Phone House Sweden turns to Live Chat from Netop to improve service levels and provide a more personalised customer connection

Phone House Sweden, part of the Carphone Warehouse Group plc and Sweden's largest independent retailer of mobile telephony, has chosen Netop Live Guide, an online live chat technology platform, to improve service levels and provide a more personalised customer experience.

Customers visiting the www.phonehouse.se website can click on the live chat option to engage directly and in real-time with Phone House customer service agents. Using live chat, Phone House customers can ask about: the latest mobile phones; options for upgrading their existing phones; changes to their current plan; or assist in technical support without wasting valuable time 'sitting' on hold on the phone or waiting for a response to an email.

Since the deployment of Live Guide Phone House has seen chat inquiries rise by more than 200% each month. Because Live Chat allows a more personalised customer connection Phone House customers can get what they want more quickly and easily. As a result Phone House has streamlined the efficiently of its own sales and customer processes, helping to improve overall profitability.

Discussing the deployment, Jonny Malmlöf, Head of PR of Phone House Sweden said: "Deploying Netop Live Guide allows us to quickly evolve the level of service we provide our customers. The feedback from staff and customers alike has been very positive. Over 1,000 people have taken advantage of the service in just three months - underlining how effective the service is as a communication channel. Moving forward, the service will help us inspire brand loyalty, reduce costs and improve the way we interact with our customers."

Kurt Bager, CEO of Netop, said: "Phone House is the latest global brand to select Live Guide to establish live, real-time dialogue with visitors to their website. The need for online chat is clear - studies show that 77% of online shoppers would like to make contact with a real person before making a purchase and over half say that lack of interaction has caused them not to purchase. The mobile phone sector has the added pressure of having to keep up to date with an ever-changing market - meaning customers require technical advice before they make a purchase. This makes live chat a perfect tool to deliver a quick and accurate service."

Netop Live Guide is a complete, two-way live chat solution that is easy to use and efficient to operate. Popular features such as prepared responses and workflow routing enable operators to handle multiple customer inquiries simultaneously. Customer intelligence features and detailed chat logging help staff provide excellent service to website visitors. At the same time, advanced analytics enable deeper insight into customer behaviour and detailed reporting capabilities make it easy to measure call resolution and customer satisfaction.

Netop is in talks with Phone House to move more conversations to the Live Guide channel as it looks to: increase first time resolution, reduce costs (compared to phone and mail) and interact with customers via their preferred method of communication.

Netop Live Guide is available now from £55 per month, per operator, while Live Guide Basic starts at £20 per month. Live Guide customers secure between 15-40% more sales and experience ROI within three to six months. Delivered as a software-as-a-service solution, there is nothing to download or install. Using prepared responses and example chat buttons, a company can have live chat up and running on its website in less than an hour. Free trials are available online at www.netop.com/live-guide.

About Phone House

Phone House Sweden is part of the Best Buy Europe Group which is a leading European retailer of mobile and other wireless technology and services. It operates c.2,400 stores in eight European countries, principally under "Carphone Warehouse" and "Phone House" brands. This business is evolving its existing retail proposition to provide a broader range of products and services associated with the "Connected World" through its 'Wireless World' format.