Online support services and chats.

HollyJM1985

Hi

I was just wondering if anybody had ever used an online support service or chat to talk to a company? You have probably at least seen them - there is usually a pop up ad or a button that says 'Talk To A Live Agent Now' and it connects you to an MSN style chat.

If you have used one of these before, what was your thoughts and reactions to it? Did you find it added to or detracted from the customer service experience and if it did detract why? Has anyone found that it is harder to read reactions via MSN style chats? I would very interested to hear anybody's opinions as this seems to be a medium of customer contact that is becoming more and more used however if you look there is minimal training and guidance on how e-communications should be used. It is a really big trend in the US and people can be trained to degree level in E-Comms however over here it seems to be less valued.

What do you think?

jimd-f

i have used this with vodaphone on a couple of occassions and found it easy to use, more convenient than using the phone and i get a copy of what has been said in response to my query:)

i suppose it is like everything else when dealing with a customer service operator in that if you get a good one the experience is fine

peter_the_piper

Dells was good and they solved the problem, but it took them 3 goes and a visit but the did cure it.

HollyJM1985

Thanks, I am trying to put together some training for the agents I work with who use the chat services - quite often they are finding that something they would say in a verbal conversation that would be taken in the right way, can be taken entirely out of context on the chats - anyone had any problems with this before? One thing I did want to think about is having a picture or avatar of the agent to which you are speaking in the chat box, would you find this distracting or would it be nice to see the face of the agent you are speaking to?

Nirvana9

I used it with JustEat once and found it very annoying.

However, what I didn't consider was the fact that (as said above) we have a copy of everything said. That's a nice advantage.

greektony

HTC is good. Means I can chat to them at my desk at work without having to phone them

katerinasol

I like them, I think they're great. I think photos won't make much difference - most people will just assume it's some random stock photo.

paddyrg

I am assuming most of these services are offshore to give the 24h cover? Either way, I find them generally just fine, it means the operative at the other end can run several chats at once so is cost/time effective, and is great for dealing with simple tier-1 problems. It can be handy to have them to triage a problem and escalate to tier-2 who may be timezone-based.

pmduk

I've used them a few times and found them useful. I tend to type out my intial query in a wp programme first as my typing is carp as is often demonstrated on here.

bratz81

I've used it with eBay and o2 and found them more convenient than picking up the phone. And obviously more instant than emailing.
I've generally had my query resolved but to be honest I would only ever use them for a simple query, nothing too complex so neither of us get confused. For anything complex I'd phone up.

Barneysmom

Hi I have used the Amazon one and found it quite helpful, saved on the phone call too