Encore Marketing Inks Deal With inQ To Leverage Its Online Upselling Technology
Premiere Membership Club Marketer Seeks To Expand Customer Base Via Chat-Based Post Transactional Upsell Technology
VAN NUYS, CA (December 4, 2003)—inQ, a pioneer of online post transaction live chat applications, this month partnered with membership club marketer Encore Marketing International (EMI). The strategic partnership will enable Encore Marketing to upsell its membership clubs on the confirmation pages of a wide variety of e-commerce sites that inQ serves.
Since its inception in 1978, EMI has marketed its lifestyle enhancement programs to consumers through a variety of direct marketing channels including inbound & outbound call center marketing, direct mail, statement inserts, IVR and the internet. EMI’s membership programs provide value in consumer lifestyle areas such as travel, entertainment, shopping, health , beauty, financial services and protection services.
“inQ will help us to grow the online enhancement channel by enabling us to be more effective in reaching the target audiences that demonstrate active online purchasing behavior,” said Deborah Chapin, Senior Director of Partner Services at EMI. “inQ’s philosophy and seamless integration mimics that of our successful offline upsell techniques and we are optimistic about the value proposition we can deliver together,” she added. For more about EMI, visit www.encoremarketing.com.
InQ’s chat-based upsells or ‘chatskins’, are served to online customers following a transaction. The chatskins are created to match the look and feel of the participating Web site’s confirmation page in an effort to provide consumers with a seamless purchasing experience. The chatskin entails a live chat operator who initially thanks the customer for his/her purchase and follows up by presenting additional related offers. Typically, 50 percent of the customers who view chatskin will type hello, interacting with the operator to receive information about the offer. Conversion of inQ’ s clients total monthly web orders often extends into double digits
“We exercise extremely high standards in selecting membership club partners for our online upsell programs, as we strive to provide consumers with the highest quality offerings,” said Steve Nober, CEO and Founder of inQ. “Encore has consistently provided the public with reputable programs for the past 25 years and exceeds our criteria for partnership,” he added.
InQ serves its chatskins on the confirmation pages of a number of leading e-commerce driven sites, such as the online properties for Publishers Clearing House, JC Whitney, Reunion.com, Simply Wireless, Sylmark, Guthy Renker and Bargain Network.
ABOUT InQ
Van Nuys, CA.-based InQ is an Internet e-commerce direct marketing company, which has successfully pioneered the marriage of sophisticated Internet real-time chat technology with the traditional telemarketing up-sell. InQ’s online, post transaction, live “Chat” application is called FRONTLINE. Using this proprietary technology, Internet Retailers can achieve conversion results more familiar in call center world, on the confirmation pages of their web order process. InQ has broken the mold of static banner advertising with this live technology that increases conversion and allows advertisers to interact with consumers in a seamless environment.
InQ’s customer-friendly, live chat skins have the look and feel of the underlying client’s web site, using the site’s logo, colors and a customer services representative on the chatksin. When the Chatskin launches, customers are greeted with a “thanks for your order” and are may chat live with an InQ representative from the site they just purchased from, to hear about a special targeted offer. Every InQ chat is recorded in a transcript format and scripting is tightly managed to comply with all FTC requirements.
InQ’s live online Technology can also help Internet retailers monetize their confirmation emails. A link and a “thank you gift message” can be inserted into any email, and when clicked on by the customer, will launch the live online Chatskin to thank the customer for their order and make the upsell offer, allowing the client to further extend revenue. Consumers that do not respond to the chatskin are contacted by InQ’s dedicated outbound call center operators to thank them for purchasing on the Web site and communicate the upsell offer. Since its launch in 2002, InQ has attracted the attention and launched services with many of the leading Internet and brick and mortar companies expanding into the online marketing arena.
SSA Public Relations
Los Angeles:
Steve Syatt
818-501-0700
ssyatt@ssapr.com
New York:
Mike Rudnick
212-679-4750
mrudnick@ssapr.com
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