Slashdot Mirror
Live Chat Salespeople On Web Sites
burgburgburg writes "Forbes.com has an interesting article on how one web site is bringing all of the fun of salespeople suddenly appearing and offering to "help" to the web. It seems that Rackspace Managed Hosting tracks you by your IP number when you arrive. After 30 seconds on the site, a Java applet pops up with a photo of a sales person and a live chat offer to assist you in your efforts. According to Rackspace's co-chairman, one-third of users approached via chat engage in conversation with a salesperson, and half of those take the discussion to the next level. Furthermore, according to him, nearly 50% of new customers have originated from the chat feature. They have 6 salespeople watching the site in shifts for 20 hours a day."
If you type a/s/l they terminate the conversation....
I'm so lonely
DLF ROCKS!
that's a long shift.
I think that their 6 sales staff might not be able to cope with a slashdotting :)
No thanks, just web browsing.
"According to Rackspace's co-chairman, one-third of users approached via chat engage in conversation with a salesperson, and half of those take the discussion to the next level."
What's that, dinner and a movie?
this might be the first time an actual person will feel the slashdot effect
The One Rule Of Chess You'll Ever Need: Don't play someone who carries a kit in their bookbag.
Does anyone know how well this would work in a software technical support environment geared for end users or have any experience with this in a support environment?
To use the /. effect to not only take down sites, but people now? Damn, that's cold.
Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
I remember being a little disconcerted at the applet popping up....
But ten minutes later, I picked up the phone to talk further with a sales rep.
Additionally I wonmder if this might actually violate federal wiretapping law in that they are tracking what I am doing on their site without my permission or informed consent.
"Can there be a Klein bottle that is an efficient and effective beer pitcher?"
I was browsing their site just to check it out and up came the window. I like the concept that you can get in touch with someone right away, but I rather wait until I am ready. No matter what I am buying, I like to gather some information first and then contact the company myself when I have some questions ready regarding their products.
What level would that be?
Wanna cyber? ;P
Un-news
Now I'll have to say `just browsing' on every webpage I visit and in every brick and morter store I visit.
Thanks a lot.
-Colin
For what I've seen, popup sales help is not particularly impressive. The "first level" of help appears to be essentially automated (basically a chatbot) that burns up several minutes establishing contact with an "Eliza-like" series of questions that you have to answer before you can get any further. Once you get to a real human, the level of support is not much different than what you would find if you searched the FAQ for the site (for all I could tell, it might still have been a bot except that I specifically asked if it was a person and then got a non-automated response). And I found it creepy to be accosted virtually, sort of like being stalked by a popup ad. Until they improve the interface and the substance, I'll pass.
At SplutterFish we designed a custom system based around IRC which allows users to get live support as well.
:)
This means that virtually all of our users can connect, usually without any installation required (through a JAVA applet, or HTML-based webchat on port 80 for those behind firewalls) - whilst still offering our users their own flavor of client to use whenever they want - e.g. mIRC.
Our users are very pleased with the service as they can get instant answers almost around the clock, they can receive transcripts of the conversation on their e-mail address, an FTP server is hooked in so that they can easily upload multiple files or large files, and an IRC back-end shows the details of the upload back to the support people (such as version of software used to author a specific file - in our case: 3ds max scene files).
I would advise almost any company to start something like this, but you do need to have several people watching - either paid or volunteer / honor-system based. As a 'live support' system is only as good as just how 'live' it is.
Oh, and yes, it has been driving sales as well
I imagine that YMMV considerably, depending on your industry. A year ago I was working for a .com that sold automotive accessories online. We experimented with the same service rackspace has, Groopz. We also tried PHP Chat and LivePerson. Groopz was the best, in our experience, do to the right combination of functionality vs. price.
However, we ended up scrapping the live chat thing all together eventually. We had people who would pop in, ask a random question and then close the chat session. It was very difficult to carry on meaningful conversation that would actually lead to a sale. It's much more difficult for a shopper to do this to a sales guy in person or over the phone because you have their undivided attention.
Entrepreneur : (noun), French for "unemployed"
It seems that Rackspace Managed Hosting tracks you by your IP number when you arrive.
:)
I guess I'm safe since I bought that software from the popup ad that keeps my computer from broadcasting an IP.
+5:offtopic,but anti-American
I had this happen to me on a website where I was already a customer.
It really startled the hell out of me the first time. Anyway, I was at the site because I was looking through their help files to resolve a problem I was having. Once it became clear that I had already given them money and was looking for help, the guy just vanished.
So not only did they interupt me when I was fine on my own, they left me with a bad feeling knowing they are clearly more interested in getting new customers than helping old ones.
-Colin
The first thing that popped into mind when reading the post -
"Soooo, how many licenses would you like to buy today?"
from the CA commercials with the cardboard salesperson. I'll now have that commercial stuck in my head the rest of the day, you insensitive clod!
A couple of months ago I was shopping for a new hosting facility for some sites I run. (My florida room was running out of space). I visited RackSpace and got 'chatted-up' by this feature. I was a little shocked at first, thinking this was a automatid response system or something. So I misspelled some words and used bad grammar and the person on the other end responded with real answers to my questions.
The conversation did go to the next level with a voice-to-voice phone call. I ended up doing business with Rackspaces' little sister company, serverbeach and am pleased with the price and the service.
I work for the company that writes the software that Rackspace uses.
.0001 percent of the people we contact get bent out of shape. Most are amazed and want to know more.
We initially wrote the software to use in house to for our sales and support team, but people quickly started to use it and like it.
That being said I am going to answer a few things that I see popping up here.
1. Our sales staff are all technical, network engineers, developers you name it. So when you page someone on our site, you get someone knowledgable about networks, internet, webservers, etc, so they can guid you.
They are many companies that use our tool and similar ones to provide sales and they dont provide quality sales people. So if you have retail store or webstore, you need good sales people.
2. Our products are cross platform. You hear me. Server side Linux, Windows, Xserve, Solaris. Operator side as well. We develop on OSX then port.
3. Support staff are always the hardest people to please with tools, and the more you give them to do the less they like it. I rode a support desk for 5 years and I was a stubborn son of a bitch. However with online support you get the benefit of being able to have 2-6 people in a chat, as opposed to one on one on the phone. It actually makes you work more efficiently. And all communication is logged for QA, and you can email the transcript to your CRM system and the customer. It allows for efficiency.
The biggest gripe I see here on slashdot is that you do not want to be browsing and someone popup. Well here is my opinion on that from a business standpoint and a computer liberal. If I am a business man, and I am paying thousands of dollars for design, hosting, bandwidth, not too mention my products. I want my salespeoople to have every advantage that they can.
IT makes no sense to build a beautiful venue for window shopping only.
Our software has increased companies revenues up to 700 percent, allowing for more jobs, pay raises, in the technical industry.
I personally have to use the software everyday and abouot
As a tech, I think it might be a little intrusive, but then again, if you got your nose pressed against a retail establishment window, someone will come and talk to you. And what is wrong with saying just browsing.
This type of software adds the human element to an otherwise cold web. Which many people on Slashdot tend to lose because most of us sent behind monitors all day and on high horses.
www.groopz.com That is the product Rackspace uses. That is our site.
Puto
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
First off, Rackspace didn't fund, or start RackShack. Do you know why they changed their name? Legal pressure from Rackspace. Nothing was ever done, but it was suggested strongly that they change their name
Secondly, I know for a fact that RackSpace does care about their customers, so long as the customers aren't pricks. My friend works there, and I have been to their workplace a number of times. They are polite and, in general, more than willing to go out of their way for customers. However, there are people that call up screaming and cursing, and for some reason, they get less support than other more reasonable people.
Third, a small hosting company may be the way to go. Rackspace is not for everyone, and are rather expensive. You can get the same hardware for half the cost at EV1 or similar, but RackSpace is more concerned with keeping people just happy enough to pay the extra cost.
You should probably take my comments with a grain of salt, since I do know the company and a number of people that work there. On the other hand, you might want to believe me more simply because of these facts. Whatever
--If I said something interesting it probably wasn't correct
just the other day i was looking for a new web host and a window popped up with a sales person asking me if he could help.
i was very annoyed.
i told him that i *was* considering purchasing a host plan, but i decided definitely not to purchase a plan after experienced the unrequested sales pop-up.
if on the other hand there was button that i could push to open a pop-up for a sales question when *i* wanted chat, now that would be very helpful.
peace
... the potential customer chatterbot:
Sales Guy: Hi, it looks like you're considering Rackspace for your hosting needs. Can I help you?
Chatterbot: Would you like to help me with considering Rackspace for your hosting needs?
Sales Guy: Yes, that's why I'm here, to help you.
Chatterbot: Why are you here, to help you?
Sales Guy: No, to help you. To make your shopping experience with Rackspace more enjoyable.
Chatterbot: How do you feel about shopping experience with Rackspace more enjoyable?
...
Stop-Prism.org: Opt Out of Surveillance
The first time I saw one of these, I had the following conversation:
Chat Popup: Hi, My name is John, do you have any questions about our products?
Me: <pause> Hi, John. What do you do again?
Chat Popup: I'm just here to help you, and make sure any questions you have are answered. What can I do for you?
Me: <pause> Interesting... Can you prove you're a human?
At this point, the chat window closed suddenly. I thought, "damn. pretty good.."
Reminds me of a hotel stay I once had. Spending the weekend at the swimming pool, I'm walking past the 'massage room', when one of the elegant ladies arriving for work, goes bounding up to her friend at the desk and asks eagerly "Any specials for me?". Recounting this to my parents, they explain exactly what a "special" was. Some time later, I'm going to a restaurant for a meal with friends, and we go up to the food bar. The waitress acts "Would anyone like a special?". I'm lost for words.
My aunt works as a "live chat operator" for a SF bay hosting company. Her salary is based on how many new clients she gets, so there's a lot of pressure to snag new clients through live chat.
The reason many companies have switched to live chat salespeople (as opposed to phone salespeople) is that instead of having one salesperson with one call, each salesperson can have 5-10 chat windows open at once. Each chat operator has a specialty -- whether virtual hosting, colocation, or dedicated -- so customers interested in a certain plan can be transparently redirected to the proper operator.
Certainly, you'll get your questions answered through live chat, but since you're talking to a salesperson, they want you to purchase a plan. It's how they get paid.
Coming soon: Arthur Miller's "Death of a Live Chat Salesperson"
Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
Them: What are you looking for regarding support?
Me: Cock. Hard cock.
Them: (Chat session terminated)
So much fun, I could do that all night.
Chance of getting a sale has suddenly shifted many decimal points in the wrong direction. The boss comes in after the weekend, and fires everyone who suddenly couldn't get a sale, excuses be damned.
then the chat server goes up in flames.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"