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Kana has updated Response, its e-mail response management application, and Response Live, its live chat and Web collaboration module. The new versions provide better integration across customer 
touch points, along with additional functionality that allows desktop agents to answer customer questions more quickly.
Most of the enhancements are found in Kana Response's Active Framework, a rules-based desktop integration platform that parses incoming e-mail inquiries and matches them with appropriate responses before they reach agent desktops.
Automatic Answer
"This automatically takes place in the UI (user interface)," Anand Chopra, director of product marketing, told CRM Buyer. "The agent doesn't have to perform any other additional tasks or clicks to get the correct answer -- thus saving the company money in training and other workforce costs."
The new version of Kana Response also includes enhanced reporting capabilities that allow users to more easily create, modify and deploy custom reports via the Web.
Other features allow contact centers to identify service trends, anticipate customer behavior and better respond to changing demands. Managers also have greater flexibility in the scheduling, delivery, and maintenance of reports.
Kana Response Live, which is integrated with Response, has been enhanced to provide more comprehensive customer information to the agent. It also includes transfer/conference enhancements and new intra-agent chat capabilities.
One customer has deployed Kana's service applications to give it a better picture of customer service outages as they happen in real-time, according to CTO Charlie Isaacs.
"When customers call in to say their service has been disrupted, the calls help the company's system dynamically populate a Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) map that gives the company an idea of the extent of the problem," he said.
Upcoming Additions
Kana will continue to work on this functionality in subsequent releases, Isaacs noted.
"We are now experimenting with analytical-based technology from OEM (original equipment manufacturer) partners to help us convert a customer-agent interaction into a Q&A" that could be leveraged into a FAQ or other knowledge-based tool.
Kana is also looking at technology that would help an agent or an expert better capture the essence of the answer to a complex question a customer might have posed in writing.
These interactions could be integrated into a company's internal workflow, Isaacs said, "so a new Q&A, for instance, could be approved by legal."
Kana Response can handle more than 500,000 inbound e-mails every day in most languages, the company claimed.
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