Press Releases

Support communities becoming more important channel in customer service

EMERYVILLE, Calif. – October 30, 2007 – Lithium Technologies continues to make it easier for customers of leading organizations to find support online with its popular community support solution. Lithium's online communities are rapidly taking the lead as a first line of support for customer-centric companies with forum posts increasing to more than 10 million a month, messages read growing to 1.4 billion a month, and average users reaching more than 4.3 million per day. Following quickly on signing 12 new clients in September alone, Lithium has just launched new communities for AT&T U-Verse, Qwest, SanDisk and others along with new language versions for both the Dell and Linksys support communities. Lithium's clients and their communities can be seen here: http://lithium.com/customers.

"As more and more customers go online to resolve their support inquiries, organizations have recognized that their support channels are not as current or as relevant as they need to be," said Lyle Fong, CEO of Lithium Technologies. "Our on-demand support communities and other social networking tools make it easier for organizations to empower customers to connect with each other for help while keeping the content and discussions fresh and relevant."

Lithium's support communities help companies identify their most knowledgeable customers, engage them in lively discussions and encourage them to help others. As a result, Lithium's clients create peer-to-peer support centers that help to reduce costs of traditional customer support, while building a knowledge base and increasing customer loyalty. Lithium's enterprise support communities include a built-in reputation system that rewards members, and more than 100 integrated metrics allow organizations to track post rates, message views, time-to-response, and measure the community's overall health.

"The secret to our communities' success is that they attract active members and allow organizations to manage their users and community needs in real time," added Fong. "No one will return to a specific support channel if they can't find answers to their questions or get fast help. Our clients market their support communities as new help destinations for their customers, and then our tools make it simple for them to engage with others and find the answers to their support problems fast."

About Lithium Technologies

Lithium Technologies provides market-leading solutions for building successful online communities including forums, chat, blogs, search, polls and private messaging. Lithium's on-demand platform, backed by community management expertise, enables clients to increase brand loyalty, sales, and customer satisfaction while decreasing customer care costs. Lithium's solutions have been implemented by many of the world's largest organizations, including Dell, AT&T, Comcast, Sprint, DoubleClick, Real Networks, and others. Founded in 2001, Lithium is privately held with headquarters in Emeryville, Calif. For more information, visit http://lithium.com/customers .

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Lithium Media Contacts:

Michael Paige, Corporate Headquarters & Global, michael.paige@lithium.com , +1 (510) 318 7014
Sandra Teuber, Central & Southern Europe, sandra.teuber@lithium.com , +41 (79) 223 7356
Prelini Chiechi, UK & Northern Europe, prelini.chiechi@lithium.com, +44 (7826) 912788
Imogen Riley, APAC & Australia, imogen.riley@lithium.com, +61 413 274 210