Online Messaging Service For Advertisers

SEEK Launches New Zealand’s First Online Messaging Service For Advertisers

Real-time messaging facility will offer immediate response to queries

Auckland – 23 November 2000: SEEK, voted New Zealand’s best online employment site, will launch the industry’s first real-time messaging service next month.

The service is a dynamic and instant messaging facility that allows live communication with SEEK customer service staff and is specially designed for customers advertising jobs on its Web site.

SEEK business development manager, Patrick Pruett, says the delivery of real-time communication services to their customers is a unique differentiator in the online employment market and adds to SEEK’s leading role in the industry.

“This new service will strengthen SEEK’s comprehensive range of web-based interactive services and resources for companies wanting to recruit online,” he says.

Pruett says live communication with customer services through SEEK will eliminate the laborious process of logging off from the Internet in order to call with a query.

“Although advertisers can currently contact SEEK customer service staff by phone, we recognised that many small and medium sized enterprises use the same line for telephone and Internet modem.

“Now they can respond to an advertisement quickly and easily,” says Pruett.
Visitors to SEEK.co.nz, will be able to open up a live chat session and so enjoy a more personal and professional interaction with SEEK customer service staff.

Advertisers can get advice on how to word their advertisement and where to post on the site as well as gaining vital intelligence that SEEK has gathered from customer feedback surveys.

“This will allow us to deliver a much higher level of service to site advertisers, which will in turn lead to faster and more satisfactory results,” says Pruett.

SEEK utilised FaceTime Instant Customer suite technology to provide customers with a real-time response to their questions.

“This technology provides a strategic addition to our web-based recruitment site and offering live communication services to our clients via our web site is an important evolution of our customer service strategy,” says Pruett.

“On the new SEEK online customer service, no question will have to go unanswered.

“All questions received through the messaging service will be stored with the appropriate answer on a database, allowing SEEK to respond to similar future queries initially,” says Pruett.

The system will also enable SEEK to monitor site usage of the site and will provide improved record keeping and problems analysis, allowing SEEK to pinpoint areas that require additional customer assistance or changes in navigation.

Ends

About Seek Communications
Seek Communications was formed in November 1997, and is the brainchild of three young Melbourne entrepreneurs, Matthew Rockman, Paul Bassat and Andrew Bassat. The New Zealand Web site is www.seek.co.nz. In addition to a jobs classified service, the site offers a world-class resume builder, an e-mail based classifieds delivery service, an application tracker and a wealth of career resources, including a job seekers forum, and a “virtual interviewer” service. Seek.co.nz boasts a database of over 3,000 vacancies, covering all industries and occupations.
October 2000 was a record month for visitors to the site with 79,000 visitors, an increase of almost 20 per cent on the previous month. Last week Seek was voted the best employment site in New Zealand by international judges for the Netguide Web Awards 2000.

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