If Jeff Thompson hadn’t had so much trouble checking in online for a flight to Australia last autumn, New Brunswick might have missed out on one of its most exciting new startups.

As repeated error messages kept popping up on his screen, Thompson  wondered why airline staff didn’t realize that this sort of problem offered them  a chance to call a customer, improve the relationship and possibly make additional sales.

Thus UserEvents was born.

Fredericton-based UserEvents has developed enterprise software that allows large corporations or organizations to instantly detect clients who are having problems with their website. Before the client clicks off in a huff, UserEvents allows the corporation’s call centre to phone the customer, sort out the problem and use the engagement to make additional sales. At the very least, customers are left with the impression that this is a company that responds to their needs, so the experience cements loyalty and therefore increases sales.

“We believe we give companies the ability to manage their customer’s journey [through the company website] as it plays out, and that allows an opportunity for cross-selling or upselling,’’ said Thompson over a pasta lunch in Fredericton this week.

Thompson was certainly the right guy to start this company. He had previously launched Conseros, a tech company whose software improved the efficiency of large corporations’ back-office operations. In 2009, he exited that venture by selling out to Genesys, a subsidiary of phone equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent. He remained with Conseros for a while, but in the past year he’d been looking for his next project, and the user event idea grew on him.

The problem was, Thompson’s expertise is in business development, not software, so he couldn’t tell whether the project was “something for NASA to tackle’’ or suitable for a small tech company.

Through a mutual friend, he met two software developers who were thinking about a complementary idea. Trevor Bernard and Robin Bate Boerop had been talking about developing a big data project – a hot area in technology that can mine the astronomical amounts of information produced by large organizations. Within half an hour of meeting, they reassured Thompson that a startup could handle the project he envisaged.

So they formed UserEvents, with Thompson as CEO and Bernard and Bate Boerop as joint CTOs. By the summer, they had a produced a product called CxEngage with which a corporation (assuming it has the personnel available) can contact customers within two to three seconds of a problem occurring with the web experience.

Meanwhile, Thompson was marketing the product to the same people who had been his clients at Conseros. He has lined up about 15 companies – several large Canadian and U.S. banks and big box retailers – who are now testing the software. “Our goal is to have a few of these early prospects convert to clients by the end of the year,” said Thompson.

Like many New Brunswick tech companies this summer, UserEvents has been staffing up, with two tech people joining next week. Thompson – a fanatic lean startup advocate – envisages a staff of 25 to 30 people in about a year, 90% of them in software development.

Bernard and Bate Boerop are at work developing new applications for the UserEvent software. Thompson said the company is interested in a healthcare product that would help carers and organizations monitor patients’ vital signs. For example, if a diabetic’s glucose levels suddenly rise, a health maintenance organization could contact the patient within seconds to check up on him or her and offer advice.

The company so far has been funded by Thompson, who is open to but not looking for additional funding. He never raised capital at Conseros and is willing to forego funding at UserEvents.