Think Customers: The 1to1 Blog

Most people who are familiar with the term "avatar" know what one is from Second Life or video games. Most require a human to make them move, talk, and interact with others in real time, but not all avatars are representations of actual people. In today's issue of The Marketing Xfactor, we write about Gonzaga University's community ambassador avatar, Spike. Spike has an intimate knowledge of Gonzaga's Web site and internal database, and he can answer visitors' questions by speaking and typing to them, or by directing them to a page within Gonzaga.edu.

What do you think of avatars being used for customer service? Are they a valuable extension of a brand online? After interacting with Spike, what do you think of him?