Contact center 24-7 INtouch sees 36% jump in retailer demand for e-services

Small to mid-size e-retailers want all the contact center services used by their bigger competitors, but solutions generally scaled to the needs of the larger companies have put some outsourced services like e-mail and live chat support out of smaller merchants’ reach. That’s helped promote an increase in demand for e-services at 24-7 INtouch, a web-enabled outsource contact center that targets smaller retailers, according to CEO Greg Fettes.

Fettes says the company has built technology that can cost-effectively scale down solutions to the needs of the companies it targets, which he describes as ranging from “start-ups to those in the lower half of the Internet Retailer Top 400.” 90% of the Canadian-based contact center company’s business is with U.S.-based online retailers.

In the past six months, Fettes adds, 24-7 INtouch has seen a 36% increase in the number of new and existing customers that have added e-mail and chat support to traditional phone support. In addition, customers who already use live chat and e-mail support services from the company are using more of it – 60% of them have increased their per-minute use of e-services over the same period.

“There’s a demographic change in retailing,” Fettes says, noting that the generation that grew up on computers prefers online communication. “Not all retailers are seeing it, but those that deal with this demographic are seeing that they can’t be successful without having this type of technology available. As this demographic ages, this is becoming more and more prominent, which is what we are seeing in our center.”