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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

#161

Post by badwolf »

Sakos wrote: post #81
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've seen a live chat implementation that starts as a chat bot, but switches you to a person after a few clicks and you can't find what you need. I felt that was a perfect compromise.

This is the ideal scenario when building these out. Automate a lot of the low-hanging fruit that most people are going to be looking for, then seamlessly convert to a support chat with a human as needed

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

#162

Post by badwolf »

nathias wrote: post #40
webignition wrote: post #16

In my experience, the usefulness of live chat features varies wildly. If the live chat service connects me to a human who is able to resolve my query in a timely manner, I'll take that any day. Phoning a large company can result in waiting in a call queue for a long time. My attention is on the phone call instead of anything else. A live chat window can be relatively ignored and checked once in a while. Emailing a la…

This could be an email, but of course the business doesn't want this as it would create a record of interaction. Whenever I had to use live chat it was a tactic to wear you down.

These are almost always saved by the business/chat app.

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

#164

Post by joegahona »

beachy wrote: post #3

Nice rant but, like those popups that ask for your email when you show signs of leaving the site , the proof is in the pudding - do these live chats increase conversions?

I'm not sure if your question is rhetorical, but I'd like to know this too. My observation is that what started as a decent idea was quickly hijacked by marketing departments and got corrupted so quickly that they've become an annoyance to me -- not unlike pop-ups, browser push notifications, and so forth. It's the "tinted car windows" of the web, immediately putting your site into a bad neighborhood.

Anecdotally, I've had far more success DM'ing companies on Twitter -- I don't think I've ever gotten a bot-like, automated response when taking that route, and I've had really specific questions answered quickly and thoroughly.

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

#165

Post by gnicholas »

nuker wrote: post #77
gnicholas wrote: post #33

I had a live chat widget on my startup's site for a while. What I found was that maybe 10% more people reached out, but the bigger difference was that about half of the contact that would have come through our email form (and not required an immediate response) was now coming through chat. This meant that we needed to respond immediately, which was a downside. The most annoying thing though was when people would try…

> This meant that we needed to respond immediately, which was a downside. Isn’t the whole point of having chat on your site?

The hope was that more of the interactions would be ones that uniquely benefit from live chat. We found instead that it was just shifting our existing conversations from email to chat, typically with no benefit.

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

#166

Post by IsaacSchlueter »

Take the data point for what it's worth (ie, not much). I have never found these chat popovers useful, I have always found them obstructive, and I have always been seething with resentment when forced to use one for an interaction with a company. It's just slightly less painful than being forced to use ye olde telephone, and I will only use live chat if that is the only other option. Most likely, I will simply give up and use a competitor instead.

In any chat I am forced to use, I guarantee I will do my absolute best to radicalize the chat employee against your company and try to convince them to get a different job, or quietly and safely sabotage their employer if they cannot leave. I will make the interaction take as long as possible while doing this, in an effort to drive up costs as much as possible.

I am not alone.

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

#167

Post by BeFlatXIII »

eitland wrote: post #94
dazc wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the other side of the fence - you can base your FAQs on actual questions (to the point of highlighting and bolding the most common) only to keep getting a significant amount of requests with that exact same question multiple times a day.

Absolutely. But in most cases I think it is both: FAQ isn't updated/relevant && people don't check it.

> Acronym for "frequently asked questions"; a list of answers to frequently asked questions that can be presented to a community (be it a forum, Usenet newsgroup, or software user base) so that the same questions need not be asked over and over again. In the entire history of their use, not one has ever been used for its intended purpose.

From the BonqQuest glossary https://www.jerkcity.com/glossary.html

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

#168

Post by BeFlatXIII »

brushfoot wrote: post #104
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.…

Yep, the author is thinking like a developer, not a consumer. > If I need assistance, I will most likely do one of the following: > > Find a support e-mail. > Go to a physical store. > Ask a friend. > See if I find an unintrusive live chat that I chose to enable. This is a developer mindset: take the time to solve the puzzle. I get it, but the majority of people don't think that way. Most people don't want to solve t…

That’s why I have such contempt for my fellow voters.

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

#169

Post by logic_probe »

CHat sometimes works. I like _real_ live chat, not those boxes that pop up where you're most likely talking to a bot and can't get a real person.

If I'm on a company website for tech support, or have problems with an order, I've seen real live chats, where there's a person on the other side, be useful. It's better than, say, abandoning a complicated order, calling in, and seeing if the agent can find you cart, etc.

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

#170

Post by dpcan »

Hmm, I disagree, and I also have a few clients that swear by its success.

Many times it’s not that you didn’t show enough info on your site, it’s that you purposely withheld info on the site to force a live chat requiring a name and email or you can provide good service in the chat and ask for it.

What the consumer wishes were true and what it requires to make a sale are unfortunately at odds in many businesses. It’s still not a perfect world.

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