Spiegel Improves Agent Productivity and Dramatically Lowers Response Times with InstantService’s Chat & Email Solutions

Implementation of new technology was “flawless,” says retailer

SEATTLE, April 15, 2008 – InstantService, Inc., a provider of chat and email management solutions, announced today that Spiegel Brands Inc., the premier fashion brand retailer, has deployed the company’s solutions on its Spiegel.com and Newport-news.com ecommerce sites. According to the retailer, by implementing the InstantService solutions, they are significantly improving the customer experience, as well as the bottom line.

Spiegel’s need for a new web-based customer communication system was spurred by several brand acquisitions in 2006. The 140-year-old company was challenged to support multiple ecommerce sites, which were each tied to proprietary legacy systems. According to Spiegel’s Senior Manager of Sales, Customer Service and Support, Anna Radzikowski, the existing messaging product could neither provide sufficient access to back-end data nor support the enterprise scale needed for Spiegel’s centralized electronic support. This in turn hindered the retailer’s ability to provide top-quality service.

After a year of researching solutions on the market, the company selected InstantService and its suite of support and sales products based on several key factors, including ease of use, scalability, efficiency-centric features and system integration.

The retailer experienced significant productivity gains within days of implementing the email management solution: response times to customer inquiries plunged to a notable 5.5 hours, which is less than half of the industry standard.

“With the easy-to-use tabbed console in the InstantService product, agents can quickly -- in a click or two -- respond to customer requests,” said Radzikowski. With the new solution in place, Spiegel customer service agents answer an average of 12 email requests an hour, an 80% improvement over its previous system.

As a result of the experience and immediate positive results, the company quickly added InstantService’s online chat solution to the sites.

“While retailers are typically in lock-down mode on website technology implementations in the 4th quarter,” continued Radzikowski, “we were very comfortable deploying InstantService’s chat on our site in December because of our track record with the company. In just a matter of days, we again had a flawless implementation and support from Instant Service, with no hidden fees.”

“Providing Spiegel with a solution that has such an immediate positive impact on their service levels is very gratifying,” said Mike Lande, CEO of InstantService. “We are extremely passionate about developing enterprise solutions that fit the processes and business needs of e-tailers and contact centers. We look forward to working with the team at Spiegel to further optimize their online communication strategies.”

About InstantService
InstantService, Inc. is a leading provider of customer communication technologies for online businesses and contact centers. InstantService offers an integrated suite of live chat, email management, knowledge base, Web site analytics and lead capture solutions to increase sales and enhance customer service. 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 350 companies trust InstantService's scalability, security and performance including VeriSign, H&R Block, Spiegel, Intuit, ProFlowers, McAfee, US Airways and DISH Network. To learn more about InstantService, visit http://instantservice.com to chat with a representative.