IT Support Pro Tells Why He Hates Live Chat 228
Posted
by
samzenpus
from the what-seems-to-be-the-trouble? dept.
from the what-seems-to-be-the-trouble? dept.
colinneagle writes "When someone calls into support, we first verify his or her account information. On the phone, this can take seconds. On a chat feature it can take a minute or two because people type slower than they speak. I also find that when people type in a chat they try to make the process go quicker by abbreviating the conversation. This means they might not give me all the information they would have if we were talking on the phone. The more descriptive a customer is about a problem, the easier and faster it will be to solve their issue. But the nature of a chat feature means people will abbreviate their stories to be more efficient, without realizing this just makes it more difficult to solve the problem. I end up asking more questions, which takes longer for the full story to come out. Explaining how to fix a problem can be difficult on the phone, but on a chat feature where I can't see your screen and likely have less information to work with, it can make it impossible to tackle a complex issue. It would be much more efficient for both me and the customer to talk on the phone so I can walk the customer through the steps I am taking."
Re:good post (Score:4, Funny)
It's plain text. Click it all you like, nothing will happen.
Re:Eliza (Score:4, Funny)
Why do you say something tells you he hasn't tried writing a chat bot, ELIZA style?
Re:Chat has its place, but shouldnt be primary (Score:5, Funny)
If they're a VoIP customer get them to reboot their router while on phone support. The result is 5 minutes of peace until their phones start to work again.
Re:Is this a journal entry? (Score:5, Funny)
It's not even a well thought rant, all of his complaints are either true of phone chat or easily overcome by a proper chat system. My favourite part is:
Explaining how to fix a problem can be difficult on the phone, but on a chat feature where I can't see your screen and likely have less information to work with, it can make it impossible to tackle a complex issue.
Yeah, because my phone gives me a magic window onto the other user's computer - whereas no text chat system ever invented has been integrated into a remote desktop solution.
Absolutely pathetic.
Re:Is this a journal entry? (Score:2, Funny)
Webcam support? Are you insane? Never mind worrying about what the guy working out of his mom's basement in Bangladesh is wearing (or not); *I* don't want to have to close my bathrobe just to call tech support!