Sales-supporting e-services

In the ever-increasing number of services offered through the Internet channel, more sophisticated e-services can be found in the business-to-business market. In this paper, we describe the selection and pilot of a B2B e-service in the firm GE Plastics Europe (GEP). The practical aim of the research was to get new customers by turning Web site visitors into commercial leads and to deliver better services to them. The scientific objective of our research was to develop and test an e-services quality model. We reviewed literature and developed an integrated sales supporting e-services quality model (SSEQ model) consisting of the following components: technical reliability, functional reliability, responsiveness, user interface, assurance, customisation, and empathy. We used the SSEQ model at GE Plastics for generating 36 new e-services (by means of brainstorming sessions and interviews), for pre-selecting e-services, for implementing one new e-service (Web Radar) in detail through a pilot, and finally for evaluating the e-service pilot. The Web Radar service allows a GEP employee to monitor real-time who is visiting the Web site. The employee can then offer a chat window to the customer in order to provide sales assistance. The chat acceptance rate in the pilot was 40%. GEP and the customers were satisfied with the results from the pilot study and GEP intends to implement the Web Radar company-wide. Overall, we found that the SSEQ model was very helpful in identifying potentially successful e-services by supporting the company in reviewing 36 e-services thoroughly ex ante. This ex ante evaluation is valuable given numerous failed initiatives related to the use of Internet channels. Evidently, a high rating ex ante does not guarantee success, but it is expected to give better and more thorough insight into the e-services before implementing them full scale.