The Tuesday, July 12th meeting of the Rocky Mountain
Internet Users Group (RMIUG) will discuss "Listening
to your Customer - Leveraging Telephone Interactions
to Improve your Online Experience"

A big reason organizations support sophisticated
transactional websites is to allow their customers to
"self-service" their needs. So, instead of having to
call during regular business hours to talk with a
human for support, customers can log on to a website
and find what they need themselves, without any
waiting whatsoever. Not only is this a great
convenience to the customer, it is also less expensive
for the company: staffing call centers can be very
expensive.

That said, websites are imperfect: rarely are they
comprehensive enough to handle every need and
sometimes their ease-of-use is so poor that human
contact is a necessity. Even Amazon.com, one of the
more comprehensive self-service websites around, has a
toll free customer support number.

At the next RMIUG meeting, we will discuss how
organizations can use call center feedback to help
improve their website, reduce costs - even increase
revenues.

It's the classic "listen to your customer" dictum but
with 21st century solutions.

To explore this topic, RMIUG will bring in an expert
speaker:
Aleece L. Koss (aleece.koss@...) is a Senior
Director - Customer Experience for Cendant, one of the
foremost providers of travel and real estate services
in the world. During Aleece's tenure, she has worked
very closely with their CheapTickets.com division, one
of the largest online sellers of leisure products in
the world with $3 to 4 million in sales each day. An
Internet veteran with over 10 years of experience,
Aleece has led many large projects including 2
complete platform and customer migrations as well as
championing a focus on the customer that resulted in
continuous monthly sales conversion improvements, 43%
growth in purchases and 50% reduction in customer
contacts per purchase Year-Over-Year. Aleece will
talk about her experiences using CheapTickets call
center data as part of the effort to achieve the
above results.

We are still looking for additional speakers. If you
think you might have some interesting experience on
the topic, please contact josh@....

URL's of interest:
-------------------
Cendant: http://www.cendant.com
CheapTickets: http://www.cheaptickets.com



The meeting is Tuesday, July 12th from 7:00 - 9:00 pm
(with optional 6:30 pm start for refreshments and
informal networking). The meeting will be held at The
National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) at
1850 Table Mesa Drive in Boulder. To get to NCAR from
the Boulder Turnpike (US 36) or Broadway (US 93), take
Table Mesa Drive west towards the mountains for
approximately 2.5 miles into the foothills. NCAR is at
the top of the hill. For door-to-door driving
directions, go to MapQuest (http://www.mapquest.com/),
click on Driving Directions, enter your starting
address, NCAR's address, and voila! Park in the NCAR
lot, go in the main door, and ask the guard to point
you to meeting, which is held in the main auditorium,
right off the lobby. The meeting is free and open to
the public, but we may pass the hat to help defray
expenses.

Our meeting location seats about 120 people. That is
usually enough room to accommodate all attendees, but
it's impossible for us to predict how many people will
show up for any given meeting. Seating is always on a
first-come, first serve basis, and in the event of
more attendees than seats, we won't be able to admit
additional people into the auditorium after all seats
are filled.

Thanks to our three sponsors who help make RMIUG
meetings happen:
---------------------------------------------------------------
MicroStaff (www.microstaff.com) which provides
Creative and Technical talent for Web, Interactive
Media, Marketing Communications and Software
Development projects, is the sponsor of food and
beverages for RMIUG meetings.
ONEWARE (http://www.ONEWARE.com) -- a Colorado-based
software company that provides semi-custom web-based
applications, sponsors the RMIUG meeting minutes.
Copy Diva (http://www.copydiva.com) which provides
marketing project management, marketing communications
consulting, and web content development is the AV
sponsor for RMIUG.

Consultants and companies are invited to bring
Internet-related Product information, brochures, and
business cards which will be displayed on an
information table.

There are email mailing lists set up for this group.
To subscribe or unsubscribe, see
http://www.rmiug.org/maillist.html. You can also reach
the RMIUG "Executive" Committee at
rmiug-comm@.... Our web site is at
http://www.rmiug.org/


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Please note that RMIUG is hosted at NCAR and we are
their guests. NCAR has security regulations in effect
that we must follow in order to use the facility. If
any RMIUG attendee is unwilling to follow these simple
regulations, I would ask that he or she not attend and
instead read the minutes after the meeting.

Here are the NCAR security policies that must be
followed:

1. No weapons.
2. Must sign in at front desk and provide name.
3. Cooperate with security folks including providing
ID if requested.
4. We are guests of NCAR so cooperation and courtesy
are expected when dealing with NCAR staff.

If there are any questions or concerns with this
policy, please contact me directly.
Thanks, Josh Zapin (josh@...).
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