Threadless Weaves its Awesome Customer Support Experience Directly into Facebook, Providing a Smoother and More Interactive Customer Experience

New Support Access Powered by Parature for Facebook™, the Industry’s First and Only Social Support Application for Directly Engaging Customers and Fans through Facebook

Chicago, IL and Vienna, VA (Vocus) November 18, 2010

Threadless.com, a community-driven online design platform for retail, and Parature, a global leader in Web-based customer service software, today announced Threadless has extended its customer support and service experience by directly integrating support into the world’s most popular social network, Facebook. The new support service can be accessed at Threadless’s Facebook Page, and is powered by the first and only social support application for directly engaging customers and fans through Facebook, Parature for Facebook™.

Customers and Threadless’s more than 180,000 Facebook Fans are now able to rapidly resolve support issues by simply clicking on a Support Tab from the Threadless Facebook Page. Fans and Customers can now:

• Search a knowledgebase of frequently encountered issues and resolve support issues quickly and independently;
• Submit a trouble ticket if unable to resolve a support issue; and,
• Post comments on the Threadless.com Facebook Page and receive an individualized response rapidly.

Threadless is known globally for its pioneering approach to crowdsourcing and social media innovation, focusing its business on helping customers build social art and design communities that make the creative and fashion design experience more collaborative, fun and enjoyable. Providing integrated support with Facebook is another crucial step in Threadless’s evolution as a social media innovator.

"We are really excited to extend our support experience to our growing community of fans and customers through Parature for Facebook,” said Brianne Hattaway, Director of Customer Support for Threadless. "Threadless's approach to support is shaped by our online community and their need for transparency and immediacy. We can reach out to our customers on Facebook even more than before and give them a fluid support experience across different channels with the same rich FAQs and personalized support that Parature enables on our site."

“In today’s increasingly social and collaborative world, customers demand support when and how they want it,” said Parature Founder and Chief Strategy Officer, Duke Chung. “With over 500 million members at last count, and recently surpassing Google as the most visited site in the United States, according to HitWise, companies are compelled to provide direct and real-time support, sales and service through Facebook. Parature for Facebook enables them to do just that.”

Parature for Facebook is the industry’s first and only customer support application for directly engaging customers and fans through Facebook and is delivered through the cloud and charged by subscription. Customers can monitor Facebook Wall conversations, posts and comments in real time, appropriately route, respond and report on social interactions, gaining an enhanced view of customer engagement and support effectiveness. With Parature for Facebook, corporate Facebook fans can search knowledgebases, submit tickets and chat directly with customer success agents without leaving Facebook. Demos are available for viewing at http://www.parature.com/res_demos.aspx.

Parature for Facebook can be purchased as a stand-alone application or as part of the Parature Customer Service software suite.

Threadless.com
Founded in 2000 by entrepreneur Jake Nickell, Threadless has evolved from an online t-shirt design company into an
international community-driven design platform featuring merchandise designed by and for its fan-base of nearly one million users. Considered the "poster child" of crowdsourcing, Threadless boasts a diverse community of designers, artists and general consumers from around the world who submit and vote on designs for ongoing competitions. Winning designs are produced and available for sale at Threadless retail locations and online store, and the winning designers receive $2,000 plus a $500 gift certificate. Threadless integrates its passionate, authentic and highly active community into every aspect of its business and continues to offer them new design opportunities through strategic partnerships with major brands including Disney, Dell, Griffin and Havaianas.

Parature, Inc.
Parature enables organizations to better serve, support, engage with and retain their customers via the Web. Industry-leading, Web-based Parature Customer Service™ software provides customer service organizations with a comprehensive, multi-channel way to meet the growing expectations of their customers. With more than 10 years experience, Parature serves organizations in a wide variety of industries worldwide and helps support nearly 20 million end users. Parature is among Inc. Magazine’s Top 100 Fastest Growing Private Software Companies and is the recipient of numerous product, technology, and leadership awards. Today, the Parature name is synonymous with innovation and value in Web-based customer service software, strategies and best practices. Parature is headquartered in Vienna, Virginia with offices in San Francisco and the U.K. For more information, visit http://www.parature.com or follow @parature on Twitter.

###