'Net Features : Workface

Workface Answers Digital Doorbell for NAR

Amberly Dressler — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 14:27:00 GMT

A broad digital footprint and fast reaction time dramatically improves the customer engagement process and provides more Web-based customer opportunities, which is why Workface, a prospect relationship management (PRM) software platform was chosen to optimize the National Association of Realtors’ Web presence, as part of the NAR’s Reach accelerator program.

Workface’s role in the NAR’s digital initiatives is to introduce the personality and personal engagement skills of highly qualified agents to improve the company’s reaction time to online customers.

“Today the real estate buying and selling process begins on the Web,” said Constance Freedman, NAR Vice President of Strategic Investments and REach Managing Director. “Workface represents exactly the type of companies that the REach program was designed to support: a company with high growth, cutting edge technology that connects homebuyers and agents, and one that delivers strategic benefits to the real estate industry.”

A recent NAR study shows that 90 percent of homebuyers searched online during their home-buying process.

“In situations where brokerages want to deliver high-touch, authentic live chat experiences on the Internet, Workface is simply the best solution on the market,” said Workface CEO Lief Larson. “We have a big vision that in the not-so-distant future homebuyers will have a live agent available at every online property listing — essentially the ultimate digital doorbell.”

The way Workface’s PRM works is by sitting in front of a customer relationship management (CRM) application and is used for meeting and greeting customers on the Internet and for assisting them in the early stages of the buying process, according to the company. Additionally, Workface helps companies introduce their customer-facing agents at the digital moment of interest, and greet customers on the web in a more humanized fashion. It can also be leveraged in advertising, social media and search efforts.

Online Engagement Comes to Facebook with Workface

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 17:28:00 GMT

Companies with Facebook pages have been hit very hard by the social networks recent changes but there’s at least one solution which is hoping to help these companies deepen engagement.

Customer-interaction technology vendor Workface has integrated its profile-based customer-engagement platform into the Facebook ecosystem. This is one to watch, fellow Web and social media workers.

“Companies want to be ‘liked’ on Facebook, but the real issue is how does that develop meaningful relationships with prospects and, more importantly, generate leads,” said Lief Larson, president and product strategist at Workface. “Workface’s portable Profiles uniquely mobilize field sales and service teams across Facebook to engage at the moment of interest with online prospects, providing an experience that most closely replicates a face-to-face meeting—literally bringing a company’s social media presence to life.”

Integrated into a company’s Facebook page, Workface profiles enable prospects/customers to connect with actual brand representatives (not the often anonymous profiles that brands have so far been forced to use) while remaining within the Facebook platform, creating an engagement opportunity other solutions are unable to match. In addition to this virtual interaction, a Workface integration also enables FB users to share and refer sales and service personnel profiles within their own personal network.

Customers currently using the Workface Facebook application include: Atomic Data Centers, The Foundation, NE Minneapolis Homes, Red Ribbon Realtors, Titan Outlet Store and Travel Leaders of Fargo.

“In Facebook, you can chat with individuals who are your friends, but you can’t chat with a company,” explained Larson. “With Workface in Facebook, prospects can select an individual from an organization and engage in a conversation without having to make the commitment of ‘liking’ them. The added bonus is that the prospect can learn about the background and expertise of the company rep they’re interfacing with in a way that’s much more personal and rewarding than traditional, faceless online chat.”

General Availability Comes to Workface

Michael Garrity — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 16:00:00 GMT

One of the fast growing tactics in Web customer service is the use of live customer interaction straight from a business or brand's website. Workface, a company who helped to usher in online customer interaction technology, announced yesterday that their enterprise-ready Customer Engagement Platform is now available to the general public.

Since customer service may be the most important aspect of running a small or medium sized business, and since it is much harder to be effective when operating on the Internet, it is important for business owners to keep abreast of all of the new changes and technologies coming forth to help them work with customers from all over. Positive customer services experiences are a great way to keep customers long-term and build a solid reputation, but, more importantly, negative experiences will almost immediately drive consumers away from your brand.

Workface's platforms use a unique portable profile-based live chat, voice, email, interactive video and content-sharing to mobilize field sales and service teams throughout the World Wide Web as a way to engage with customers and online prospects. It is largely designed for marketing, sales and customer service executives with field sales and service organizations/agents that use personal interaction to sell and support products or services, but it can be useful software for anyone looking to bolster their online customer (and prospect) interaction, as typically these consumers are discouraged by standard, impersonal online communication experiences.

The goal of Workface is to move beyond typical online chat solutions that can be found on the websites of many major companies and to put a "face" (hence the name) on the brand and empower consumers to find the right customer service representative on their terms. Workface claims to most closely replicate "on the Web teh experience customers have when they walk into a business," by allowing consumers to see a real face and read real job titles. This allows them to choose who they interact with, learn more about them and even start talking with them, making the business relationship more personal than ever before on the Internet.

Among the key capabilities of the Workforce platform are:

- Identity control
- Relationship management
- Self-imagery
- Live engagement

Workface also provides companies with a sales force identity management toolbox, content management solutions, a portable Web container, an open network framework, individual and corporate level control, live text, video & audio chat, and it all comes wrapped in simple desktop software.

Some of Workface's more well-known customers include Chevrolet, Northstar Disability and HealthSource Solutions.