When you are in live chat and notice a new customer visiting your website do you automatically pop up a live chat window offering a chance to answer any of the customers questions or do you wait for them to approach you on live chat.

John

If I recall correctly, there have been several other threads on this same topic as well. Personally, I don't initiate any chats with visitors, and it's up to them to request a chat if they would like to. As a customer, I sometimes find it a bit annoying when I receive a chat invitation, although there are some times when I didn't realize they offer live support and it has been helpful. If the live chat "button" is prominently displayed when available, customers will most likely be able to find it and initiate their own chats as needed.

If I recall correctly, there have been several other threads on this same topic as well. Personally, I don't initiate any chats with visitors, and it's up to them to request a chat if they would like to. As a customer, I sometimes find it a bit annoying when I receive a chat invitation, although there are some times when I didn't realize they offer live support and it has been helpful. If the live chat "button" is prominently displayed when available, customers will most likely be able to find it and initiate their own chats as needed.I have to agree with you on this. There is one site I was looking at and the most annoying popup just kept following me around. Of course I closed it but it kept popping back. I must say that this really turned me off to coming back to this site. We just display a link to the live chat and if a customer needs it they will initiate the chat. Just my $.02

We have also been through this before and came to the conclusion that poping up to visitors, Not starting the chat but asking if they wish to chat provides an increased sales rate over not poping up the chat. So from time to time we do popup depending on the visitors specs, referer, location and also their previous history.

What live chat do you all use/recommend? Thanks!

Thanks everyone for the responses. For me personally I know I don't mind a window popping up offering a chat but don't care for people to just start talking to me as long as you can get rid of the window if you don't care for it. But I was curious as to what people had noticed for your experiences, again thanks.

John

What live chat do you all use/recommend? Thanks!

Chatstat is a great option, and its free (with plenty of paid upgrades of course available).

When you are in live chat and notice a new customer visiting your website do you automatically pop up a live chat window offering a chance to answer any of the customers questions or do you wait for them to approach you on live chat.

John

I would wait for them to approach live chat. If they so badly need your help they will ask for it. When I visited a website were they sent me a chat invitation I declined it and went somewhere else.

If you ask me, it just looks like your begging for the sale. Especially if they are just "shopping" around.

I would wait for them to approach live chat. If they so badly need your help they will ask for it. When I visited a website were they sent me a chat invitation I declined it and went somewhere else.

If you ask me, it just looks like your begging for the sale. Especially if they are just "shopping" around.

I am not so sure about that, if I saw a chat popup, I would notice that they want to help you, they want your business, not that they are begging for a sale. But, we soon realized with the amount of chat requests coming in, we didn't spare the time to initiate chat requests unless it is a slow day, or an operator has no current chat sessions.

Initiating chats could drive away potential customers - they could think it as an intrusion. That being said, if you look at the visitor profile, an invite might be popped up when you see a customer has been browsing your site for a long time and still not made a purchase. It would work in a scenario where the vsitor is not familiar with live chat application, or the live chat button is not displayed prominently.

I would have to agree, it's annoying. Every time I login to one of our suppliers client management system a sales rep tries to initiate a chat. Not needed and kind of annoying.

When you are in live chat and notice a new customer visiting your website do you automatically pop up a live chat window offering a chance to answer any of the customers questions or do you wait for them to approach you on live chat.

We would never initiate a chat as we feel that potential clients should have the space to just explore our site and be left alone until they request help.

What live chat do you all use/recommend? Thanks!
Stardevelop Live Help (http://livehelp.stardevelop.com/index.htm) is great, and they are about to release a new version that integrates with Skype.

Wait for them to initiate it, almost everyone agrees if you open a chat you are going to drive people away

We would never initiate a chat as we feel that potential clients should have the space to just explore our site and be left alone until they request help.

I completely agree.

I'm sure some visitors appreciate the pro-active approach, but there's just something about a chat window appearing seconds into a website that turns me off... starts to remind me of a pesky car salesmen! It's like look, just let me browse and if I have any questions I'll click the friggin' Live Help button. :D

Some companies are VERY aggressive with this, such as Rackspace, but it could also be an excellent sales tactic if the right people are manning the chats.

starts to remind me of a pesky car salesmen!

It reminds me more of credit card salesman and insurance salesman. lol...

If I were you I would just wait for your customers to come to you. Then you will know what is exactly on their minds. And then you can answer their questions fully.

Well it is believed that poping up the chat windows do increase sales. So I don't see any harm in doing it. The customer has a choice to close the window if he/she wishes to.

Just do not over do it. If the customer has closed your invitation once let him surf your site in peace.

Amrit Ray