Websites have become the storefront of the digital age, and like their brick and mortar counterparts, some are nice to look at while others leave much to be desired. Even though the appearance of a website is important, it is the functionality that ultimately determines how useful it is. If a site answers the queries to all your questions, then it has done its job. AnswerDash, provider of self-service, contextual help technology for the Web, has been named by Gartner (News - Alert) as “Cool Vendor” for improving the user experience of websites.

The “Cool Vendors in CRM Customer Service and Support, 2015” research is carried out to highlight five innovative businesses that have applications that deliver a superior customer service experience and/or reduce operational costs. Gartner provides this report to IT application leaders and the customer service business buyers they support.

The technology AnswerDash has developed is a contextual self-service solution that allows users to ask questions on a website and find the answers on their own. Unlike FAQ pages that are on a different page and completely siloed, the entire website becomes the space which a user can find answers on.

Ultimately the goal is to reduce live chat customer tickets thus reducing the ever-increasing cost of customer service.

"Marketing and customer support have traditionally been worlds apart inside companies, but website users make no such distinctions," said Jake Wobbrock, co-founder and chief scientist of AnswerDash. "Web visitors and app users simply want to achieve their goals online, and if they can't do so easily, they'll go elsewhere. Instant, contextual answers both increase sales and reduce customer support costs for online businesses," said Wobbrock.

AnswerDash lets you see what your customers are doing on your website, what questions they are asking, where they are asking them and what answers they value. Going to the why instead of the when and where, reaches another level of analysis businesses can use to deliver better customer service.

Key features of AnswerDash are:

• It shows the time and cost savings to your organization by deploying the platform. The company quantifies support ticket deflection by showing exactly how many support tickets were received before and after launch.
• See how many people are using the solution on your website in which visitors are benefiting from using the instant self-service answers.
• Find out the top and trending Q&A on your site, and see which of your pages uses AnswerDash the most, also learn exactly where on your pages your customers have critical questions.
• See where your customers navigate before and after viewing your Q&A—including where they leave your site. Gain insight into what your visitors are thinking, what is leading them to convert, and what is causing them to abandon. 

Because today’s consumers want to solve the problems they have without having to call a support center or even chat, a platform that resolves the issues consumers have online is a win-win for everyone involved.