This week, AnswerDash, a website customer service tool that allows visitors to find contextual answers anywhere on the page, announced its General Availability in tandem with a major national customer, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). AnswerDash spun out of The University of Washington’s Information School, after years of research on human-computer interaction, and is the world’s leading contextual answer service technology for websites and web apps.

In his research at UW, CEO Jake Wobbrock unearthed a fascinating connection between language development and people’s experiences online that drove the company’s product design. When a child has a question, he/she typically points at the object in question rather than describing the item and then articulating his/her question about it. Forced to engage in the laborious and time-intensive process of description and articulation, most children would become irritated and abandon the question altogether.

It turns out, adults trying to ask questions online behave similarly if they’re forced to describe and articulate. Pointing is inherently more efficient, requires less output, and makes intuitive sense to both the question-asker and the person answering. And yet, typically, we aren’t able to ask questions online the way that we’d prefer to in person.

When we have a question on a website, we’re generally forced to engage in that very process of description and articulation via live chat, email, or the phone, if we’re particularly motivated. Alternatively, we visit an outdated FAQ page that’s divorced from the original content about which we had a question, and then we dig through a laundry list of questions to hopefully find ours.

None of these options is particularly intuitive or user-friendly, nor do they mirror how humans actually prefer to ask questions: in context and with fewer words rather than more.

That’s where AnswerDash comes in. Websites and apps powered with AnswerDash allow users to click or tap anywhere on the page to see commonly asked Q&As about the text or object. Visitors can also add new questions, and after a question is answered once it becomes part of the “answer layer,” without further involvement by the company. The “answer layer” grows with site visits, illuminating where and when customers have questions, providing quick answers, and deflecting commonly asked questions from escalation to live chat, email, or phone tickets.

A common refrain among briefings with journalists this week was, “[Exhale] That makes so much sense… I wish XYZ site had this. I was trying to accomplish something earlier today and couldn’t figure out how to do it but didn’t want to call and be placed on hold forever and a day.”

In response to the General Availability and customer announcement, Ashley Katz, director of marketing for USGBC said, “We chose to adopt AnswerDash’s technology to offer site users instant answers to their questions. We have estimated that the number of assisted support tickets has been drastically reduced, resulting in over $14,000 in support savings over the last 30 days.”

With AnswerDash’s help, commonly asked question about the USGBC’s LEED certification are answered quickly, efficiently, and contextually. No longer forced to describe and articulate their questions via live chat or phone, customers get their questions answered easily and can proceed with accomplishing their purposes in visiting the site.

Coverage garnered from the announcement includes:

• Xconomy—Seattle Roundup: Costco, Sworl, GraphLab, AnswerDash, Tack, & More—10/17
• Website Magazine—Q&A For Every Page of Your Site –10/14
• VentureBeat—U. of Washington-spinoff AnswerDash launches to make everything on a Web page questionable—10/8
• Reposts of the VentureBeat story also appeared on these websites:
  • Viral News 365—U. of Washington-spinoff AnswerDash launches to make everything on a Web page questionable—10/8
  • Atlanta Journal—U. of Washington-spinoff AnswerDash launches to make everything on a Web page questionable—10/8
  • Software Industry Today—U. of Washington-spinoff AnswerDash launches to make everything on a Web page questionable—10/8
  • Tech Investor News—U. of Washington-spinoff AnswerDash launches to make everything on a Web page questionable—10/8
  • TMCNet—AnswerDash makes websites more helpful—10/8

Press release reposting’s included the following:

• GoInfraGreeen—U.S. Green Building Council Selects AnswerDash Contextual Website Help Technology to Power USGBC.org—10/8
• News.nom.co—U.S. Green Building Selects AnswerDash’s Contextual Website Help Technology to Power USGBC.org—10/8

In the past, AnswerDash has also received great coverage from the following outlets, including Wired, Entrepreneur, GeekWire, Seattle Business Magazine, and Xconomy:

• Changing Consumer Behaviors Make Self-Service Inevitable—Destination CRM—9/26
• Business 2 Community—How Millennials Require us to Design the Technologies of Tomorrow – 9/17
• Hospitality Technology – How Hotels Can Combine Self-Serve and Customer Service at the Website – 9/10
• LinkedIn – Customer Experience and Non-Verbal Communication – 9/5
• Wired Innovation Insights — How Millennials Require Us to Design the Technologies of Tomorrow – 9/5  
• LinkedIn – Focus on What Your Customers Do—Not What They Say – 8/12
• LinkedIn – How Marketing Can Kill Your Website Conversion Rate – 8/5
• LinkedIn – 5 Ways to Improve Online Customer Experience with Website Self-Service -7/28
• Entrepreneur – Ivory Tower Research and Startup Innovation Are Two Sides of a Coin -7/19
• Xconomy – Q2 In Review: Fire, Fundings, Floating Wind, Biotech Ups and Downs – 7/2
• Seattle Times – UW research spawns 18 companies in past year – 7/2
• Xconomy – UW Breaks Last Year’s Record With 18 New Companies Formed  – 7/2
• Geekwire – New record: University of Washington spun out 18 startups last year – 7/2
• Website Magazine – Power to the People: How to Make Self-Service a Priority for Your Website – 6/20
• Seattle Business Magazine – Bright Idea: UW-spawned Platform Makes Websites More Responsive – 6/1
• Xconomy – Stuck on Website ‘Help Island’? -5/23
• Geekwire – UW Spinout AnswerDash Launches, Name Change -5/20
• Northwest Innovation – Qazzow Becomes AnswerDash -5/20