Show and tell

With CosmoCall, you've got company on the Web

One of the main problems with selling over the Internet is the lack of the human touch. "Sometimes the information you want is not in the computer. Sometimes it's in the computer, but you need the mind of another person to successfully get it out. The way you do it today is you get somebody on the phone and you consult," says Stephen Kowarsky, executive vice president of CosmoCom. CosmoCom's product, CosmoCall, lets people talk to people over the Internet. The software is the Web equivalent of "automatic call distributor" systems used to receive and direct large volumes of incoming telephone calls. The call distributor holds the calls in the order received and routes them to an agent who simultaneously sees the caller's buying history or the item of interest.

In the case of a customer help desk, customers can go to the Web site to try to solve their problems online. Simply by clicking a button, they can request live assistance, and are queued in request order. They can then be put in touch with a qualified person who already knows what their problem is, based on the questions they were asking at the Web site. Through shared computing technology, the agent can take control of the customer's computer, fix the problem and move on to the next customer.

CosmoCom is offering a version of the software free. It allows Internet contact with as many as three agents of a company. "We're going to change the way business is done on the Web," says Kowarsky. "I don't think there's any doubt about it."

For more information, call 631/851-0100 or visit www.cosmocom.com.

The above excerpt is from the article 'Show and tell" which originally appeared in the July/August 1998 issue of SellingPower Magazine.