BellSouth Web Enhancements Signal 'A New Way of Doing Business' With Interactive Customer Service Applications.

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 18, 1997--BellSouth today announced significant expansions to its Internet-based interactive customer service that allow customers to do much more of their business with BellSouth via the Web and put the communications company farther ahead of potential competitors.

Part of a strategic move by BellSouth to provide a common look, feel and navigation for all BellSouth Web sites, the interactive customer service applications, found at http://www.bellsouth.com, are available now. The applications, which put BellSouth on the leading edge of interactive online customer support, are useful to both residential and business customers and potential customers.

"This is an excellent example of a telco creatively reinventing itself around its customers' requirements," said Traver Kennedy, worldwide director of telecommunications research at Aberdeen Group, a Boston-based industry analyst firm. "By providing this feature-rich Internet solution, BellSouth is delivering improved customer service directly in to the hands of its customers choice, convenience and control as it delivers on its corporate strategy and leadership vision."

Charlie Coe, group president - Customer Operations for BellSouth said that BellSouth has a rich heritage of providing world-class customer service.

"We are simply extending that approach to our Web presence," said Coe. We are providing an interactive way for our customers to do business with us when and where it's convenient for them."

Among the new expansions to BellSouth's interactive customer service applications are:

Product Catalog. Both business and residential customers can use BellSouth's Web site to obtain a complete catalog of products and services. In addition to detailed product descriptions, the catalog includes instructions for use and location-specific product and pricing information.

Bill Review. Business and residential customers can view an exact graphical representation of their BellSouth bill online. Customers may review both current and previous bills. They will also discover useful links to detailed product descriptions, explanations of charges, suggested payment alternatives and answers to their most common billing questions.

Solution Advisor. Available initially for small business customers, the Solution Advisor builds on BellSouth's extensive knowledge and experience as a small business consultant. A small business customer can obtain instant recommendations for telecommunications solutions customized for his or her business. Using customer responses to an interactive questionnaire about specific business requirements, BellSouth's online small business specialist recommends specific products for the business. With pricing tailored for each business locale, the recommendations provide both an optimum solution and an alternative.

"Most small business operators do not have a lot of telecommunications expertise or support," said Mark Silliman, of Jacksonville, Fla., CFO of The Paragon Group, Inc., a small business that provides customized apparel and other incentive marketing items to customers. "People like me are not able to drive a tractor-trailer rig down the `Information Superhighway.' We need highly customized solutions parked right on our desks."

BellSouth developers addressed significant technological challenges in building the interactive customer service applications. They have received high marks from vendors like Hewlett-Packard, Apple Computer, Oracle and Netscape for rapid deployment of a secure, user-friendly environment that takes advantage of extensive information resources across the enterprise.

"BellSouth has done leading-edge engineering with open systems technologies like CORBA, Java, UNIX, and WebObjects to integrate legacy applications and data sources with new valued-added development," said David Kay, Senior Product Line Manager for WebObjects at Apple Computer, Inc. "The result is an extensible, maintainable, open architecture that creates value for their customers. Great customer service comes from delivering the right corporate information to customers in a convenient, easy way. This is exactly what BellSouth has done."

BellSouth.net Inc., the company's Internet and electronic commerce subsidiary, developed these breakthrough practical business applications. These capabilities demonstrate BellSouth's effectiveness at using the same high-quality, reliable Internet technology it markets to customers.

Dennis Yablonsky, president and CEO of Pittsburgh, Pa.-based Carnegie Group, echoed that view. "Solution Advisor represents the first time a company has used a Web site to advise and make customized recommendations to customers," said Yablonsky, whose company provided knowledge engineering and software development expertise for Solution Advisor. "While other companies spew `cookie cutter' recommendations via their Web sites, BellSouth's Solution Advisor makes highly customized, individualized recommendations that best meet customers' specific needs. It's just as if customers were speaking with a BellSouth Small Business Specialist on the phone."

BellSouth's Coe said that the announcement of the interactive applications is the most recent action in BellSouth's strategy to enhance its relationship with customers by using the Internet. Prior to the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games, BellSouth provided a means for customers to place orders for ISDN service online. Last month BellSouth added College Connection, a Web-based application to assist college students living away from home to select and order telephone service via the Web. Upcoming enhancements include extending Solution Advisor-type applications to residential customers, online bill payment and additional online ordering capabilities.

BellSouth made its decision to build the new applications and future enhancements based on direct feedback from customers. In a survey of customers who use the Internet, 79 percent of those who responded said they wanted product pricing and availability information on the BellSouth Web site; 75 percent said they wanted the ability to review their monthly bills; 72 percent said they wanted to order products over the Web, and 50 percent said they wanted Solution Advisor-type products.

"Our customers have told us that they want to do business on the Web in a big, big way," said Stan Yeatts, director of BellSouth's online presence. "The personal computer is becoming the information appliance of choice for a growing number of consumers and businesses."

BellSouth is a $19 billion communications services company. It provides telecommunications, wireless communications, directory advertising and publishing, Internet and information services to more than 28 million customers in 20 countries worldwide. BellSouth's telecommunications operations provide service over one of the most modern telecommunications networks in the world for nearly 23 million telephone lines in a nine-state region that includes Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.

CONTACT: BellSouth Porter Novelli

Ted Creech Jodi Florence

404-927-7428 770-392-8607

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