If you're an American or Canadian business with on-site deployments from certain vendors, and you're not happy, you may be interested in eGain Communications's (News - Alert) promotion letting enterprises with "obsolete and non-integrated systems for customer service management" switch to eGain's multichannel customer service with no license fee for acquiring the eGain software to replace existing vendor licenses, one for one. 

The idea behind the promotion, according to eGain officials, is that enterprises with legacy, non-integrated customer service products "face non-existent product road maps or costly, forklift upgrades to new unproven versions." For companies who want something else, Ashu Roy, CEO of eGain says their SafeSwitch Program "will make the decision even easier for them."

 

EGain's selling an alternative, eGain Service, described as a "customer interaction hub software suite" with Web self-service, chat, co-browsing, e-mail, SMS, fax, postal mail and other capabilities on a common platform. "Unlike CRM generalists, eGain has focused on enterprise customer service needs," company officials say.

 

Okay, the fine print: To qualify for the promotion you need to have incumbent on-site software deployments fro Brightware/FirePond, Colloquis, Kaidara, KANA, KNOVA/Consona (News - Alert), Mustang/Quintus, noHold or Talisma. A typical conversion effort would be "in weeks, not months," eGain officials say.

 

Earlier this week TMC reported that eGain announced the availability of eGain IVR. Company officials said it adds "human-like intelligence to IVR" while unifying it with other interaction channels, including Web self-service. The product is part of eGain's suite for multichannel customer service, eGain Service. It's being billed by eGain officials as reducing the total cost of ownership of multichannel self-service and customer service operational costs, "while enabling end-customers to accomplish more through IVR."

IVR systems are notorious for frustrating users with inadequate content and the "IVR black hole" syndrome, where the user is trapped in a self-service maze, of the "press 26 to hear the menu again" variety. "Without meaning to, some companies have essentially taught consumers to avoid self-service channels because it is nearly impossible to accomplish their goals by using them," writes Dr. Natalie L. Petouhoff, Senior Analyst at Forrester (News - Alert), in an August 2008 report titled "Why Talking To Your Customers Is Ruining Your Business" from "The Gap in the Customer Service Experience" series.