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  1. #26
    Join Date
    Feb 2001
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    West Michigan, USA
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    Originally posted by C-4 Hosting
    Tina...

    I'm not extremely familar with IRC, but is there much of a difference between IRC and say AIM, MSN, or ICQ?

    Thanks!

    The customer doesn't have to download any software with IRC. If they want, they can use their own IRC client like mIRC. IRC is like an open chatroom - people can come and go as they wish. If something requires a private chat, our staff can always go into a private room with them.

    I want to add that we tried live chat software (phpLive, Humanclick, etc.) before we used IRC and they were all very frustrating...to both our staff and our customers. Also, AIM/MSN/ICQ isn't terribly practical if you are more than a one or two man operation...and it doesn't allow for staff to cooperate on a support issue too well. With IRC, a customer asks a question....I can begin looking up billing issues to see if its related to an account suspension, while another staff member is looking to see if its an issue with a server/network.

    --Tina
    Last edited by Tina J; 08-06-2005 at 02:57 PM.
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  2. #27
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    Ah ok. Do you have one channel for support and one channel for chat? and doesn't it get confusing if more than one person is requesting support at a time?

  3. #28
    I personally think it is annoying never enough people online on must websites and communities. Support will not be good

  4. #29
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    Originally posted by Hostultrix-Brandon
    Ah ok. Do you have one channel for support and one channel for chat? and doesn't it get confusing if more than one person is requesting support at a time?
    We have one channel - and we've had up to 18 people at a time in there at once. It doesn't get confusing, but my staff and myself are all fast typers and used to the whole "chat thing". You have to have people who can type, think and problem solve quickly and efficiently in IRC in order for it to work. I actually stole the IRC idea from ev1.net - not sure if they still use theirs, but I thought it was much better than the phplive that we were using at the time.

    --Tina
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  5. #30
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    Heh that's nice, do you allow regular chat as well?

    sorry to ask but I am quite interested as a few customers have noted that they would like such a support method.

  6. #31
    Join Date
    Aug 2005
    Location
    Florida, USA
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    9
    Live chat is useless because there is no type of tracking or logging where as with tickets you can AND the support can give you an educated responce instead of feeling crunched for time and giving you no-brained responce.

  7. #32
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    Originally posted by Tosi
    Live chat is useless because there is no type of tracking or logging where as with tickets you can AND the support can give you an educated responce instead of feeling crunched for time and giving you no-brained responce.
    That's incorrect. Most live chat software has an option for whether it should log chats or not.

  8. #33
    Join Date
    May 2005
    Location
    Florida, USA
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    556
    We use live chat and our clients love it.

    I personally prefer support tickets, because it gives us time to devote to each question instead of trying to answer five live chats at once!

  9. #34
    Join Date
    Jul 2005
    Posts
    30
    I think live chats can be very helpful. It's good for customers to use when they need help. It's fast and reliable. Some customers even look for hosts with live chats. Although it can get annoying when you have people poping up out of no where every minute. and it can get confusing with which one needs help with what.

  10. #35
    Join Date
    Apr 2004
    Location
    United Kingdom
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    301
    Wow a mixed feeling subject!

    What have i started lol. Well we are going to stick to it, we are useing a small line of text instead of a huge online/offline picture to start off with.

    I think we are going to give it a couple of months trial and see what happens. We do get a quite large amount of unique visits to the site so it might work sales wise.

    Im not sure if useing it for support is a wise idea. I personaly have always been keen on the helpdesk for support. Its always worked well and its extremly easy to use.

    Thanks very much for the feed back guys.

  11. #36
    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Location
    Toronto
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    116
    the most annoying live help thing has gotta be aplus.net every page i go to that thing pops up....so if it doesnt pop up it can be very helpfull for presales but if i cant borwse in peace its annoying.

  12. #37
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    Feb 2001
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    West Michigan, USA
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    I like IRC because a customer or potential customer can come in and just lurk. With phpLive, etc. if a customer clicks on - they are pretty much obligated to chat.

    --Tina
    ||| 99.999% Uptime SLA!!!
    Plenty of space and bandwidth to fit your needs!
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  13. #38
    Originally posted by AH-Tina
    I like IRC because a customer or potential customer can come in and just lurk. With phpLive, etc. if a customer clicks on - they are pretty much obligated to chat.

    --Tina
    Do you find that you get a lot of "unwanted" people that way????
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  14. #39
    Join Date
    Dec 2004
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    Butler,TN
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    Hi!
    I'll share what I think...having been on both sides of the coin.
    At first..I was taken back with the large amount of "Live" and "available now" chats that simply were not so. I remember taking a look at what Tina had...and, at first, was impressed.

    Now that I've "had" to provide chat myself...I can't say I like it at all. I loathe it terribly because on one hand..hosts love it...some clients do to...they don't want to pay for it...pay for my time....because chat takes a heck of a lot of time to do.

    Because they want it...and other things...and don't really want to pay for my time...I'm completely phasing the chat and the support out altogether...and trying something new.

    Liveperson was the worst client I have ever been saddled with...and varun's support suite...as far as chat goes...is not as bad. As a interface to the ticket system...it is the worst I've ever had bar none. Thank you, kayako. Esupport is bad..but not quite as bad as support suite.

    I don't use chat at all myself anymore. I bet out of five times chat said it was available...four times it wasn't.

    I prefer all presales questions come via email that I can easily print and have records of. I do still IM with my one client...and that
    is and has always been acceptable as long as a client doesn't want to IM for hours (had one of those too) and that didn't work too well either.

    Nothing can top a decent ticket system..period. As long as you don't take five days to answer a ticket...that's honestly all you need..no chat. Couple that with a user forum, a manual and a decent FAQ...and that's all you'll need.

    Bryon
    Bryon

  15. #40
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    You have to make chat work for you though. People can't waste your time on it unless you allow it. There are people that come in that obviously just want to chit chat. We don't oblige them. If they keep talking about the weather, we say "Is there something we can help you with?". You have to lead the chat conversation so that it is mutually beneficial. I would much rather the customers use chat than tickets.

    --Tina
    ||| 99.999% Uptime SLA!!!
    Plenty of space and bandwidth to fit your needs!
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  16. #41
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    Dec 2004
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    Hi!
    I did that..but still...bottom line is..clients wanted it but didn't want to pay me for the time...so that is the end of that.

    Time to try something else

    Bryon

  17. #42
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    Wow, I'm very surprised you have such a negative opinion of Support Suite, bryonhost1. We just started using it and our staff all like it much better than the old interface. In addition to that, it is much easier to open up the software from your computer than to go to a URL, login, and open up the chat window, which didn't seem to work in certain browsers.

    It does seem to have an odd issue with disconnecting every so often, but I have a ticket opened with Kayako on that.

  18. #43
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    Feb 2001
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    Originally posted by bryonhost1
    Hi!
    I did that..but still...bottom line is..clients wanted it but didn't want to pay me for the time...so that is the end of that.

    Time to try something else

    Bryon

    I'm not understanding.

    Its my experience that chat is much more efficient and less time consuming than tickets, because you can ask follow-up questions and gather information like error messages that a client doesn't think to include in the tickets. What was taking longer than a ticket when you offered chat?

    --Tina
    ||| 99.999% Uptime SLA!!!
    Plenty of space and bandwidth to fit your needs!
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  19. #44
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    Originally posted by bryonhost1
    Hi!
    I did that..but still...bottom line is..clients wanted it but didn't want to pay me for the time...so that is the end of that.

    Time to try something else

    Bryon
    I don't quite understand. Shouldn't such charges be reflected in your hosting prices?

  20. #45
    Join Date
    Dec 2004
    Location
    San Francisco, CA
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    proactive sessions is something I am against and am equally annoyed. But nonetheless, on-demand live chat for actual support & sales can greatly improve the experience of customers. At least it has done that for us.

    as far as IRC goes, I see as customers preferring a more private experience for support or before signing up. We use LivePerson and it works very well for us
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  21. #46
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    Originally posted by Hostultrix-Brandon


    It does seem to have an odd issue with disconnecting every so often, but I have a ticket opened with Kayako on that.

    Every live chat software that we used always had disconnection issues or browser incompatibility issues. I would NEVER use any of those...its just plain frustrating for everyone, in my opinion. Quite often the customer ends up thinking you hung up on them.

    --Tina
    ||| 99.999% Uptime SLA!!!
    Plenty of space and bandwidth to fit your needs!
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  22. #47
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    Feb 2001
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    Originally posted by Yash-JH
    as far as IRC goes, I see as customers preferring a more private experience for support
    Do you have comparative data?

    IRC can be private - we do it all the time...but it also allows the customer to lurk quietly before purchasing, if they choose. They can check out live support without actually having to engage in conversation.

    --Tina
    ||| 99.999% Uptime SLA!!!
    Plenty of space and bandwidth to fit your needs!
    www.AEIandYou.com - - (WP Friendly - Premium Reseller Hosting and Cheap Dedicated Servers)

  23. #48
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    Dec 2004
    Location
    Butler,TN
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    Hi!
    Dern...never had two "I don't understand"s in a row! A new record!

    Tina, 96% of the chats would have taken less time to fix had they used the ticket system instead of chat. This was my personal experience...yours is/was different. Different customers...different focus...different everything. There's nothing hard to understand about that.

    Brandon, I wasn't a host. I was trying to do outsourced support.
    Much was learned but it was clear that if I wanted to continue to have a place to stay and not have to go on food stamps..it had to end.

    Oh..one more thing. Good to hear to finally got rid of PHPlive, Yash. That program was one of the worst I've ever had to deal with..along with Crafty Syntax.

    Bryon
    Last edited by bryonhost1; 08-07-2005 at 12:52 PM.

  24. #49
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    Feb 2001
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    Wow...livechat forcing someone to go on foodstamps.

    I appreciate that your focus may be on different types of customers.

    --Tina
    ||| 99.999% Uptime SLA!!!
    Plenty of space and bandwidth to fit your needs!
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  25. #50
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    Originally posted by AH-Tina
    Every live chat software that we used always had disconnection issues or browser incompatibility issues. I would NEVER use any of those...its just plain frustrating for everyone, in my opinion. Quite often the customer ends up thinking you hung up on them.

    --Tina
    I was not aware of that. Today even the chat cut off in the middle of a live chat session, which was quite annoying for those involved. I was not aware this is common, however.

    I believe I asked before whether you allow normal chat in your channel, however? Do you allow people to chat in there if no support is taking place? And does not it get confusing if there are multiple questions being asked?

    Sorry for being off topic

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