In January 2001, TRD Frameworks, a market research firm based in Seattle, WA, conducted a phone survey of 100 of the mortgage lender's customers who received the notification service. With the option of reaching live agents from its Web site, coupled with its notification service, the mortgage lender's emphasis is on streamlining applications for home loans, a process that can take a month or longer. Like its parent, this division has its own stores and makes its line of clothing available to department stores and specialty shops. Unlike its parent, Elisabeth offers live on-line service. The division introduced this option when it launched its Web site in November 2000.
Agents are available all the time.
Siebel eBusiness Applications to consolidate information they collect while communicating with clients' customers by phone or on-line. In offering live chat, Elisabeth faced two challenges. For the first time, it presented a new means of communication to customers who were inexperienced with shopping on-line. And it was depending on a service bureau to do it. Chris Witecki, an in-house consultant for PeopleSupport's largest retail clients, says that there is a difference between consumers who shop from catalogs and those who make purchases from Web sites.