Contact Center ASP InstantService Adds Automatic Queue Distribution

InstantService, provider of contact center solutions, sent me notice of their new release today. InstantService is an ASP providing a hosted suite of services for customer support and sales.

Today's release highlights a new queue distribution model for chat- and email-based customer messages, based on automatic call distribution (ACD), which InstantService has adapted and renamed AQD, Automatic Queue Distribution.

The full release follows:

-----

InstantService New Release Includes Automatic Queue Distribution (AQD) for Live Chat and Email Management

SEATTLE, May 5, 2005 – InstantService, a leading service provider of contact center solutions, today announced the delivery of its Spring ’05 release. New features, such as Automatic Queue Distribution, Response Library Hot Keys, and Mail Queue Filtering, will enable companies to service more customers more efficiently with chat and email, while increasing sales and reducing customer support costs. InstantService is an ASP and releases new features quarterly to existing customers at no extra charge.

“We are very pleased to deliver the Spring ’05 release to our customers,” said Mike Lande, CEO of InstantService. “We’ve taken the ACD (Automatic Call Distribution) model found in traditional phone-based contact centers and made it available as a queue management system for incoming chats and email messages. InstantService customers should experience a significant productivity increase from AQD (Automatic Queue Distribution) and the other new features.”

Spring ’05 Release highlights:

Automatic Queue Distribution (AQD)

InstantService offers a queue distribution model that automatically assigns new customer chat and/or mail sessions to agents based on their availability, skill and performance. In a customer support scenario, Automatic Queue Distribution streamlines agent workflow and reduces customer wait times. In a sales scenario, the new system fairly assigns incoming sessions to commission-earning agents in sequence, based on their individual skill and priority settings.

Response Library Hot Keys

Administrators can now assign hot key combinations to Response Library items. Agents can use these shortcuts to quickly send frequently used text responses into a chat or mail session. When used with InstantService’s existing hot key commands, both hands can remain on the keyboard, boosting the speed and accuracy of agent responses when they are handling several simultaneous sessions.

Mail Queue Filtering

Agents may filter the InstantService Mail Queue by departments. The filtering feature allows Agents to prioritize departments and easily view mail messages that require more immediate attention.

To learn more about all of the new features available in the InstantService Spring ’05 release, please visit http://www.instantservice.com, or use the following URL to chat now with a sales representative: http://www.instantservice.com/chat

About InstantService

InstantService provides an integrated suite of live chat, email management, knowledge base, website analytics and lead capture solutions designed to increase online sales and improve customer support while reducing contact center costs. InstantService is a hosted application that easily integrates with existing ecommerce and CRM systems, facilitating valuable relationships between companies and their customers -- the first step of customer relationship management.

Over 300 companies, recognized for their commitment to customer service excellence, trust InstantService's scalability, security and performance. Clients include America West Airlines, REI, H&R Block, Intuit, Gateway, 3Com, McAfee, Xerox, Sento, Ditech, Sony Online Entertainment, Cendant, Ernst & Young, NEC Mitsubishi, and Venus Swimwear. InstantService is based in Seattle and has been in operation since 1998.

-----

AB -- 5/4/05