National Information Directory Organization

Background

Opplysningen 1881 is the largest national supplier of personal and business information across every information channel in Norway. Their database contains more than eight million telephone number entries for companies, public offices and consumers and it is continuously updated, on an average 35,000 changes a day. The organization employs more than 600 experienced and professional customer advisers.

In an environment where Google was encroaching, especially on the younger end of the market the core objective of Opplysningen 1881 was to further increase accessibility to the data and to add value to the service.

Key Objectives

The primary focus was to create more traffic to Opplysningen 1881's website and engage new and returning users to combat Google encroachment. Specific objectives for the process were:

• Increase traffic to the main web site.

• Create Stickiness - add value to searches to create loyal behavior.

• Increase the number of searches per visit.

• Attract young visitors that were using Google search.

The Solution

By working closely with in-house teams a structure for an online Virtual Chat Agent with a friendly and engaging 'personality' was developed. The key functions were to provide fast accurate answers from the whole database. At the same time, the VCA provided an interactive dialogue to help refine the search criteria and offer more specific results including clickable url's.

A key parameter for the final solution was to provide effective and fast handover to customer service agents when required.

The VCA service was then promoted via e-mail and MSN to all Hotmail users in the country.

The take up of the service exceeded all expectations - see key results - and the VCA is now successfully used as a proactive soft sales mechanism as part of business customer campaigns.

Initial Conclusions

The use of the Virtual Chat Agent has:

• Increased unique visitor site traffic.

• Increased repeat visits.

• Increase in use by consumers younger than 25 years.

Key Results

• 500% increase in traffic on Sara (Opplysningen 1881's VCA) when she was launched as a MSN buddy.

• Overall website traffic increased due to the implementation of the Virtual Chat Agent.

• 1881's website won a major European Award for Business to Consumer Marketing.