DecorateToday.com speeds up error resolution to improve customer service

DecorateToday.com, the online sales channel of the American Blind and Wallpaper Factory, is able to resolve web application errors more quickly since it implemented TeaLeaf Technology’s application management solution, the company says.

Previously, in its attempts to identify and resolve errors and other application performance issues on its web site, American Blinds had to rely on patching together log files from disparate sources to recreate that customer’s experience and find the problem. However, TeaLeaf’s software allows web support staff to replay user sessions exactly as they occurred, to better understand what the user did just prior to encountering an error, and it requires only one piece of identifying information such as a user name or e-mail address to find the user session in question, the company says.

According to TeaLeaf, the time period from the moment a site operator becomes aware of an application error to the time it’s resolved averages about 26 hours, based on a 2002 report from Newport Group Inc., with about 80% of that time occupied not by fixing the problem but by attempting to find its exact source. “With TeaLeaf, the hours in the 80% just go way,” says a company spokesman, who adds that the company’s technology has reduced some web retailers’ error resolution time by as much as 90%.

“It was imperative that we increase the reliability of our web site, but the days of log file analysis are coming to a close,” says Sam Stephens, EVP and CIO at American Blinds. “We required a real-time solution because our customers have other alternatives when it comes to their decorating purchases. 100% of our transactions must be accurate from our customers’ perspective. There must be no transaction impediments.”