Question

Topic: Strategy

Best Practice For Live Chat Functionality

Posted by Anonymous on 1/22/2010 at 11:55 AM ET 125 Points
We are considering adding a "LIVE CHAT" feature to our website. The website is a B2B site for HighTech product. I'm looking for insight on best practice. Should the LIVE CHAT icon act as a pop-up? When should it appear? Should it be on the home page? Any insight you can provide would be helpful.

Thank you!
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by michael on 1/22/2010 at 12:00 PM Member
    If you're doing HighTech it's likely that the people visiting your website are very knowledgeable. I would open the chat icon after their first click.

    Michael
  • Posted on 1/22/2010 at 12:17 PM Author
    Hi Michael-
    Do you mean first click away from the home page or first click on a sub-page?
    Thx!
  • Posted by thecynicalmarketer on 1/22/2010 at 12:50 PM Accepted
    Live chat can be great but it can be a negative as well.
    Here are a few tips to help you get the most from it.

    - Don't put it everywhere, just where someone might need it, such as where they make a buying decision or on a support page. The window becomes another additional item (sometime a very large one) that competes for attention and can distract people from your message, especially if it is not needed.

    - Don't have it pop up and say no one is available. There is a small anti-virus company in FL that does this often and it is truly worse than doing nothing at all - it raises expectations and then disappoints. Most will allow you to hide the feature if no one is available.

    - Have knowledgeable people that are able to quickly address the questions and concerns that come across. Live Chat is a promise of instant, friendly communication with high utility - Great Live Chat keeps that promise.

    - On non-support pages, don't have it pop up until the visitor has sat idle on the page for a fixed period of time. No need to intrude if things are going well, but it is wise to offer guidance if someone gets stuck. You will need to experiment to find the best length of time.

    - Like any business process it must be measured. Setting it up is half the work. Monitoring, measuring, and adjusting the program to maximize its positive impact on reaching your goals (sales, support, etc) is really where the payoff is.

    Good luck, John
    https://bit.ly/75KkSG

  • Posted by Markitek on 1/22/2010 at 1:18 PM Member
    I think you're better off looking at companies that do this well: symantec, microsoft, dell or whomever you particularly admire. Do it the way they do it. They've already spent a gazillion bucks on usabilty and piloting and so forth.
  • Posted on 1/22/2010 at 2:05 PM Author
    John-
    Thanks for your reply and insight. My gut was telling me a lot of what you have shared, nice to have it validated.

    Markitek-
    Thanks...usually the first thing I do :-) Was hoping to have some additional background to share with my CEO vs. "they do it so should we".
  • Posted on 1/22/2010 at 3:09 PM Author
    Phil-
    Excellent point. We are a small company so we plan to have our inside sales people manage the conversations. Thx!
  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 1/23/2010 at 9:33 AM Accepted
    Here are some articles that may be of interest:
    https://www.marketingprofs.com/news/customer-behavior/index.asp?nlid=1557&c...
    https://www.marketingprofs.com/casestudy/49
    https://call-center-software.tmcnet.com/topics/call-center-solutions/articl...
    https://www.clickz.com/3499311
    https://www.forrester.com/rb/Research/best_practices_implementing_online_ch...
  • Posted on 1/23/2010 at 10:05 AM Member
    Live chat is a fastest way to help and solve user problem. But it need full of knowledge. In terms of sales, product, etc..

    I went through some live chat session in telecommunication field in my country, the company is perfect because they can provide me a full details in just 10 minutes for live chat. This might because of my problems is too simple..

    Anyways, is a good try because this will give the user a 100% support in shortest time.

    Live chat session should be appear in a special / different link so that all the users will click on it easily. Need to give awareness to people so that they know there is a live chat session available.

    Hope this will help :)

    Luis
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