BellSouth Intros Customer Service On the Web

In a recent teleconference, BellSouth introduced Product Catalog, Bill Review, and Solution Advisor, the first three entries in a new series of interactive customer service features running on the World Wide Web.

During the teleconference, Stan Yeatts, BellSouth’s director of Web Presence, maintained that the new features are designed to extend BellSouth’s tradition of strong customer service to the new medium of the Web.

Andrea Casson, manager of Small Business Services, said that Solution Advisor, one of the first three features offered to small business customers, uses an avatar-like character named Lisa to answer customers’ questions.

The two other features, Product Catalog and Bill Review, are available to consumers as well as businesses, according to the officials.

Larry Siegel, CIO of BellSouth.net Inc., described the architecture behind the new features as "robust, scalable, extensible, and object-oriented."

Also during the call, BellSouth’s Belinda Miller noted that BellSouth already offers services on the Web for consumers, such as usage instructions for BellSouth’s products.

Yeatts divulged that BellSouth is now working on a forthcoming feature that will allow users to pay their phone bills over the Web. Unlike bill-paying methods such as the "Checkfree" site, BellSouth’s method will be "holistic, and integrated into our site," according to the director of Web Presence.

(Contacts: Ted Creech, BellSouth, 404-927-7428; Jodi Florence, Porter Novelli, 770-392-8607)