NEWS
Web 2.0 is still the hottest buzzword in tech circles, with every big brand worth its salt rushing to open a headquarters in Second Life or build its own MySpace page. But beyond showing off some fancy programming, a handful of companies are already looking at the latest wave of technologies to explore whether user-generated content could be the next frontier in customer service.
Since it began hosting the likes of Adidas, Dell, Reuters and Toyota, Second Life has become technology's equivalent of India or China - everyone needs an office and a strategy involving it to keep their shareholders happy. But beyond opening a shiny new building in the virtual world, what can such companies do with their remote real estate?
Rather than a simple showcase, some believe Second Life could one day become a first point of contact for customers.
Like many other big brands, PA Consulting has its own offices in Second Life and has learnt that simply having an office to answer customer queries is not enough. Real people, albeit behind avatars, must be staffing the offices - in the same way having a website is not enough if there isn't a call centre to back it up when a would-be customer wants to speak to a human being. In future, the consultants believe call centres could one day ask customers to follow up a phone call with them by moving the query into a virtual world.
Second Life and big business
Click on the links below to see pictures of some of the real-world businesses that have set up in Second Life.
Adidas
Nissan
Sun Microsystems
Reebok
Penguin
American Apparel
Reuters
CNET Networks
PA Consulting
Yankee Stadium
Bartle Bogle Hegarty
And hanging around in Second Life is more fun than being stuck on hold. As Claus Nehmzow, member of PA Consulting's management team points out: "The waiting period can be so much more entertaining than with an IVR system".
Instead of being placed in a queue to enjoy hold 'muzak' when contacting a call centre, virtual world visitors could make more profitable use of their time - talking to other inhabitants, viewing videos, reading information in the environment for example.
As well as keeping visitors entertained, exploring virtual world customer service can have advantages for the company themselves.
By using avatars, for example, a whole new customer services workforce can be opened up - those who need to work from home or mothers with young children for example, can be brought back into the virtual workforce. It can also remove some of the issues with customers being prejudiced against call centre workers who have certain accents.
However, currently Second Life and its imitators remain relatively niche in usage terms and have their own technology boundaries - not all consumers, particularly the older community, have the tech savvy or indeed the hardware necessary to make use of virtual worlds.
It may yet be some time before these cyber worlds come into their own - yet other web 2.0 technologies may offer another route for companies to make conversations with their customers easier.
Clive Longbottom, of analyst house Quocirca, believes the relatively low penetration rates and end user technical constraints will keep virtual worlds as a relatively niche customer service tool: "It's a new environment, there's a lot of interest... but it's not growing rapidly, it's not a major area."
He added that more established web 2.0 favourites such as YouTube might be able to play a better part in resolving customer queries. Examples might be electronics vendors posting a software demo or a video of how to set up a tricky audio system.
Some companies have already cottoned on to the potential of user-generated content and have begun milking users for their expertise in problem solving - Sony is one, having recently got users to help solve glitches after the recent launch of the PS3. Sony has built customer self-service forums using Transversal software to allow the PS3-puzzled to query each other.
Andy Barker, director of customer cervices for Sony UK, told silicon.com the hardware maker will be relying on PS3 fans to help each other out, although the forums will have some Sony brains on hand too.
Barker told silicon.com: "We can't know how every single device works with the PS3 but users could have some experience of it. If someone suggested they put the PS3 in a slow cooker, we'd step in and moderate that. There will also be classic moderating if someone posts an offensive comment or a dodgy link."
Sony recently opened its own virtual world, Sony@home, and is looking into the possibility of exploiting it for customer service purposes, perhaps using it to one day give users graphical walkthroughs if they need customer support. Barker said: "It's a question of seeing if people like it and if it's something they use but that's looking a bit further in the future."
Meanwhile, others are exploring how user-generated content from mobile phones can be used for customer service purposes.
In Accenture's US labs, some researchers are already working on how customers and companies can make each other's lives easier by means of the humble cameraphone. The consultants have already explored how snap-happy citizens can use their phones to take photos of minor crimes such as fly-tipping or graffiti and MMS them to the police.
Andy Fano, global director of research, Accenture Technology Labs, told silicon.com the system has to-date just been piloted in the US. He added: "We came from the position that it would only be a matter of time until people captured an event on their phones, and wanted to send it to the police, who wouldn't be able to receive it."
Insurance companies could also make use of the feature-stuffed mobile - after a disaster, homeowners could take pictures of their homes as primary assessment of damage and help insurance agents and emergency services determine who needs help first.
With the addition of image recognition tech, the capacities of mobiles could be extended. Consumers could take pictures of a broken car part, for instance, and text it to the manufacturer to request a replacement.
However, with a brave new world of new media customer services, call centres will need an overhaul. Fano said: "By necessity, it will take more people to interpret all of this but given the potential mass of media coming in, we have to find a scaleable way to approach this."
Comments
There are 4 comments. Join the discussion
1. anonymous
This is the dumbest thing I've heard this week.
2. Olivier Riviere
One aspect of Second Life that is constantly overlooked is that moving your avatar remains very akward. The nice and smooth movements, including dancing, that you see in promotional videos have little in common with your own experience as "M. smith-visitor". In terms of offering a rich interaction this is a huge hinge factor. Soon, Second Life will offer its visitors, the possibility to really talk (not type!) to each others. This will surely open new possibilities, making Forums far more interesting. However the "body language" limitations will remain and this might last for a while ...
3. swhitear
Whilst the current wave of hysteria surrounding Second Life is classic tech bubble material, the underlying metaphor of the 3D web is here to stay.
Right now the experience is more suited to exploratory social interaction than anything else; reports of it's use as a sales channel, simulator for medical training, customer service portal (insert anything you like here) etc are mostly hype. Developments in the technology for avatar representation, communication and security (to name a few) are required to raise the platform above early adopter status.
Ultimately organisations may be better off hosting a more controlled 3D environment for existing customer interaction. Imagine; your company has a customer service centre hosted in Second Life, there are a number of customers there who have a legitimate reason to be disgruntled, what's stopping a competitor walking in and talking to them directly about their problems before suggesting they teleport to their own sales centre? It sounds like replacing your companies hold musak with advertisements for your competitors!
4. anonymous
Second Liife is a lot of cool and important things. For example the clothing, buildings, and furniture are designed by residents, so I think you can legitimately claim a new art form.
But is it the quote "future of the web" unquote? I sure hope not! Drag your avatar around a virtual shopping mall in search of just the right pair of shoes, and you'll learn pretty fast that the 3D internet has some inherent limitations.