LivePerson, Inc. (NASDAQ: LPSN), a provider of online conversion solutions, today announced that EarthLink (NASDAQ: ELNK) has launched the industry's first proactive live chat capability developed exclusively for customer service on the company's web site.

Powered by LivePerson's Timpani™ platform, EarthLink can now identify and engage site visitors most likely to abandon self-help or call for assistance and proactively offer an immediate, live, text-based chat with a customer support expert. By proactively offering live chat assistance to customers, EarthLink increased agent productivity by 14 percent during the initial implementation and realized customer satisfaction levels seven percent higher than similar service channels.

"EarthLink is always looking for ways to raise the bar in customer service," said David Flammia, EarthLink's director of call center strategy. "We're taking online customer service to the next level by identifying the customers most likely to need help and enabling them to resolve their issues before they pick up the phone or send an email."

"More and more companies are realizing the benefits of leveraging real-time customer service as a strategic differentiator, particularly within the telecommunications industry," said LivePerson CEO Robert LoCascio. "Proactive chat will make EarthLink's already best-in-class customer service more accessible than ever before and position them well for increased customer loyalty and growth."

Tangible Results

Initial results from EarthLink's first eight weeks in production have shown significant benefits in operational efficiency, customer satisfaction and agent productivity:

  --  Overall weekly chat volume increased by 4,500 contacts while phone
      volume decreased by 10,000 calls. Nearly half of this decrease in
      phone volume was credited to customers engaging in live chat -- a key
      indicator of success in EarthLink's efforts to make live chat the
      "channel of choice" for online interactions.

  --  The LivePerson platform allows EarthLink's customer support experts to
      handle up to three chat interactions at once compared to just one
      phone call.

  --  The LivePerson platform's ability to proactively engage visitors
      during periods when customer-initiated contacts are lower allowed
      EarthLink to more effectively manage and utilize their customer
      support agents. EarthLink realized a 14 percent increase in agent
      productivity during the initial implementation period, allowing the
      company to interact with 40,000 more customers with the same number of
      agents.

  Key Features
  EarthLink partnered with LivePerson to leverage the following features of
  the Timpani platform for this new solution:

  --  A sophisticated Business Rules Engine that identifies visitors most
      likely to call for assistance based on online behavior.

  --  A Predictive Dialer that assesses current agent capacity to determine
      if a visitor identified as a "hot lead" should receive a live chat
      invitation. This feature can be adjusted to accommodate agent capacity
      and maximum wait time, ensuring that visitors only receive invitations
      if a representative is available.

  --  A Routing Capability that automatically assigns an accepted chat
      invitee to the next available agent with appropriate skill sets.

  --  Reporting Capabilities that enable EarthLink to review the impact of
      the channel, while providing visibility to key metrics such as
      invitation rate, acceptance rate, customer satisfaction and first
      contact resolution rate.

  --  Operational and Transcript Reporting that allows EarthLink to conduct
      detailed analysis of operational metrics and review chat transcripts
      for ongoing program optimization.

  --  Full visibility to the visitor's current web page and the ability to
      guide their experience through tools including co-browse, page-push
      and joint form-fill.

A LivePerson customer since 1999, EarthLink currently uses Timpani™ Sales and Marketing to manage an estimated 2 million online customer interactions per year.

The Timpani™ Platform

LivePerson's comprehensive software platform, Timpani™, is a fully integrated multi-channel communication solution that facilitates real-time sales, customer service and marketing. Timpani™ delivers tools that support and manage all online customer interactions: chat, email and self-service/knowledgebase. By supplying a single agent desktop and unified customer history, Timpani™ enables companies to deliver a personalized and seamless service experience.

About EarthLink

As the nation's next generation Internet service provider, Atlanta-based EarthLink has earned an award-winning reputation for outstanding customer service and its suite of online products and services. Serving over five million subscribers, EarthLink offers what every user should expect from their Internet experience: high-quality connectivity, minimal online intrusions and customizable features. Whether it's dial-up, high-speed, voice, web hosting, wireless or "EarthLink Extras" like home networking or security, EarthLink connects people to the power and possibilities of the Internet. Learn more about EarthLink by calling (800) EARTHLINK or visiting EarthLink's Web site at http://www.earthlink.net/.

About LivePerson

LivePerson is a provider of online conversion solutions. Our hosted software enables companies to identify and proactively engage online visitors -- increasing sales, satisfaction and loyalty while reducing service costs. Combining web-interaction technology (chat, email and a self-service knowledgebase) with a deep understanding of consumer behavior and industry best practices, LivePerson's Timpani™ platform engages the right customer, at the right time, with the right communications channel. This Engagement Marketing platform creates more relevant, compelling and personalized experiences -- converting traffic into revenues, and facilitating real-time sales and customer service. More than 5,000 companies including EarthLink, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, Qwest and Verizon, rely on LivePerson to help maximize the return on their marketing and e-commerce investments. LivePerson is headquartered in New York City.

SOURCE: LivePerson, Inc.

CONTACT: Michael Goodwin of LivePerson, Inc., +1-212-609-4282

Web site: http://www.liveperson.com/
http://www.earthlink.net/