Question

Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its residents. Since opening to the public in 2003, it has grown explosively and today is inhabited by millions of people from around the globe. This new virtual world could become the first point of contact between companies and customers and could transform the whole customer experience. Since it began hosting the likes of Adidas, Dell, Reuters and Toyota, Second Life has become technology's equivalent of India or China - everyone needs an office and a strategy involving it to keep their shareholders happy. But beyond opening a shiny new building in the virtual world, what can such companies do with their virtual real estate?

Like many other big brands, PA Consulting has its own offices in Second Life and has learned that simply having an office to answer customer queries is not enough. Real people, albeit behind avatars, must be staffing the offices - in the same way having a Web site is not enough if there is not a call centre to back it up when a would-be customer wants to speak to a human being. In future, the consultants believe call centers could one day ask customers to follow up a phone call with them by moving the query into a virtual world.
Unlike many corporate areas in the virtual world, the NBA Headquarters incorporates capabilities designed to keep fans coming back, including real-time 3-D diagrams of games as they are being played.

PROJECT FOCUS:

You want to create a presence on Second Life for the cafe. Create a CRM strategy for doing business in the virtual world. Here are a few questions to get you started:

• How can your virtual world help business in the real world?
• How will customer relationships be different in a virtual world?
• What is your strategy for managing customer relationships in this new virtual environment?
• How will supporting Second Life customers differ from supporting traditional customers?
• How will supporting Second Life customers differ from supporting Web site customers?
• What customer security issues might you encounter in Second Life?
• What customer ethical issues might you encounter in Second Life?

Answer 1

How can your virtual world help business in the real world?

Possibilities about how virtual reality will benefit companies in the actual world: Phase wise design of virtual cafe would allow people in other specifics of our existence learn about all other virtual avatars as well as real life humans.

Colour culture subject and view, Online capital forecast and Company ambition.

Therefore, many involved fictional avatars created by actual persons who have found value in entrepreneurship can invest / seek to arrive / any other professional / personal assistance in this regard.

Actual persons who want to participate in business should even have a simple pictorial vision of what they want and how they want.

Such projects may also be offered for the planned virtual currency in return for actual money.

How will customer relationships be different in a virtual world?

Customer interactions are a sensitive matter in a virtual world. It is really important to develop a web site to show a friendly image to the consumer. Likewise, the architecture of a company in SL is of utmost importance.

What is your strategy for managing customer relationships in this new virtual environment?

If any organization decides to take step into virtual worlds, what paradigm do they use to make the decision, Expending whatever resources will be required must be justified to management A firm may wish to move into virtual worlds to preclude any. Another perspective is simply R&D experimentation.

How will supporting Second Life customers differ from supporting traditional customers?

Second Life provides a medium for simulating real world interactions online. It has the same benefits as teleconferencing or videoconferences, the ability to assemble many people from all around the world into a real-time interactions.

How will supporting Second Life customers differ from supporting Web site customers?

Being a virtual world, Second Life is much less about providing the visitor information they can read, and all about giving them a place they can visit. If I were a homebuilder or architect, I would put model homes and buildings up to tour.

What customer security issues might you encounter in Second Life?

Security can be a real problem in second life. Security issues like providing credit card transactions which could led to loss of money.

What customer ethical issues might you encounter in Second Life?

There are ethical problems in the second life What if someone creates an Avatar that looks exactly like a customer service representative's avatar? Second Life has no way of authenticating an individual's identity