Live Help

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W

Whistle Ink

  • #1
    Hello!

    I'm in the process of setting up live help on website.

    For you business owners - Has anyone implemented this where they sell products online? How useful has it been?

    For online shoppers - would you use it? how would respond to a chat request or message from a site?

    Cheers

    Paresh :)
     
    C

    Coding Monkey

  • #2
    I used it in talking to Rackspace. Found it quite handy, and a lot more convenient for me at the time than talking on the phone or e-mail.

    Just make sure you're available a lot, as it's not the most attractive thing to go onto a website before 5pm and find that their live help isn't available.
     
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    Ozzy

    Ozzy

    Founder of UKBF
    UKBF Staff
    • Feb 9, 2003
    8,367
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    Northampton, UK
    bdgroup.co.uk
  • #3
    We use it on our websites and although in the past it wasn't really used, it actually gets used by our customers a hell of a lot - and is very handy for us as it doesnt take up the phone lines - and as the customers are using it I would assume they also find it very handy.
    It also has a handy tool that lets you view in real time what visitors are on your site and on what page :)
     
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    W

    Whistle Ink

  • #4
    A couple of people I have been talking to think customers might be put off by the fact that they might be watched. (This might be from because thye know what this software does)

    I guess it's best to leave them alone and only speak when you're spoken to! #

    Do you guys send a pop up asking for help? I would like to know browers thoughts on my site, any improvments they might like to see etc.
     
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    sysops

    sysops

    Free Member
    Feb 1, 2007
    2,918
    885
  • #5
    We've used it on a number of sites, and the experience has been mixed. On the whole, it has been very successful on sites selling products/services of a very technical nature, where prospective customers are likely to have a lot of pre-sales questions. It has been less useful on sites selling more mainstream products.
     
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    sysops

    sysops

    Free Member
    Feb 1, 2007
    2,918
    885
  • #7
    I mean mixed in terms of value for money - increasing sales conversion.

    The majority of popup invitations are declined in most cases anyway - I'm personally not convinced of the usefulness of the push salesman approach.

    I'll give you a couple of examples. One installation was for an engineering company that supplies machined parts to various industry sectors. This was very useful on the whole, resulting in more enquiries and more sales. Popup invitations weren't necessary - people clicked the Live Help button all by themselves.

    Another was for a company selling a variety of personalised gift products. This was not at all successful, most popups were declined, and there was no measurable benefit.
     
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    Ozzy

    Ozzy

    Founder of UKBF
    UKBF Staff
    • Feb 9, 2003
    8,367
    11
    3,515
    Northampton, UK
    bdgroup.co.uk
  • #8
    We never send a pop-up, we wait for the user to request help. I have only once made initiated the popup offering help ... never again! The guy freaked and thought his computer had been hacked :D
    Now we just have it sitting there as part of the header for people to use it if they want. Please feel free to take a look if interested using the link in my sig.
     
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    L

    livechatdir

  • #16
    Yeah, we have using liveperson for quite a little while. It is working well for our site m2mhost.com. It is an integrated application that has a facility of live chat, live call, ticket support, and knowledgebase all in one. What we basically like about it is this - it has everything for every type of customer. It's integrated application has made tracking of customers extremely simple. We have also seen considerable improvement in conversion rate and the level of satisfaction of our customers.

    It's technical staff is quite helpful in installation of its software and takes the responsibility of handling nitty gritties of the service. you too can have a look at it on how it works at our site.
     
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  • #18
    I find live chat quite useful sometimes when I'm shopping on sites and want to quickly find out some information but unfortunately most places that seem to display live chat on their websites either are always offline or insist on popping up the push windows which I find highly irritating, it's the equivalent of shop sales people following you around the store continually asking if you need help - NO if I need help I will ask for it! Live chat is great if it's online and up to the customer to make use of it if they want it.
     
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    A

    AdamW

  • #19
    boho said:
    I find live chat quite useful sometimes when I'm shopping on sites and want to quickly find out some information but unfortunately most places that seem to display live chat on their websites either are always offline or insist on popping up the push windows which I find highly irritating, it's the equivalent of shop sales people following you around the store continually asking if you need help - NO if I need help I will ask for it! Live chat is great if it's online and up to the customer to make use of it if they want it.
    Click to expand...

    Agreed.. I never use the push windows. Nor do I use the push functions when chatting as it just opens a huge broswer window :)
     
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    A

    AdamW

  • #21
    Well there are free ones and paid for ones. If you pay for it and choose a hosted option then it is just a case of putting the code in right place and making sure the images fit your site so not too dificult.

    Give me a shout if you have any problems, I'll be happy to lend a hand!
     
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    B

    Blush

  • #25
    I use crafty syntax, but to be honest no one really bothers with it. I removed it form my homepage too as it was being hosted by me and using loads of bandwidth.It gave very interesting info though! One of my competitors kept appearing also which was very interesting. Their site showed up as their domain name which was strange.
    I never used the pop ups as I would find that very off putting if it happened to me. I now only have it on my contact page and willprobably ditch it I think.I might try it again next month.
    I do get a lot of sales now through my 0800 number though, that was worth it. A lot of potential customers like to speak to someone and to know their order will be dealy with someone in person and will be posted out quickly.
    I remember sitting one sat eveing, hair still wet as I was getting ready to go out, when a pensioner rang.she wanted to buy for her granddaughter and had never shopped online before.I had to take her through it step by step.:)
     
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    Cornish Steve

    Cornish Steve

    Free Member
    Jul 4, 2005
    13,260
    1,906
    Atlanta, Georgia, USA (formerly Cornwall, UK)
  • #26
    I've gone off this concept of late. Only last week, someone mentioned to me how he had been browsing the website of his wireless phone company. Suddenly, a chat window appeared, which is not that unusual. The company rep, though, mentioned how this guy had considered (i.e., clicked on for details) Package A before considering Package B and started extolling the virtues of the more-expensive Package A. In other words, the agent had been watching a visitor navigate the site before appearing with a chat window. This was quite unnerving and, in my opinion, rather over the top.

    In other words, if you plan to offer Live Help, use it diligently and don't give the impression you are looking over everyone's shoulder.
     
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