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Chat and contact centres

by socialentry
6 replies
Hey there,

I noticed that some corporations now offer chat as a customer service/ inbound sales tool(such as B-Hell internet and Royal Bank of Canada)

What are your taughts on this?

Seems to me it gives the operator plenty of time to think about his next reply plus no one judges him for having an indian accent.
#centres #chat #contact
  • Profile picture of the author mjbmedia
    theyre annoying as you type in your full question straight away and its answered with a 'hello my name is XXX, how can I help you today' , you wait assuming they've read the big long question and are formulating a decent reply, then 3 minutes later they say 'hello my name is XXX, how can I help you today?'

    answer the question would be a good start or don't allow me to type until you are ready to receive the message
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    Mike

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  • Profile picture of the author bsummers
    If it is not an automated chat, then it is good. A personal touch is a must in customer service.I think this works well for basic inquiries but not so good for technical concerns.
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  • Profile picture of the author mjbmedia
    Its only as good as the customer service moron on the other end of it, and too many times they are morons, put there to hide them from face to face customer service
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    Mike

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    • Profile picture of the author jimbo13
      Bit harsh Mike.

      A % of people like to use Chat feature to get an immediate answer rather than have the hassle of calling or sending an e-mail and then having to wait for a reply.

      eg. I was purchasing a pair of shoes last month. So I can see the sizes 8,9,10 etc but I need to know the width too as my feet are G and maybe you don't now this but most shoes in the UK are F width.

      When the chat box popped up I asked what size I should get if my feet are 8.5 G and within seconds the answer came back 9 for 1 type of shoe and 10 for another.

      So I bought the ones I wanted.

      A chat operator can deal with maybe 6 chats simultaneously which a phone operator can't. Think of yourself texting a few conversations at the same time. Removing that % of users from the call system allows many alternatives. eg Reduction of people on phones or what would be better would be the eradication of time limits for the existing phone people to speak with their customers. Kyocera the printer people did this with great affect.

      So it is a useful sales or customer service tool to have if the company get enough calls/traffic.

      It should pop up at the appropriate place though. Software makes it easy for the operator to see what the customer is doing on the site just like a sales assistant in a shop can see what a customer browsing is doing.

      'Can I help you?' the moment you walk through the door is very different from 'Can I help you?' if you see the customer looking at 2 or 3 things undecidedly.

      Like most things it comes down to training of staff. Which in the UK seems to be poorly done or for small companies is even non existant.

      Dan
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  • Profile picture of the author Katee
    I liked the points that Dan made:

    A chat operator can deal with maybe 6 chats simultaneously which a phone operator can't. Think of yourself texting a few conversations at the same time. Removing that % of users from the call system allows many alternatives. eg Reduction of people on phones or what would be better would be the eradication of time limits for the existing phone people to speak with their customers.
    Those time limits always make me feel rushed & then I forget things.

    So I am for these "Chats"
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  • Profile picture of the author mjbmedia
    they may be able to 'deal' with them but they don't actually give the decent service that a true 1-1 conversation would give, I have had many such online chats and only ever been happy with one of them , yes I am a hard ******* to please but then shouldn't all customers be so .

    Having 6 chats going doesn't mean 6 happy customers at the end of it.
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    Mike

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