live chat - yay or nay

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tony84

tony84

Free Member
Apr 14, 2008
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Manchester
  • #1
    Hi,

    I have just gone live with a website and after having difficulties with my site and speaking to my host via live chat.

    I noticed how even though i had access to a phone number i still used live chat, im just wondering if this is something you have ever used on your site (and how many people contacted you via it) OR how many times you have contacted a company using live chat on their site?

    Cheers
    Tony
     
    M

    matt.chatterley

  • #5
    WebWizard said:
    Live chat is good if you have the Time & Personal to power it. Otherwise it may just become an inactive feature on your website.

    If you can power it... then give it a go!!!
    Click to expand...

    Good advice, IMO - if you can run it and keep it up - and you don't find you get spammed via it, then it can be really powerful.

    It can give your clients a simple, easy, low-stress way to get in touch if they need to (a lot of people really don't like using the phone).

    The issue we had with it was that it tended to get used by what I will politely call "offshore development agencies" trying to get us to ship work out to them - at least 9/10 contacts were sales based in nature!
     
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    yooneeq

    yooneeq

    Free Member
    Jan 12, 2007
    59
    7
    Reading, UK
  • #6
    We have been in two minds to use a live chat on the website. As the people who we would use the live chat from our our end may not always be in the office or available and would be a negative sign to put it online if during normal office hours no one is on hand, even though we have someone in the office 24/7.
    I don't think you would have anything to loose and people are still sometimes telephone shy so would feel more comfortable asking any questions through the site without giving away too much about themselves when they are "window shopping".

    i say try it. I agree LiveZilla is probably the better ones to use.
     
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    B

    banskoo

  • #7
    I ran a live chat system for my website for 3 months with only actually one inquiry through it, I found most people do not like to use it and are more happy actually sending an email at their convenience.

    When I initiated chats after seeing clients looking at product for some time, they all rejected it.

    I dropped it and didn't see any difference to my business.
    The thing that gets me the most is I too always close any pop up box that comes on a site and if it come on more than two pages whilst I am looking I would leave the site.

    Also I would not want to be showing not online when I am not available.

    A skype address works well.
     
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    W

    WebWizard

  • #9
    Thanks :)

    & Yes Just dont have live chat to have it, If you cant maintain it then dont use it.

    But you are 100% right about having support! Live Chat is great, but the next best thing would be to setup a good TROUBLE-TICKET system & KNOWLEDGEBASE if your pressed for time in between support questions.

    See what works best for you, & your customers :)
    best of luck friend!

    godbless~
     
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    B

    benjamin_c

    Free Member
    Jun 3, 2009
    874
    112
  • #11
    I like the idea of live chat but i'm not always at the computer so if i dont reply to the client it could look like i dont give a monkeys.. would be good if it could be set up so what the person says is forwarded to me as a text and i reply by text and it goes in the live chat window, i'm not sure if this exists yet but if it doesn't then it should! or it could even work via an iPhone app :)
     
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    JElder

    JElder

    Free Member
    Jul 2, 2008
    1,142
    192
    Southampton, Hampshire
  • #12
    We've set up a customised one for a couple of clients - have a look at http://www.autobulbsdirect.co.uk. It gets quite a bit of traffic, as some people seems to prefer it to a phone.

    I suppose it's good for those that have internet access but limited phone access, as well as those who just don't like talking on the phone! They also get a lot from their overseas customers, as it's immediate response, but obviously far cheaper than calling for many of them.

    You do, however, have to ensure the backend is well enough manned to provide a fast response, as people are not very tolerant of delays. We also had to build an 'offline mode' as people would still use it even then the link said it was offline.
     
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    wood1e2

    Free Member
    May 2, 2007
    2,313
    174
    Leicester
  • #13
    Personally my experience with 'live chat' has been dire!!

    Either foreign based with English not as a firt language, or not live but auto answers!!

    Give me a phone number and I will give you my business!!

    Any business that doesn't offer a good phone service does not get my business!!
     
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    C

    CraigieDD

  • #15
    We've found that livechat lets you engage with the person in a more direct fashion. Asking direct questions, and getting direct answers.

    We use CraftSyntax on our site and it works well.

    Any way you can start to build a relationship with a client is good.

    In my experience if you don't provide the mechanism that the user wants to use to communicate with you then you're starting with a negative.

    The website we developed for ourselves has a big phone number, skype id,contact us form and live chat.
     
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    S

    Setfire

    Free Member
    Sep 6, 2010
    36
    7
    Stockport, UK
  • #17
    We have found that if you have a well built, mature site then there is little benefit. Put it this way, any change in conversion rate is immeasurably small.

    It is, however, something you can try out for little or no cost. You should make sure you have people available who can deal responsively with enquiries or you will just annoy people.

    I also think that displaying a chat icon/link saying there is no-one there is bad. Just hide it.

    Where your customer base is international it may be more appropriate.
     
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    KidsBeeHappy

    KidsBeeHappy

    Free Member
    Oct 9, 2007
    7,371
    1,573
    Sunny Troon
  • #18
    I ran the livechat for a parcelwebsite over the period up to Christmas and New Year. And it's a really useful thing if you tend to get asked the same question over and over and over again. The reason the livechat was so busy at this time was that key functionality that people would expect to have seen online wasn't because the website was new and still partly in development. Rather than loose those leads we took them via livehelp. But that problem did affect most customers in the same way, hence the repition of queries.

    People prefer to phone rather than livechat. But they will take livechat in preference to email. WHEN THEY KNOW THAT SOMEONE IS THERE.

    Livechat lets you do canned responses. And it also lets you email a copy of the conversation to the customer. If this kind of functionality would help your business, then I would say livechat is a must.
     
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    F

    Friday

    Free Member
    Sep 8, 2010
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    0
  • #21
    According to my experience as well as my friends,live help is necessary for a website, people usually chat through live help to know the products and service of the company he interested,also after sale.Most companies supply 7/24 on line service as necessary and if they want to have a good reputation and future.:)

    Such as one company i prefer 123 flash chat software who provide chat software,web messenger,and live help software, ,they supply 7/24 on line service.Maybe their products are just what you are looking for !


    If you have time and power to support it,then just have a try,it will be convenient for you and your customers,also,your website and business will grow faster !
     
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    C

    Cloughie

    Free Member
    Jan 16, 2010
    115
    18
  • #25
    It really depends on your business - I think some lend themselves to lots of pre-sales questions and then it may be a good idea.

    Just be warned though it can be pretty time intensive to manage as its easy to get stuck with a customer asking lots of questions just for the sake of it.

    If you have a good, strong product copy, its definately not neccessary.
     
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    E

    eMagCreator

  • #27
    If you are online enough then go for it, Livezilla is also cool for monitoring visitors to your site to check out what they are doing BUT...if you are trying to drive in quality B2B leads then using Livechat can risk the number of contact forms or trials etc being done on your site. Many people simply use Livechat and give fake names to come on and ask plenty of questions and then they are gone and you have no details of who was interested in your product or services.
     
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    wood1e2

    Free Member
    May 2, 2007
    2,313
    174
    Leicester
  • #29
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    Cloughie

    Free Member
    Jan 16, 2010
    115
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  • #30
    Who has had experience with paying others to handle live chat?

    I or my partner sure do not have enough time for it and anyway it wouldn't be a good use of our time. So I would need to hire someone who has good written skills, some knowledge of nutrition but more important someone who can research and learn our product range and then help customers with advice - no easy task lol
     
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