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Valerie Weil helps Chad with a cable outage at the same time she lets Paul know an upcoming Steelers game will indeed be broadcast in high definition — and she does it without speaking a word to either. Weil is an “e-care” customer service specialist in Comcast’s North Fayette, Pa., call center, which a year-ago October started offering a “live chat” customer service option. Essentially the same as instant messaging, it lets users and customer service agents communicate back and forth on the Internet in real time.

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HighOrbit wants to turn seat-of-the-pants management of everyday office tasks into standard computerized processes that can be tracked from end to end. The company, based out of Kevin LaFata’s Oakville, Mo., home, makes software that automates the flow of work through a business, from the time a customer calls in an order until the product is shipped. It also can be used in hiring, tracking customer service calls, accounting and purchasing and sales and marketing.

The coming year is going to reorder entire industries due to customer churn. With this reordering will be an entirely new set of selling dynamics, as existing ones prove marginally successful into 2007. The old “bundle three” rule for higher customer retention will prove no longer as effective as it once was. Pricing and promotional strategies will no longer be as strong as they once were in keeping customers from churning either.