Jeeves Hitches a Ride

In late 1999 executives at DaimlerChrysler were frustrated by reports from their Web team. The automaker's network of mini-sites (Jeep.com, Dodge.com) was so poorly organized that customers complained they couldn't find even the most basic information. Call centers were flooding with questions, driving up the company's staffing costs and alienating potential buyers.

Desperate for help, DaimlerChrysler sought an unlikely savior: Ask Jeeves, the high-riding search engine with the goofy butler. At the time, Jeeves was feeling its own sort of desperation. Realizing that advertising revenue alone was not going to keep the dot-com healthy, executives at Jeeves were trying to cook up a side business licensing the company's search technology to corporate America. When Jeeves first approached DaimlerChrysler, the automaker was dubious. "We wondered, 'Do we really want to take a chance with this funny little company with the quirky little logo?'" recalls Lynn Jerry, senior manager of interactive communication at DaimlerChrysler.

The company decided to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in a Jeeves search package that helps customers find what they're looking for online. "With more customers getting their information from the Web sites, our call volume is down and we're better able to manage costs and reduce administrative overhead," says Bill Hall, DaimlerChrysler's director of customer relations.

Not long ago it seemed every Net firm was going through some sort of "reinvention" - typically a last-ditch effort to save a sinking consumer site by selling back-end technology to more established companies. Today many of those dot-coms have either died or been consolidated into larger business-to-business operations. A handful are still afloat, among them AltaVista.com, OpenTable.com and Yodlee.com. They've stayed viable by providing technology and services to businesses looking to improve their marketing, customer retention and customer relationship management, or CRM - a trendy area that Jupiter Research estimates will grow from $2.1 billion today to $80.9 billion by 2005.

Ask Jeeves was among the first dot-coms to begin chasing corporate clients before b-to-b became a fad back in the sunny days of 1999. Late last year the firm underwent a radical restructuring to sharpen its focus on its technology business. Jeeves hired a new CEO, developed new services that tell businesses what their online customers are looking for, laid off a third of its staff and reorganized the rest.