Experticity aims to help retailers help customers

Imagine buying a big-screen TV or computer and then getting home and becoming frustrated because of difficulties with the installation.

A small Seattle-based technology company may have a solution.

Early next week at the National Retail Federation conference in New York, Experticity will roll out an online interactive program it hopes stores will buy to help consumers.

The Experticity@Home service will allow customers to log on to their home computers and speak live through a Web camera to a trained customer service agent who can answer questions. The service agent also can have instructions printed on the customer's home printer.

Experticity, which has 14 employees, hopes over time to transfer the technology to a mobile phone.

D.L. Baron, founder and chairman of Experticity, said the program should cut down on returns, which improves sales, and produce additional future sales because of the enhanced customer service. Baron declined to disclose how much the technology cost.

The home service is an offshoot of Experticity's interactive kiosks, which are in more than 30 Staples stores in Canada and in a few test stores in New York and Dallas, where consumers can talk with a customer service person.

Baron declined to disclose which companies are testing the technology, and he did not release his company's revenue. Experticity, at 1904 Third Ave. downtown, has received $4.2 million in private financing.

Baron said the kiosk program allows national companies to use their best employees, who are encouraged to sell more products, and manage productivity. For example, Baron said, a person working in a Seattle store during the weekday around 3 p.m. -- typically a slow time -- could provide online service to customers shopping after work at that company's East Coast stores.

Retail analysts and those in the technology field said Experticity's programs should gain some traction this year as retailers, who are struggling amid a challenging economy, look to differentiate themselves.

Analysts also said Experticity could do well with consumers who have become more comfortable with electronic self-service stands in supermarkets and airports.

"Consumers are way ahead of stores in their willingness to accept new technology," said Alex Richardson, president of the Louisville, Ky.-based Self Service & Kiosk Association. "Consumers love gadgets and want to improve the experience. It's the stores that are not keeping up with customer demand."

Richardson said the best way to serve a customer is through a "real human being," but with companies having a lack of qualified employees it's better to give consumers a handful of experts who can help them online.

Nikki Baird with Retail Systems Research of Denver said Experticity has had its technology on the market for a while, but the company was "a little bit ahead of the game."

Baron, who founded the company in 2001, said he knew the company's concept was ahead of its time. But he said Web cams are becoming common on personal computers, and consumers are embracing new technologies.

Laura Davis-Taylor, founder of Retail Media Consulting in Atlanta, said if Experticity could move from having its technology being tested in a few stores to being adopted by a major U.S. company, then other retailers would begin using the systems.

"Retailers want someone to do it first and work out the bugs," Davis-Taylor said. "Once someone proves it works then everyone is on board."