In a January 5, 2001 case study, EDN described how online and mail-order retailer TechnoScout expanded customer service beyond phone calls: it routed email by topic, prepared answers to common questions, offered scheduled callbacks and internet voice calls, and added website chat. The company also planned—but EDN did not confirm it completed—a system to route phone and online contacts through one queue.
How TechnoScout’s customer service evolved
TechnoScout began as a mail-order business, opened a call center at its Richmond, Virginia, headquarters in 1988, and launched its website and email support in 1996. EDN reported that the retailer employed 100 agents in 2001. It said 75% to 80% of agents took customer orders; others handled order-status questions, as well as requests involving returns, site navigation, and online forms. These are figures reported at the time, not current company statistics.
As president and CEO Charles Anton put it in EDN’s account: “We anticipated a significant amount of e-mails,” he says. “And we wanted to be able to manage them as effectively as phone calls.”
How TechnoScout handled customer email
From a shared queue to topic-based routing
From 1996 through 1998, agents picked up email from the same queue when they were not on phone calls. In October 1998, TechnoScout bought ROI Direct’s Customer Response software. The system scanned email subject lines for keywords and routed messages into queues for topics such as product questions, order tracking, returns, exchanges, and replacements. That let the retailer align incoming questions with agents’ product knowledge.
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Prepared replies with agent review
TechnoScout then worked with ROI Direct for 90 days to add a knowledge base. When the software recognized keywords, it could retrieve a prepared response, but an agent reviewed outgoing email before it was sent. Anton estimated that about 60% of customer email received automatic responses, often for recurring questions about placing an online order or checking order status. EDN reported this as Anton’s estimate in 2001; it was not an independently audited rate.
What contact options did the website offer?
The case described several ways to reach the retailer. They differed in whether the customer or the site initiated contact, whether the exchange was live, and what setup the customer needed.
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| Option | How contact began | Format and setup | What EDN reported |
|---|---|---|---|
| Customer sent a message | Asynchronous; topic-based queues and prepared answers | Agents reviewed outgoing prepared responses. | |
| Click2CallMe | Customer submitted a callback number and chose a time | Phone callback; an immediate request led to a recorded prompt and IVR menu, according to EDN’s reporter | Purchased in January 1999. |
| Click2Talk, later Live Voice | Customer initiated an internet voice contact | PC voice-over-IP; Click2Talk required a PC microphone | TechnoScout bought Click2Talk in January 1999 and replaced it with Lipstream’s Live Voice in September 1999. |
| NewChannel chat | Customer could start a text chat, or the site could invite the visitor | Live text chat; the software used page visits and time on page to trigger invitations under business rules | Purchased in September 1999 and integrated with Live Voice. |
How did TechnoScout add live chat?
NewChannel monitored which website pages visitors viewed and how long they stayed. Based on business rules, it could display an invitation to contact an agent; customers could also initiate text chat themselves. The integration with Live Voice gave visitors a choice of text or voice contact.
EDN’s reporter recounted visiting the site and chatting with an agent. That is an observation reported in 2001, not a current description of the site or a present-day test.
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Why did the voice option change?
Joel Skretvedt said Live Voice’s applet downloaded in fewer than 20 seconds, compared with a four-minute download and registration for Click2Talk. The same EDN article reported Skretvedt’s estimate that 50 customers per day used Live Voice, compared with seven per week for Click2Talk. Both the comparison and usage figures are historical company-representative statements, not independently measured adoption data.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What did the company say about results?
Anton said that nearly 20% of customers who communicated through NewChannel made purchases. EDN did not give the methodology or a comparison group, so the figure describes an attributed company estimate, not proof that chat caused purchases. The article also included individual sales anecdotes; those illustrate interactions but do not establish a general effect.
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- Handy In-line Controls: Simple in-line controls on the headset cable let you adjust the volume or mute calls without disruption
- Plug-and-Play USB Computer Headset: Simply plug the USB-A connector into your computer and you’re ready to talk or listen without the need to install software
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What channels did TechnoScout plan to route together?
TechnoScout wanted to improve routing across phone and online contacts. Anton said the company planned to use Avaya CentreVu Internet Solutions to route phone calls, email, text chat, and voice-over-IP calls from a unified queue. EDN described this as a planned deployment in early 2001, not a confirmed implementation. The proposed routing could take agent qualifications, availability, and sales scores into account.
What the case shows—and what it does not
The case’s operational progression was from opportunistic email handling to keyword queues and agent-reviewed prepared responses, followed by additional callback, voice, and chat options. A shared routing system was the next planned step, but the article did not verify that it happened. EDN’s January 2001 account is the available historical record here; it does not establish TechnoScout’s present status or the later availability of the named services. A similarly named current TechScout consultancy describes technology scouting in chemistry and biology; no connection to the retailer is established.
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