Online computer and software retailer Newegg is enhancing its customer experience with the integration of innovative software that provides a tiered customer service apparatus.

The new platform is the result of a collaboration with digital communication firm Moxie Software. The technology is meant to optimize meaningful engagement between Newegg’s customer service offering and mobile shoppers who require assistance navigating its Web site.

“Moxie customers design their engagement strategy based on a variety of factors,” said Tara Sporrer, vice president of marketing for Moxie. “In some instances, contextual information can be presented with the option to chat if the customer requires live assistance.

“In other cases, a business may design the engagement experience to be completely self-serviced,” she said. “Moxie’s Best Practices team works alongside customers to define the best engagement strategy to meet the requirements of the business.”

Customer outreach
The platform combines three digital communication channels into one robust service, integrating self-service via contextual information provided by the consumer, live chat with brand representatives and email. The self-service component of the platform is available 24/7.

“Moxie’s Engagement Mapper allows businesses to easily map engagements to behaviors with no IT or application development resources required,” Ms. Sporrer said. “Through the Engagement Mapper, Moxie customers can present relevant information to site visitors based on a number of digital behaviors – much like a brick and mortar sales associate reads the body language of a customer.”

“Moxie enables a business to read the digital customer in a number of circumstances to engage them at the right time with the right information to get them through a specific moment.”

The self-service portal will allow mobile consumers, who make up a growing proportion of online consumers, even with purchases as high-stakes as computer equipment and software, to better find product information and navigate Newegg’s online marketplace with ease. The portal offers a greater range of personalization for users’ customer service experience, which addresses a main concern for many consumers frustrated with brands’ unqualified transition into self-guided customer service protocols.

Live chat represents the next tier of the platform, and will be used in both conjunction with, and as a fallback option for, the self-service portal. The live chat option provided by Moxie will instantly connect the user to a Newegg representative.

Newegg’s current chat interface requires traditional messaging or Facebook Messenger

Advancement in mobile service
Breakthroughs in customer service technology are being leveraged in a variety of industries. KLM Royal Dutch Airlines is taking a leap into customer service innovation by running a pilot program during which it will determine how artificial intelligence technology fares in handling customer service requests on social media (see story).

And other retail sectors are capitalizing as well. Recently, Macy’s piloted a mobile Web-based artificial intelligence platform that enables shoppers to ask product questions and receive responses, highlighting the growing role that cognitive learning and predictive analytics are playing in the retail industry (see story).

“The mobile device was designed to be carried first and talked into second,” Ms. Sporrer said. “Customers prefer to message or self-serve on mobile.

“Mobile self-service should be proactive and mobile friendly— small snippets of information easily consumed on the mobile device. Live chat and email are mobile-friendly digital channels and can be presented to users during high impact moments.”