TechnoScout.com checks live chat for combined customer service and sales

Looking for more ways to combine web technology and marketing techniques, Techno Brands Inc.’s TechnoScout.com is looking into using its live chat tool for customer service as well as selling, Joel Skretvedt, director of Internet marketing and operations, says.

TechnoScout, a retailer of high-tech consumer electronics products ranging from digital cameras to special foam beds developed by NASA, implemented a live chat tool from LivePerson Inc. last year as a sales-help alternative to its call center. With a staff of 16 live chat sales reps, the system has proved to be an effective means of communicating with shoppers and driving more cross-selling and up-selling, Skretvedt says.

But the retailer now wants to see if live chat will also serve as an effective tool for combined customer service and sales efforts, he adds. “We started on the sales side with live chat, but now we want to see if it’s good for a combination of customer service, up-sells and cross-sells,” Skretvedt says.

After inviting customers with service needs into a live chat session, TechnoScout will have them greeted by customer service reps trained to reply with coordinated responses intended to both help and sell. “We’ll offer to send them a manual for their product, but also offer them complementary products,” Skretvedt says.