NativeMinds Selected to Provide Superior Customer Service to Ford Motor Company
8 January 2001
NativeMinds Selected to Provide Superior Customer Service to Ford Motor Company
SAN FRANCISCO--Jan. 8, 2001--NativeMinds vRep Technology to Provide Quicker and More Targeted
Service to 5,400 Ford Motor Company Dealers in the U.S. and Canada
NativeMinds, Inc., the leading provider of automated, natural language customer service representatives for the Internet, today announced that Ford Motor Company will use its Virtual Representative technology to provide quicker and more targeted online technical and support assistance to about 5,400 Ford and Lincoln Mercury dealerships in the U.S. and Canada that use Ford's Worldwide Diagnostic System (WDS). Ford's WDS is a sophisticated diagnostic tool that provides technicians with fast and accurate diagnoses, helping them fix vehicles right the first time. Virtual Representatives, or vReps(TM), are automated online personalities that emulate the best in human customer service on the Internet at much lower costs than traditional support channels.
To compete in today's crowded market, businesses like Ford are adopting advanced Web self-help technologies that preemptively address up to 80% of frequently asked customer questions. vReps provide highly customized and immediate answers to customers' questions, freeing up live customer service reps for higher level customer interactions. Ford will use a fully automated vRep to provide customers with improved service on its Web site, including the convenience of 24-7 availability and instant response, increasing customer satisfaction and lowering overall support costs.
Ford's Technical Support Operations (TSO), an activity within Ford's Automotive Consumer Services Group, will use NativeMinds' NeuroServer natural language technology to build and deploy vReps that answer questions and provide targeted Web content to dealer technicians. The vRep will automatically deliver Web pages that address each particular query, eliminating the need to click through multiple pages and ultimately saving time for the user. The Ford vRep will engage dealer technicians in simulated real-time online chat and answer questions using plain English, which humanizes the Internet experience. If a vRep can't find an appropriate answer to a question, it can automatically forward the question to a human customer support representative who will call the dealer technician to resolve the issue.
To provide Ford's TSO with a comprehensive yet quick-to-launch natural language support solution, NativeMinds will integrate its vRep technology with Ford's existing Vantive CRM and OASIS support database systems. Because NativeMinds' software has an open architecture, the vRep will be able to easily integrate data from many different sources, and will automatically find information to answer specific questions, no matter where that information resides in the network.
"Since the beginning of the Internet Revolution, everyone has talked about using their Web sites to build relationships and communities," said Walter Tackett, chief executive officer and founder of NativeMinds. "By offering vReps to personalize information and make accessing that information easier, we're helping Ford to truly deliver on this promise."
About NativeMinds
NativeMinds enhances service and sales for e-businesses with its virtual online customer service agents -- vReps. Using natural language responses to frequently asked product, service or user account questions, vReps reduce call center costs, increase online sales, and improve customer loyalty. Leading customers of NativeMinds' vRep solutions include Oracle, Convergys, One 2 One, Axcess.com, Misys and SmithKline Beecham. NativeMinds is a privately held corporation based in San Francisco. For more information, visit www.nativeminds.com.
Note to Editors: NativeMinds, Neuromedia, vReps, and the NativeMinds logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of NativeMinds, Inc. All other names or products are the property of their respective holders.