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Online support services and chats.

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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?
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Comments

  • jimd-f
    jimd-f Posts: 159 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    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
  • Dells was good and they solved the problem, but it took them 3 goes and a visit but the did cure it.
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  • 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
    Nirvana9 Posts: 211 Forumite
    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
    greektony Posts: 143 Forumite
    HTC is good. Means I can chat to them at my desk at work without having to phone them
  • 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
    paddyrg Posts: 13,543 Forumite
    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
    pmduk Posts: 10,681 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    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
    bratz81 Posts: 673 Forumite
    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.
    carpe diem :cool:

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  • Barneysmom
    Barneysmom Posts: 10,136 Ambassador
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Photogenic Combo Breaker
    Hi I have used the Amazon one and found it quite helpful, saved on the phone call too :)
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