Today sees the UK launch of Netop Live Guide. The product will empower UK SME businesses to transform their online customer experience via a live chat solution. The hosted product will allow businesses to increase online sales, reduce customer service costs and improve customer satisfaction cost effectively.

The ecommerce market is expected to surpass £50 billion this year making online customer service the new battleground for etailers. Netop Live Guide equips businesses with a powerful tool to make a personal connection with customers and answer questions immediately, without the need for email, forums or the tedious act of waiting on hold.

Studies show that 77% of online shoppers would like to make contact with a real person before making a purchase, and over half say that lack of interaction has caused them not to purchase*. With businesses feeling the pressure to keep up with ever-changing market demands, many are turning to live chat as the preferred communication channel for Web customers to deliver customer service online, while keeping costs down.

Kurt Bager, CEO of Netop, speaking from the official launch in central London today, said: “From today UK businesses will be able to use Live Guide to establish live, real-time dialogue with visitors to their websites. Live Guide users secure between 15-40% more sales and experience ROI within three to six months. 48% of the Fortune 100 companies rely on our products for secure remote communications – now for the first time UK businesses can take advantage of this same expertise to improve customer service.”

One company that has benefitted from Live Guide in the past is leading Scanadavian travel company SAS Airlines. Since implementing the solution, the airline has experienced a 100% increase in service efficiency, quicker response times and more satisfied customers. In addition, the new communication channel also provided a boost to SAS’s service image.

At the core of Netop Live Guide is a complete, two-way text chat solution that is easy to use and efficient to operate. Popular features such as prepared responses and workflow routing enable operators to handle multiple customer inquiries simultaneously. Customer intelligence features and detailed chat logging help staff provide excellent service to website visitors. Advanced analytics enable deeper insight into customer behaviour, and detailed reporting capabilities make it easy to measure call resolution and customer satisfaction.

For customers who require more advanced capabilities, a full-featured version of the product, which offers audio and video chat options and proactive chat capabilities is available. This enables businesses to invite website visitors to chat, increasing conversion rates. Customisable forms and surveys allow companies to collect valuable customer information automatically and advanced security options meet the most stringent business requirements.

Netop Live Guide is available now from £55 per month, per operator, while Live Guide Basic starts at £20 per month. Delivered as a software-as-a-service solution, there is nothing to download or install and using preset responses and example chat buttons, a company can have live chat up and running on its website in less than an hour. Free trials are available online at www.netop.com/live-guide.

* Harris Interactive survey, August 2009