4 ms·

In my experience chat buttons are close to useless. First of all that's usually not a chat at all at first, there is some bot with a series of dumb checks and l

by Yizahi 6y ago

In my experience chat buttons are close to useless. First of all that's usually not a chat at all at first, there is some bot with a series of dumb checks and links. And if you manage to get a human on the other side they usually have a timer and if you dare to type your reply longer than 30 seconds they will just drop your session at any arbitrary moment with a comment "user didn't respond". My internal ranking of contact options is like this: Email - completely useless, won't even try. Nobody ever replied me on my email sent to the contact listed on a company website. (my address is my first plus last name at gmail, so nothing "weird" there) Chat bubble - almost useless, will try only when desperate, like when other channels don't respond or gated (e.g. phone number gated by ten layer deep voice menu) Telegram/Whatsapp chat associated with work number - almost always work and quick, but rarely made available for customers. Or available only after you've already contacted them some other way. Phone - always works but needs a lot of attention and interruption from both parties

smeyer 6y ago
>Phone - always works "Always" seems excessively generous here. There are many times I've contacted a company and reach a human who says "sorry, I can't help you, but you can file a ticket on the website" let alone the times I've received "sorry, we're experiencing more than normal callers, please try again another time" without even the option to wait on hold.
- noahtallen 6y ago
  Almost every phone support center I’ve called has been hot garbage even after getting past hold. From the automated options menu, which doesn’t have what you’re looking for, to the rep needing to forward me somewhere else.
mderazon 6y ago
Twitter seems to work pretty well for me as well
noahtallen 6y ago
I would actually put chat bubbles higher than phone. It’s probably the primary way users are supported at my current job (with real humans in the other end) and it works super well. And when I see the Intercom icon, I can almost guarantee that I’ll be talking with a real person (sometimes even the founder) based on past experience.
crazygringo 6y ago
> Email - completely useless, won't even try Huh? That's how I always reach out about something, and probably get a response 90% of the time? I don't think you're giving e-mail enough credit here. Not sure why you think it's useless. I detest all the synchronous waiting associated with chat/IM/phone hold, I much prefer to send an e-mail and get a reply the next day whenever possible.
- userbinator 6y ago
  If it's a large enough company and/or you're asking for something very specific and not something they are willing to give you, they usually won't even bother replying.
- Yizahi 6y ago
  I would much prefer using emails too. My mails are usually to some reseller about specific unmentioned details of the product - like what is the type of power socket, is there a certain feature present in that specific model etc. Anything that is not easily searchable. I assume that regular call operators who probably also read emails don't have an easy answer and just ignore mails altogether.
oehpr 6y ago
"And if you manage to get a human on the other side they usually have a timer and if you dare to type your reply longer than 30 seconds they will just drop your session at any arbitrary moment with a comment "user didn't respond"." I've personally never had that issue, but my formative years on the internet were on IRC, and as a result when I see a chat text box, I usually send chat messages tersely and fast. Hey I could use some help For some reason I can't log in. Not sure why? Looking at the network the login request didn't seem to send my password. ect. I've only recently learned that this is apparently not universal behavior. Two of my co-workers at my company actually fill out large, properly formatted, paragraphs of text in the chat box. There was a point where one co-worker chastised me for continually interrupting them before they could finish writing. Funnily enough, when I talked to them about using a rapid style of fast terse messages, they immediately adapted to using it. So I think this is just a culture thing. It comes down to what your primary modes of communication are. So with that in mind, I suspect that when you fill out large chunks of text like this, it looks to the support staffer that you started filling out the text, then moved off the webpage and forgot about it. They were likely expecting a terse sentence.
- NoodleIncident 6y ago
  I have a coworker who does this, and personally I can't stand it. Everyone else on our work slack can take 30 seconds and think through what they say in advance. There is a certain rhythm and quantity to the slack notifications he generates; I've never said to myself "oh that's <x>" after the third notification in a row and been wrong. If even a single other person sent messages this way, maybe I'd change my notification settings and see everything much later and less often. But since it's just him, he annoys me on a regular basis with this behavior. Just... don't press enter. Why can't you write the same things, without pressing the button that makes noises on 12 devices miles away every time you stop to think? Why???
  - oehpr 6y ago
    I get where you're coming from here. Ideally your co-worker would, when initiating a conversation, write a well formatted preamble that covers everything they need from you. I have to say however, that this form of paragraph writing behavior is very irritating when you're stuck their numbly waiting for them to proof read their magnum opus. And you can't just leave and go back to what you were working on because in 4 minutes you're going to get interrupted by another dissertation. So you just have to sit there watching "Alice is typing" as it flicks on and off. When you could have been having an active conversation. The reason the rapid reply behavior happens is to allow you, who is presumed to be actively looking at the person, to read the text as it is being wrote, so that you can formulate your response quicker. And keep in mind, the situation where you have the attention of a support employee is that time where they are waiting on you. So if the take away here is anything, it's: * write well before you have someone's attention * write fast when you have it * be respectful of other people time * be mindful of the effects of your actions
XCSme 6y ago
My customers always contact me via email and I always respond and they are happy, so I wouldn't say it's useless.

by Yizahi 6y ago

smeyer 6y ago

>Phone - always works "Always" seems excessively generous here. There are many times I've contacted a company and reach a human who says "sorry, I can't help you, but you can file a ticket on the website" let alone the times I've received "sorry, we're experiencing more than normal callers, please try again another time" without even the option to wait on hold.

noahtallen 6y ago
Almost every phone support center I’ve called has been hot garbage even after getting past hold. From the automated options menu, which doesn’t have what you’re looking for, to the rep needing to forward me somewhere else.

mderazon 6y ago

Twitter seems to work pretty well for me as well

noahtallen 6y ago

I would actually put chat bubbles higher than phone. It’s probably the primary way users are supported at my current job (with real humans in the other end) and it works super well. And when I see the Intercom icon, I can almost guarantee that I’ll be talking with a real person (sometimes even the founder) based on past experience.

crazygringo 6y ago

> Email - completely useless, won't even try Huh? That's how I always reach out about something, and probably get a response 90% of the time? I don't think you're giving e-mail enough credit here. Not sure why you think it's useless. I detest all the synchronous waiting associated with chat/IM/phone hold, I much prefer to send an e-mail and get a reply the next day whenever possible.

userbinator 6y ago
If it's a large enough company and/or you're asking for something very specific and not something they are willing to give you, they usually won't even bother replying.
Yizahi 6y ago
I would much prefer using emails too. My mails are usually to some reseller about specific unmentioned details of the product - like what is the type of power socket, is there a certain feature present in that specific model etc. Anything that is not easily searchable. I assume that regular call operators who probably also read emails don't have an easy answer and just ignore mails altogether.

oehpr 6y ago

"And if you manage to get a human on the other side they usually have a timer and if you dare to type your reply longer than 30 seconds they will just drop your session at any arbitrary moment with a comment "user didn't respond"." I've personally never had that issue, but my formative years on the internet were on IRC, and as a result when I see a chat text box, I usually send chat messages tersely and fast. Hey I could use some help For some reason I can't log in. Not sure why? Looking at the network the login request didn't seem to send my password. ect. I've only recently learned that this is apparently not universal behavior. Two of my co-workers at my company actually fill out large, properly formatted, paragraphs of text in the chat box. There was a point where one co-worker chastised me for continually interrupting them before they could finish writing. Funnily enough, when I talked to them about using a rapid style of fast terse messages, they immediately adapted to using it. So I think this is just a culture thing. It comes down to what your primary modes of communication are. So with that in mind, I suspect that when you fill out large chunks of text like this, it looks to the support staffer that you started filling out the text, then moved off the webpage and forgot about it. They were likely expecting a terse sentence.

NoodleIncident 6y ago
I have a coworker who does this, and personally I can't stand it. Everyone else on our work slack can take 30 seconds and think through what they say in advance. There is a certain rhythm and quantity to the slack notifications he generates; I've never said to myself "oh that's <x>" after the third notification in a row and been wrong. If even a single other person sent messages this way, maybe I'd change my notification settings and see everything much later and less often. But since it's just him, he annoys me on a regular basis with this behavior. Just... don't press enter. Why can't you write the same things, without pressing the button that makes noises on 12 devices miles away every time you stop to think? Why???
- oehpr 6y ago
  I get where you're coming from here. Ideally your co-worker would, when initiating a conversation, write a well formatted preamble that covers everything they need from you. I have to say however, that this form of paragraph writing behavior is very irritating when you're stuck their numbly waiting for them to proof read their magnum opus. And you can't just leave and go back to what you were working on because in 4 minutes you're going to get interrupted by another dissertation. So you just have to sit there watching "Alice is typing" as it flicks on and off. When you could have been having an active conversation. The reason the rapid reply behavior happens is to allow you, who is presumed to be actively looking at the person, to read the text as it is being wrote, so that you can formulate your response quicker. And keep in mind, the situation where you have the attention of a support employee is that time where they are waiting on you. So if the take away here is anything, it's: * write well before you have someone's attention * write fast when you have it * be respectful of other people time * be mindful of the effects of your actions

XCSme 6y ago

My customers always contact me via email and I always respond and they are happy, so I wouldn't say it's useless.