Furniture.com Offers Proactive, Live Online Assistance

Worcester, MA-based online furniture store Furniture.com said it is now offering
real-time, proactive, customer assistance to online shoppers “at the moment
they need it most.”

“At Furniture.com, we’ve created an entirely new consumer shopping experience based on
personalization, service and total satisfaction,” said Furniture.com President and CEO Andrew L. Brooks.

“By offering shoppers access
to Design Consultants while they’re actually shopping, we are advancing the
bar in Internet shopping.”

The mechanism comes from New Channel Inc.’s new Targeted Engagement
Technology, which enables effective sales in more complex high-end retailing
transactions, the company said.

“With this new technology, our Design Consultants can proactively extend an
offer of assistance via a pop-up window on the computer screen,” Brooks said.
If the customer accepts the offer, a private dialog box appears, allowing the
customer to chat and receive other information on a live, one-to-one basis
with an experienced furniture expert.”

“The technology is especially useful for consumers who use their single
home phone line to connect to the Web. For them, the ability to chat without
leaving the site means there’s no need to cut short their shopping and
disconnect their Internet session to call a Design Consultant by phone,”
Brooks said.

Furniture.com offers more than 50,000 items, free delivery and in-home set-up
as well as
a Personal Shopper service where professional consultants suggest furnishings
based on
an individual’s preferences, styles, needs, and budgets.