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You don't need live chat on your website

timharek.no

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Re: You don't need live chat on your website

#191

Post by jaclaz »

xnorswap wrote: post #74
lutrinus wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, you went to the Amazon live chat. They sent you to Logitech. You chatted with their bot and had to "restart the whole long process" because of a bug. Then you got connected to a human who asked you for a confirmation from Amazon. You went back to Amazon and asked them for a return, again. You had a "miserable" experience with the process, there, but in the end got your return label. Yeah, really sounds like an ex…

Indeed it was, because I still got everything sorted in around the same time than I'd be on hold if I were to phone for example my broadband provider.

The issue is that (probably) your broadband provider support/reply times are terrible (on the phone) so you appreciate the (convoluted/complex) experience via chat with Logitech and Amazon as "quite good compared to ...", since every company for this or that reason has lowered down to almost non-existant the level of assistance the few times that it is bearable and somehow it leads to a solution, it appears as (relatively) good.

Re: You don't need live chat on your website

#193

Post by CaptainZapp »

drdaeman wrote: post #153
dyates wrote: post #76

Live chat windows that pop-up automatically and hassle you once you've spent X seconds looking at a website are annoying, much like email subscription modals. But when I've been actually looking for support and made the choice to click on the chat button, I've generally had a great experience, so long as it's connected me to a human rather than a menu of chatbot options. It's asynchronous enough that I can keep doing…

I have used those chats, talked to humans, and had my issues resolved - but I can't say it was a great experience. I had to keep the relevant tab open and actively watch it because there is no sane method to get the notification if it's in background. Can't get distracted for too long, gotta actively watch that stupid chat for when someone comes in or replies after "I need a few minutes to do something for you, pleas…

> Or a phone number I can send a text to.

Or a phone number that you can actually call and which is picked up by a human within a reasonable time frame and who is actually empowered to solve your problem.

And to my surprise that actually still exists.

Just recently I had a stellar experience with the support of my hosting provider.

30 seconds wait, a person who knew what I'm talking about. Solving the problem instantly by mailing the relevant form, while we still chatted. All resolved in less than 5 minutes.

For what it's worth: that was hostpoint.ch. I'm not invested in any way. Just a very happy customer after 2 really good support experiences (one by email)

Re: You don't need live chat on your website

#194

Post by jackson1442 »

system2 wrote: post #11

I have a feeling the author does not have enough experience with e-commerce. Adaptation of livechat increased conversion rates and sales and it is visible in the reports. Return rates also go down with livechat. Especially women's products (hair, makeup, shoes) are benefiting from instant answers and change the conversion rates dramatically. Having a human talk to you thru your screen is a game changer in e-commerce.…

I think there's a difference between live _support_ chat and live _sales_ chat. If I'm seeking support I'll take live chat any day of the week.

I actually just complained about this yesterday- I do _not_ want to have your shitty version of clippy[0][1] flying around the screen, pulsing, and asking if I need help while I'm browsing your page. Stick it on the support/contact page and that's plenty good for me.

[0]: https://media.welsh.cc/Mod27D

[1]: https://media.welsh.cc/e1tniz

Re: You don't need live chat on your website

#195

Post by satvikpendem »

jimbob45 wrote: post #41
usrbinbash wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. Good chat implementations are great; meaningful automated information, fast handover to human operators while also providing them with the relevant information, and all that in the comfort of my browser window is a great experience. Being stuck in a loop against what's essentially a buggy ELIZA-Clone however, or a system that somehow is incapable of authenticating me even though I've logged into my account o…

Are they better than a well-stocked FAQ with a search function?

What the chat should have is something like a chat interface that exposes the FAQ via question and answering, through natural language processing, basically like ChatGPT but it doesn't need to be that advanced.

If the bot can't find the answer, connect to a human. That way, the company's support burden is decreased while still being able to talk to a human if needed.

Re: You don't need live chat on your website

#196

Post by satvikpendem »

yummypaint wrote: post #38
csharpminor wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree. At one of my startups we hooked a $350k ARR enterprise customer over webchat. We also received some of the best early UX feedback through webchat. Developers are somewhat different from the general population in that we like to read documentation rather than going to a person for help. But for almost everyone else having someone to answer a question immediately is the preferred experience.

How did you establish that the customer would not have contacted you if not for webchat? If i go to a company's website already intending to contact them i might type in a chat box before i email or call them, but they would have gotten my business regardless.

How did you establish that the customer would have contacted you if not for webchat?

In the parent's scenario, it seems likely that the buyer for that enterprise was simply browsing through the site, or perhaps looking at various options, when they found the parent's site, saw that there was a chat and saw the near immediate response, asked a few questions and eventually set up a meeting. To do that over email would have likely taken days.

Source: I've had something like this happen too.

Re: You don't need live chat on your website

#197

Post by JadeNB »

PaulHoule wrote: post #176
quadrifoliate wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have had the same feeling – "this is okay, but could be way better"; I think a big part is in the lack of context. Why on earth does the chat person need ask me my account number yet again ? I am logged in to the website, they should be able to see that I am Account # 820914 and currently viewing Order # 788321. Ensuring that this sort of context communication as the lowest bar for an in-app chat would go a long wa…

I never let call centers get away with asking me for account numbers over and over again without commenting on it; Amdocs and other vendors have had great software for keeping track of customer interactions between multiple people you talk to at a call center for 10+ years now. Management will make the usual excuse ("we can't afford it") but you can turn that around and ask "how can you afford to pay people to ask th…

> I never let call centers get away with asking me for account numbers over and over again without commenting on it; Amdocs and other vendors have had great software for keeping track of customer interactions between multiple people you talk to at a call center for 10+ years now. Management will make the usual excuse ("we can't afford it") but you can turn that around and ask "how can you afford to pay people to ask the same questions over and over again?"

But presumably you are talking to customer-service agents, not representatives, and what are they supposed to do about it? I share your frustration, but this seems to be just a recipe for spreading that frustration, not for resolving it.

(Unless you meant something else, e.g., you are professionally involved in call-center design, in which case I applaud your being a voice of sense in that domain, and thank you for it!)

Re: You don't need live chat on your website

#198

Post by dsaavy »

We have a simple chat window that only shows on exit on specific pages of our website (consulting firm). It's been a really efficient way to potential clients to start conversations with us and for us to get them quick and helpful answers. Saves both parties a lot of time and helps both qualify/disqualify each other a lot faster.

Re: You don't need live chat on your website

#199

Post by JadeNB »

thombat wrote: post #125
soco wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A very annoying "feature" of some of those is making you wait for the human (okay that's acceptable) BUT timing out the session if you don't reply them within a minute or such.

That's the cousin of telephone hold music that interjects with a recording periodically, such as "We apologise for the delay; your call is important to us". All this does is repeatedly grab the caller's attention AND progressively reduce the strength of the grab, so that finally when a real live & hopefully useful human joins the call they may not be noticed. Just give me some crappy Muzak: instrumental without voice…

> If there is a voice then let it be only to tell me the remodeling queue length, e.g. "You are now eight callers from being served", and only do it upon change of status, not repeating every 30 secs.

I have almost never encountered this while on hold (the closest I have come is the despicable "we are experiencing unusually long hold times", all the time), and it would be so good. What I particularly hate about the repeated announcements of the type you describe is that they are often much louder than the background music, so, not only do they train me not to pay attention, they force me to turn the volume way down, or hold the phone far from my ear, making it still harder to hear when a human comes on the line.

Re: You don't need live chat on your website

#200

Post by Izkata »

swyx wrote: post #112
kevsim wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is the default for services like Intercom and you can't stop it [0]. It's super annoying. 0: https://www.intercom.com/help/en/articles/5053699-how-do-i-s...

Could we simply block it with an adblocker?

Firefox has and addon called "Hello, Goodbye" that does: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/hello-goodbye...
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