Thursday, July 14 2005 18:42 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Bangalore: Stuck while filling a form on the computer or clicking at various places on the website-- InstaAssist, a web-based support service, could now help a user to complete all the formalities through an interactive guided online assistance.

Launched by InstaColl, InstaAssist would enable customer care representatives or technical service representatives to track down customers having problems, identify their problems and resolve them within an online support structure, Bhatia, Chairman of InstaColl, told reporters in Bangalore.

"There are numerous occasions when a customer just appears to get stuck while filling in some data or trying to get to certain information or service. It is here that InstaAssist comes to the aid of the customer by enabling the customer service representative or agent sitting on the other end to track down the customer having a problem, getting in touch with the customer and guiding the customer in completing the forms or other guided operations", he said.

With its unique data-centric philosophy and peer-to-peer technology the service enables providing high quality, personalized customer care service similar to onsite visit without the expenses or delays associated with travel.

"Unlike the telephone service where there is only audio guidance sans visual aid, this service enables the agent or customer care representative to actually view what the customer is clicking at and enables the customer to see the representatives guided instructions", he said.

"With the customer's permission, the agent can even fix the problem, transfer patches and install new software products all sitting in a different geographical location", he said.

The product would allow representatives to instantly view, diagnose and resolve the issue online with any user anywhere in the world, without the representative actually visiting the customer.

The representative could have an interactive remote session right from their desktops and could control of the client's desktop with prior permission.

The new product also enables a customer care representative to assist two or more customers at the same time unlike assistance through phone besides enabling the agent to easily escalate the support session to one or more technical specialist located anywhere in the world.

The service has a powerful centralized policy administration controls and detailed reporting tools that do not required hardware of software investments, IT resources or firewall configuration.

The customer and support agents would only require a browser and an internet connect to use the service, Bhatia said.

Envisaging the large-scale application of the product, he said, "We are looking at BPOs, call centres, airline services and all such areas where customer care representatives are involved in providing personalised services", he said.

Describing the service as one that was more advanced than a normal chat service, he said, that it was a secure, reliable web-based interactive service product.

The company was negotiating with several companies for the product and demonstrating the same.