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ASP Forum
What can we expect from a chat feature?
"I'm looking for advice or data from people who've implemented
text-based chat as part of their support operations. What have
you found?"
—Howie from Houston
Howie—
A year ago we deployed a chat feature on our website. We tried
various brands, all with a wide range of features and correlating
prices. This is what we finally came up with:
ProvideSupport became our chat software of choice. It had the
most features for the price. There is a simple web-based UI that
allows each of my team members to log on and setup their own
profiles, pictures, canned phrases, etc. With coding we can
visually see incoming traffic onto our support pages and watch
customers navigate. Simple connection link, required fields,
routing options and ability to push files were important
considerations for us.
Because we have a small staff, I decided to set our chat to ring
all available agents at once. Reading some other posts, it is
true; the chat applications can be intrusive and interrupt the
agents workflow. However, I don’t see this any different than a
phone call. Our phone system allows me to assign a hunt group
chain. Our chat software didn’t have this function. Aside from
ringing all chat agents simultaneous, I could alternatively
allowed the application to choose who gets the customer based on
availability and load balance.
Feedback from customers have been quite positive. The chat is a
quick tool to ask a question while already on a site. From an
agent’s perspective we know the customer has internet access and
therefore can easily lead them to an applicable online KBA,
upgrade, patch, FTP help, file push, or collaborative screen
session.
The downfalls with chat are that agents need to be able to
multi-task. If the demographic for a company is a younger
generation (under 40), chat would likely be more useful. Chat
fits well with IM tools they may already be familiar with.
Frequent chat customers would be aware that chat agents might
have multiple sessions and would expect waits for answers,
also similar to online social chats.
—Michael DeMaria mdemaria@dliengineering.com
Assistant Program Manager
DLI Engineering Corporation www.DLIengineering.com
206-842-7656
My former company offered free live chat support for a few years, but
has since stopped. Our support software vendor provided the live chat
application, but did not provide tech support via live chat themselves
which I thought was somewhat telling.
For both support agents and customers, chat is great for quick "how to"
questions or simple requests. The more complex an issue is, the less
effective chat becomes as typing lengthy responses or researching a
matter while the customer waits can be very time consuming and/or
frustrating for both agent and customer. Like email, chat lacks the
connection of face to face or telephone contact so it is not always
immediately apparent whether questions and answers are being understood
or whether information is being conveyed clearly enough.
Customers who used chat tended to use it frequently and their feedback
was generally positive. Customers appreciated the option to have their
questions addressed in real time without having to pick up the phone.
The support agents almost unanimously disliked providing chat support.
Chat makes multitasking somewhat difficult for agents because of the
level of attention chat requires. The most common complaint from agents
was that chat often interrupted their workflow as they had to drop what
they were doing when a chat request was received. Another frequent
complaint from agents was that chat made scheduling or planning their
day challenging since they could never predict when a chat request
would occur nor how much time a chat conversation would consume.
—Jerry from Boston
We have a relatively small Tech Suport and Customer Support staff. We have
implemented ICQ as an internal Chat Tool. We have found it has come in quite
handy as a way of exchanging information while engaged in a telephone
conversation. There is no need to put a customer on hold and yell over the
cubicle wall to run a situation by a co-worker. The negative impact of such
a tool, however, is that staff has a tendency to use the chat tool as a means
to engage in idle "chit chat."
—John Breault
MLS Property Information Network
[If you have any other advice on this question, please send an
email to membership director Jane Farber at jfarber@asponline.com,
and we'll post your feedback.]
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