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How effective is your online customer service strategy? If you're not sure, a new Oracle study has revealed some valuable insights into consumers' preferences when it comes to reaching customer service help online.

The Consumer Views of Live Help Online study surveyed consumers from all over the world in regards to their use of customer-service channels. One of the most interesting statistics from the study shows that social media users expect a rapid response to questions or complaints, with more than half of Twitter users anticipating a personal response within two hours of tweeting and 81 percent expecting a same-day response.

However, Facebook users aren’t as impatient, with only 29 percent expecting a response within two hours and 51 percent expecting same-day responses. 

Consumers are also relying more on live help, with the study revealing that 57 percent of consumers believe that live help is among the most important features of a website. The findings also show that half of consumers have used live chat or click-to-call, which is an increase from the 37 percent that used live help in 2009.

And according to 38 percent of consumers, live chat is a preferred customer service channel because it enables consumers to multitask while they wait for a response.

"As consumers frequent online sites more than ever, they expect to engage with companies' customer service representatives while they are there," says Mike Webster, senior vice president and general manager, Oracle Retail. "Whether the customer visits the company's commerce site or social media page, there must be a clear link to a customer service person that is informed and able to help."

Mobile has been one of the hottest topics in the tech industry for some time now, but there are still many uncertainties as to exactly how consumers are utilizing their devices. This information is especially important for Web workers who want to optimize their brand’s presence for multi-channel users.

A new study from research company Pew Internet provides insights into how these devices are being utilized by consumers, including statistics on location-based and geosocial services, which can be valuable features for local businesses to leverage within their mobile apps.

The survey reveals that 74 percent of smartphone owners use their devices to get real-time, location-based information such as directions or recommendations that are related to their current location, but only 18 percent are using geosocial services to check-in or share their locations with friends. Both of these statistics show an increase in usage since 2011, when only 55 percent of smartphone users were utilizing location-based services and 12 percent were using geosocial services.

The uptick in usage of these services is a good sign, especially for businesses looking to capitalize on local and social via mobile devices. For example, location-based services can provide a consumer who is searching for “pizza” with directions, reviews and information for local pizzerias, which can be influential in increasing the foot traffic at local pizzerias.

On the other hand, geosocial services provide businesses with better word-of-mouth advertising via the customer check-ins that businesses accumulate on social networks such as Facebook, Foursquare and Gowalla.

And while the uptick in these location-based and geosocial services is important to note, Web workers should also know what demographics are leveraging these services. Women under the age of 30 are the most likely to use both location-based and geosocial services, while college graduates and those with a household income of at least $75,000 are more likely to use location-based services.

Conversely, consumers without college experience and those with a household income of less than $40,000 are more likely to use geosocial services.

It is safe to say that usage of location-based and geosocial services will continue to grow, especially as smartphone adaptation continues to gain momentum and as more consumers realize exactly what these services can do – such as find them local businesses to visit or offer them coupons as an incentive to check in on a site such as Foursquare.

Adobe has announced the immediate availability of two new products, including a software solution that enables designers to create websites without writing code.

Previously available as a public beta, Adobe Muse makes planning, designing and publishing original HTML pages as easy as creating layouts for print. With master pages, built-in tools for interactivity, and access to more than 400 Web fonts served by the Adobe Typekit service, Adobe Muse makes it easy to produce distinctive, professional websites.

Adobe Muse is available as a standalone subscription or as part of Adobe Creative Cloud membership, the second new offering that is also immediately available. Creative Cloud provides designers and developers access to innovative storage services, publishing services and essential creative applications including the entire award-winning Adobe Creative Suite 6 product line released earlier in the week.

Adobe Muse has some of the same features and keyboard shortcuts found in other software such as Adobe InDesign. Muse allows designers to easily add engaging, interactive elements such as slide shows and embed content from sources such as Google Maps and Facebook.

Users can preview and test functionality of a website within Adobe Muse or create a temporary site and share the URL with clients for review. When the site is ready to go live, designers can either host it using a third-party solution or use Adobe’s flexible all-in-one hosting service. An Adobe Muse one-year subscription or Creative Cloud membership also includes some site hosting.

Adobe Muse is available for individuals at $14.99 per month with an annual subscription and $24.99 per month for a month-to-month subscription. Visit Adobe for more information about Muse.

Adobe Creative Cloud memberships for individuals are $49.99 per month based on annual membership and $74.99 per month for a month-to-month membership. A special introductory offer of $29.99 per month for CS3, CS4, CS5 and CS5.5 individual customers is also available. Visit Adobe for more information about Creative Cloud.