November 10, 1997 Personalization and the personal touch are different things A reader recently asked me who the Nordstrom of the Web is. When I thought about it, I realized that there is no such creature. What makes Nordstrom a good store to shop at is the high degree of personal attention they give their customers. The live piano music is a nice feature, too. But although the Web sports an increasing number of "personalized" Web sites, very few of them offer a truly personal touch. Looking for a new jacket? Nordstrom-trained sales people will patiently help you try on one after another, making suggestions about styles you might want to try and helping you to decide among them. Good luck finding anything comparable to that service online. The personal touch is good business in a retail store. The last time I went to Nordstrom, I walked out with a pair of shoes that cost half again as much as I'd planned to spend -- due in large part to the helpfulness of the salesman, and his friendly, no-pressure attitude. Then when I decided the next day I wanted a different style after all, I took them back and exchanged them -- no questions asked. You can be sure I'll shop there again. So why is personal service so hard to find on the Web? Installing and using personalization software doesn't necessarily mean that your Web site is going to have a warm-and-fuzzy, "personal" feel to it. (For more details on personalization software, see "Balance personalization and community for a successful store," Oct. 20) It just means that visitors to your Web site will be interacting with a somewhat smarter machine. And while that may produce greater efficiency, increased sales, and even short-term customer satisfaction, it's still not creating the kind of experience that will build long-term customer loyalty. The personal touch is something no machine can provide in and of itself. To provide the personal touch, you need at least one real person, who will answer questions, resolve problems, follow through on promises, and in short see to the needs of your site's customers. Technology can facilitate that, but it's no substitute. Building in the human side to your commerce site doesn't have to be expensive. At the simplest level, it means making sure your Web pages include easy-to-find email links, so visitors can send you messages, comments, or concerns. And -- this is the important part -- you need to monitor that email address and send timely responses to every query. If your site has substantial traffic, you'll find that you need to dedicate full-time staff to handling email queries, just as you need to hire sales and service staff to answer your phones. And once you have more than one person fielding email messages from your site, you may find that you need a more efficient way of dispatching those messages to the appropriate destinations. That's where technology comes in. In fact, there are at least two products designed to help manage the flood of incoming email messages. One is Mustang Software's clever Internet Message Center 1.0. (For a review, see "Mustang product routes, tracks incoming messages," Oct. 6, page 104.) Far from trying to answer the messages itself, this software simply provides an easy way to pool messages and route them to customer service representatives exactly as fast as the reps can handle them. It also tracks messages to ensure that every one gets handled, and allows customer service managers to monitor response times -- just like a call center. At $1,500 per server, it's a very economical customer service investment. Somewhat higher on the software-smarts chain, and also higher in price, is Brightware Inc.'s Brightware 1.0. This package, which will cost you around $100,000, uses neural-net technology to analyze incoming messages and respond to them or reroute them in predefined ways. For instance, if Brightware recognizes a simple request for information, it can be programmed to automatically respond with a message containing that information. If a sales lead comes in, Brightware will route it to a sales representative. And junk mail is automatically discarded. Don't fall into the trap of thinking that either of these programs can replace your email response center employees. If you think your customers would be happy corresponding with a machine, you've got another think coming. But for dealing with routine requests, sorting out irrelevant ones, and enabling your customer service reps to provide better service, these products show promise. And if they help companies put a human face on their Web sites, I'm all in favor of them. Have you seen the Nordstrom of the Web? If so, I'd love to hear about it. Write to me at dylan@infoworld.com. Missed a column? Don't despair -- click here to catch up.