Many e-commerce and marketing executives we talk with understand how proactive chat can improve their online conversion rates and order values. But because chat may require a headcount increase in their contact centers – a cost center that they don’t control – they sometimes have trouble making the business case.

David’s Bridal is a great case study on using an outsourced contact center to staff proactive chat on a retail Web site. Implementing a best-of-breed proactive chat solution, but outsourcing the agents to handle the chats, allows retailers like David’s Bridal to obtain the benefits of chat but avoid adding headcount. If you’re an e-commerce or contact center executive trying to make the business case for proactive chat, I’d encourage you to listen to today’s Webinar, “David’s Bridal: Boosting Conversions & Average Order Value on ‘High Touch’ Online Transactions.” You’ll learn how David’s Bridal worked with Clicks & Mortar Consulting, InstantService Chat from ATG, and Global Response, an expert outsourced contact center, to drive an incremental lift in conversation rates and average order values – without adding new headcount to the contact center.

Join this 45-minute webinar and better understand how live help – with an outsourced contact center strategy – can become an integral part of your online sales growth.

Today we are thrilled to announce that ATG has acquired Seattle-based InstantService, a market leading SaaS provider of live chat, email response management, and other customer service and lead capture solutions. Over the last decade, InstantService’s innovative technology has contributed to the online business success of more than 300 customers, including FedEx Kinko’s, Garnet Hill, Orvis, REI, and Sundance.

By combining InstantService’s offerings with our ATG’s market-leading eStara Click to Call service and other complementary optimization services, ATG is well positioned to deliver on enterprise and mid-sized business requirements for live help, which we view as a key component to an effective online selling and service strategy.

Not only are we excited about the possibilities InstantService and ATG offer to our current and future customers, but we are also welcoming a highly knowledgeable team of live help and customer service technology experts into the ATG family.

We look forward to providing you with ongoing updates as we integrate the InstantService and ATG solutions and operations over time.

When we walk into a store, bank, or hotel, chances are we’re instantly greeted with a friendly, “Hello, can I help you with anything today?” As customers we usually welcome this proactive offer of support because it helps us get what we need more quickly. However, what many companies don’t always appreciate yet is that people want the same level of support across all channels – and especially online. In fact, nearly 85 percent of consumers say they want access to online live help.

Are you offering this support? Live help solutions provide quick and easy access to a sales or service associate via click to call and click to chat technologies. Online live help can boost sales, increase customer loyalty, and reduce abandonment rates.

Join ATG’s Ryan Hoppe this Thursday at 1 p.m. EST for a complimentary 1to1 Media Webinar entitled, “Engage the Right Customers at the Right Time,” and learn how including a live help option like click to call and click to chat can be the difference between satisfaction and site abandonment.

The Webinar will also address:

• How to use online service as a sales channel
• The three myths about live online service
• How to engage your best customers in the moment

Click here to register for this free video webinar.

Remember the days of yesteryear when we booked airline reservations through travel agents and received paper tickets in the (snail) mail? Well, those days are long gone and the bulk of all flight reservations are booked online, challenging airlines to create an efficient and seamless online shopping experience.

Join us tomorrow for a free webinar to hear Continental Airlines explain how they did just that by optimizing their online booking process with live help technology.

Ken Penny, managing director of marketing communications at Continental Airlines, will discuss how ATG’s live help technology not only reduced Continental’s Web site abandonment, but improved customer satisfaction, decreased customer service costs and helped the company obtain real-time, detailed analytics.

Tune in tomorrow at 11 a.m. EST for the ATG video webinar entitled, “How Continental Airlines Increased Customer Satisfaction with Live Help,” and see in more detail how Continental used proactive live help to identify areas for optimization and drive measurable results.

Also hear from travel industry guest speaker and expert, Henry Harteveldt, principal analyst at Forrester Research, about the importance of live help within the travel industry.

Please register for this free interactive video webinar. We hope to connect with you then.