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.
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 the future, the consultants believe call centers could one day ask customers to follow up a phone call with them by moving the query into a virtual world.
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.
Photo by Second Life.
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