"We've seen usage of live chat double in the past 12 months and we've discovered that online customers who engage in a live chat were more likely to make a purchase than those who didn't," says Rich Atlas, director of direct mail and e-commerce marketing at the company. Live chat is just one component of what has become known as the multichannel contact centre. This most recent iteration of the traditional telephone-based call centre brings in new forms of customer contact, such as Web-based self-service, e-mail, Web callback, Web chat, and Web collaboration, in addition to facsimile, another established customer service channel. While Venus, a privately held company with revenues in excess of $50 million, is upbeat about its Web-based contact centre, there's no stampede toward these applications -- at least not yet. "The market didn't grow as fast as we expected and, today, organisations have to have a clear idea of the business problem they're trying to solve before they deploy such tools," says Katrina Howell, program leader for contact centre technologies at Frost & Sullivan. Frost & Sullivan pegged the market for Internet-based customer care tools at $79.7 million in 2001 and projects it will grow to $356 million in 2008. Howell says demand for such products will increase as customer acceptance of the Internet grows and user expectations for receiving effective customer service through e-mail, live collaboration, and Web self-service methods increase. Additionally, she expects to see more businesses direct customers toward Internet-based interaction channels to lower service costs and maximise sales opportunities. When they do, they'll have plenty of vendors to choose from. eGain Communications, Hipbone, Kana, InstantService, and RightNow Technologies all play in this market, as do stand-alone e-service solutions vendors; CRM suite vendors such as Siebel Systems; and telephony vendors such as Aspect Communications, Avaya, and Cisco Systems. Companies such as Venus Swimwear that are testing the waters with Web-based communication tools are taking a strategic approach to customer communication. They view these tools as a way to provide customers with the best possible customer service experience and every opportunity to communicate.