Siebel Pricing Administration Guide > Creating Product Offers >

About Product Offers

A product offer is an offer to sell a product that allows a customer to respond with a single click. For example, you can add product offers to a Web site and display them in an area with the label Hot Offers. One hot offer might say: Do you want to upgrade to our extra value plan: 1,000 long distance minutes for $33.85 a month? This hot offer might have three buttons for the customer to click: Yes, No, and More Information. It is displayed only to customers who already have the standard plan for long-distance minutes. If the customer clicks Yes, then the order is placed automatically. If the customer clicks More Information, then an activity is created and assigned to a customer service representative, who contacts the customer.

To support one-click ordering, product offers have the following features:

• They enable you to define the possible user responses for a given offer.
• They enable you to specify ordering tasks that the Siebel application performs, such as:
  • Adding or deleting asset components, for example, changing a rate plan
  • Updating asset attributes, for example, changing bandwidth
  • Upgrading a promotion, for example, upgrading from the promotion named double play to the promotion named triple play
  • Editing or applying a promotion, for example, changing handset
  • Updating line item fields, for example, changing the value of a manual discount
• They enable you to specify preordering tasks and postordering tasks that the Siebel application performs, such as address validation and order validation.

Product Offers on Low-Interactivity Channels

Product offers are particularly useful for channels that are unassisted or have limited user interactivity, such as short messaging service (SMS), Interactive Voice Response (IVR), and the hot offers bin on a Web site. When the user accepts the order, some exceptions might occur. You must configure exception handling, which is typically channel-specific:

• Web. For this channel, display the exception on the Web site.
• SMS. For this channel, create an activity and assign it to a customer service representative.
• IVR. For this channel, route the exception to a customer service representative.

Because product offers are also available in the Siebel application, they provide customers with a consistent experience on all sales channels. For example, a customer might view the offer on the Web and phone the call center. Then the customer service representative at the call center can view the same product offer in the Siebel application and accept the offer on behalf of the customer. For more information on how customer service representatives can access product offers, see Viewing Product Offers for an Account.

Product Offers and Promotions

Both product offers and Siebel promotions give customers the opportunity to buy products or bundles of products at a promotional price. The main differences are:

• Siebel promotions enable customers to buy a single product or a group of products and services at a promotional price. Each product or service within a promotion can have its own configurable options, contractual commitments, and early termination fees.
• Siebel product offers enable customers to buy products or services (including Siebel promotions) through nonassisted channels with limited, user interactivity. Product offers enable one-click ordering. Permitted user responses are clearly defined, as are the actions that the Siebel application performs for each user response. Customers are typically prequalified for product offers.

Upgrading a promotion often requires user interactivity to resolve product selections. Users typically must select the products or services that they want to upgrade or disconnect. Product offers do not support this level of user interactivity, but they can be used to give customers a quick start for creating orders when they are upgrading promotions.