Kim Le
Prof. Eugenio Lord
IT103-005
February 27, 2013
In mid 1990s, very few people knew about the existence of a global network, the internet. Now the Internet has revolutionized the way people talk, entertain, and do business. According to the world internet usage and population statistics published in June 30, 2012, from 2000 to 2012, the number of internet users has grown 566.4%, which occupies a third of the total world population (Miniwatts Marketing group, 2012). Business world has experience nothing like this before. Internet has given businesses opportunity to connect, get to know their customers more effectively. Prioritizing customers’ satisfaction, many firms have employed various methods such as telephones, mails, emails, or surveys as means to communicate with their customers in the matter of resolving errors or feedbacks. Seeking for the ideal method to improve customer service, Rob LoCascio established the online customer’s experience tool, LivePerson, in 1998. Since then, LivePerson has innovated the way business bridging to their customers. Through simple chat windows, LivePerson is proven to be more effective than other existed tools, because while customers are searching through database, they can contact and have a personal conversation with the representatives for further information. In order to assist businesses, resemble to an online forum, LivePerson is the place for the customers to input any questions, request for information about products and services. On the other side, LivePerson will provide opportunities for business to answer those questions. As the customers’ problem is solved, businesses are able to improve the relationship with their customers and also market themselves to potential clients. John Giddings, general manager at US-UK contact center, Virgin Atlantic, shares that LivePerson “capture an engagement customers’ contact” (MyLivePerson, 2012).
As an outsourced application, LivePerson is very easy to operate. Instead of having a structuralized customer communication department, company such as HP, Sony can subscribe to LivePerson for much lower cost. Using the provided ID and password the designated staffs of the firm can assist the customers as the customers’ question appears with their name on the screen. Each staff can alternate up the maximum number of four people at a time by simply clicking their name. The company is also able to edit the pre-formatted responses for common questions. While using LivePerson application, the experience a customer shall receive at the moment he accept the chat invitation is described as “they are immediately placed into a one-to-one live chat conversation about the products they are researching”. (LivePerson technology, 2003). Receiving help at the time of request gives the customers positive feelings toward the service of the company they are using. Looking at the social perspective, LivePerson has become a site for a significant number of people spend their time looking and providing information. Approximately, 17 million live chat engagement and 1.6 billion site visits have been observed monthly at LivePerson site (MyLivePerson, 2012). The significant number of accounted interactions between customers and businesses qualifies LivePerson as a beneficial business social network. From the society point of view, by connecting the right firms to customers, customers’ questions are resolved faster and correctly, which ultimately reduce the time of customers spending on researching through multiple databases. The society’s productivity is enhanced by LivePerson.
LivePerson has utilized the formal characteristic of the written form, in which both parties tend to be mindful of their words and can get to the point and directly. The contents also are easily reviewed for references. Therefore, LivePerson also demonstrates the ethical perspective. It is a well-known common
