11 ms·

Don’t blame the tool for mismanaged expectations.

by raulk 7y ago

skyyler 7y ago
If the tool is presented as an instant messenger, people often get upset when responses aren't instant.
- davnicwil 7y ago
  This is spot on. You should blame the tool for mismanaged expectations if the tool inherently sets the expectations. I'm just trying to imagine ways you could use slack and not set an expectation of having someone online to chat to. Use a bot to resond with "we'll get back to you when we can"? There's no option that doesn't feel like an incredibly frustrating experience for the user.
  - skyyler 7y ago
    No matter how you look at it, if you can't reply in under a few minutes, you shouldn't be presenting your support as a chat. Just use email.
    - fivre 7y ago
      Other support chat tools have solved this for quite some time with a queue and display of estimated waiting time. You may not get an initial response immediately, but once an agent becomes available they're assigned the chat and do communicate synchronously. In comparison, Slack has no way to indicate that an agent is already working with someone else in another channel, nor any good way to assign a specific owner--customer questions are dumped into a channel with X support agents as members, one of whom will hopefully respond.
  - SpicyLemonZest 7y ago
    What confuses me is that's just not my experience. I've seen and helped run multiple company Slack channels, and none of them regularly had instant responses.
- cco 7y ago
  Would be an interesting slack integration to enable setting SLAs. Say a message prefaced with (question) starts a timer and then you can track an SLA against that. I would actually love that for open channels.
capableweb 7y ago
If you expect to not reply immediately (or "soon"), what's the point of using any chat program instead of email? Either you're fine with short, possibly intense (maybe even urgent) conversations, and chat works well. Or, people want to communicate more async and you can take a day or two to answer. People generally use forums/emails for this.
EpicEng 7y ago
No, don't use a instant messaging tool like an answering machine. You set the expectations when you open up slack as a support avenue.
- bengale 7y ago
  Is this intended for support? We use single channel guests at the moment to collaborate on projects with external companies without any issue. This seems to be geared towards that.
  - EpicEng 7y ago
    I imagine it's intended for any use case in which you want to communicate with people outside your company via slack, but don't want to invite them into your org. I was responding to these comments: >You customers are feeling like they can ask any question and get an answer in 1 minute, and if you dont answer them straight away then they are unhappy. Definitively not something I recommend >Don’t blame the tool for mismanaged expectations.
    - bengale 7y ago
      So am I, "Don’t blame the tool for mismanaged expectations.". This is correct IMHO. Inviting customers in that expect support is setting their expectation that they'll get support in real time. I could think of potentially two of our customers that pay enough for us to consider this. The tool just needs to be used the correct way.
      - EpicEng 7y ago
        ...I feel like I meant to reply to the first one. I agree.
buboard 7y ago
but the medium is the message

Don’t blame the tool for mismanaged expectations.

by raulk 7y ago

Don’t blame the tool for mismanaged expectations.

skyyler 7y ago

If the tool is presented as an instant messenger, people often get upset when responses aren't instant.

davnicwil 7y ago
This is spot on. You should blame the tool for mismanaged expectations if the tool inherently sets the expectations. I'm just trying to imagine ways you could use slack and not set an expectation of having someone online to chat to. Use a bot to resond with "we'll get back to you when we can"? There's no option that doesn't feel like an incredibly frustrating experience for the user.
- skyyler 7y ago
  No matter how you look at it, if you can't reply in under a few minutes, you shouldn't be presenting your support as a chat. Just use email.
  - fivre 7y ago
    Other support chat tools have solved this for quite some time with a queue and display of estimated waiting time. You may not get an initial response immediately, but once an agent becomes available they're assigned the chat and do communicate synchronously. In comparison, Slack has no way to indicate that an agent is already working with someone else in another channel, nor any good way to assign a specific owner--customer questions are dumped into a channel with X support agents as members, one of whom will hopefully respond.
- SpicyLemonZest 7y ago
  What confuses me is that's just not my experience. I've seen and helped run multiple company Slack channels, and none of them regularly had instant responses.
cco 7y ago
Would be an interesting slack integration to enable setting SLAs. Say a message prefaced with (question) starts a timer and then you can track an SLA against that. I would actually love that for open channels.

capableweb 7y ago

If you expect to not reply immediately (or "soon"), what's the point of using any chat program instead of email? Either you're fine with short, possibly intense (maybe even urgent) conversations, and chat works well. Or, people want to communicate more async and you can take a day or two to answer. People generally use forums/emails for this.

EpicEng 7y ago

No, don't use a instant messaging tool like an answering machine. You set the expectations when you open up slack as a support avenue.

bengale 7y ago
Is this intended for support? We use single channel guests at the moment to collaborate on projects with external companies without any issue. This seems to be geared towards that.
- EpicEng 7y ago
  I imagine it's intended for any use case in which you want to communicate with people outside your company via slack, but don't want to invite them into your org. I was responding to these comments: >You customers are feeling like they can ask any question and get an answer in 1 minute, and if you dont answer them straight away then they are unhappy. Definitively not something I recommend >Don’t blame the tool for mismanaged expectations.
  - bengale 7y ago
    So am I, "Don’t blame the tool for mismanaged expectations.". This is correct IMHO. Inviting customers in that expect support is setting their expectation that they'll get support in real time. I could think of potentially two of our customers that pay enough for us to consider this. The tool just needs to be used the correct way.
    - EpicEng 7y ago
      ...I feel like I meant to reply to the first one. I agree.

buboard 7y ago

but the medium is the message