the text of any prior chats.
The merchant can request to initiate a chat session too. In this case a small, animated character drifts across the customer's screen and asks them if they would like any help - yes, just like the time honoured “Can I help you sir/madam?” in a brick and mortar store! There is no limit to the number of customers an operator can chat to at the same time (apart from their mental ability to cope with parallel conversations), nor is there any limit to the number of operators who can be supporting a Web store simultaneously. The WOW can also be installed on multiple systems so merchants can provide support from both their office and home PCs. The HumanClick system can also be used for monitoring activity in a Web store. If the merchant is online, every time someone visits the store a doorbell sounds and the merchant can then use the WOW to follow the visitor's path through the site (assuming that the HumanClick HTML has been installed on every page). Verdict: HumanClick is a powerful solution to a most pressing e-commerce problem and is available at everyone's favourite price: free. Highly recommended.
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