Another increasingly popular approach is to charge for telephone help. Starting this month, Microsoft is putting a price tag on telephone support for various software products, including Microsoft Office and Windows 2000. Netscape gives free customer support through email, promising that a tech person will respond within 24 hours. Many analysts say such practices make sense for the computer industry, which has long struggled to prevent the high cost of customer service from eating profits. He said almost every site may need to start breaking out customer communications just as airlines do with frequent-flier programs.
Some businesses make customer service a priority to stand out from their competition.
Chicago-based Perceptual Robotics, which developed the technology, expects it to become widely available on the Web. At Neiman Marcus Online, the technology allows customers to shop for, say, red dresses in a size 10 with matching accessories. A store employee photographs the possible selections and emails images to the customer, who can choose to shop further at a private site for viewing. Everything we sell in the store we've sold online that way, from cosmetics to jewelry to home d cor to fashion to handbags. And on the other end, the customer needs a fast Internet connection.