How Many Messengers?

[Hypnotique]

I use ICQ, Yahoo, MSN, AIM, & Skype. I want to make sure that is a customer has a messenger, I will be able to actively communicate with them. Whereas if I only used one or two messengers, I would be risking them not having that certain one. What is everyone's experiences with multiple messengers?

 

[webfreak08]

I use ICQ, Yahoo, MSN, AIM, & Skype. I want to make sure that is a customer has a messenger, I will be able to actively communicate with them. Whereas if I only used one or two messengers, I would be risking them not having that certain one. What is everyone's experiences with multiple messengers?

I think you're wasting your time monitoring the various messengers, as it should only serve as quick, informal support, rather than a main point of contact.

Trouble tickets and phone support are the ways to go!

 

[PWRseth]

I think you're wasting your time monitoring the various messengers, as it should only serve as quick, informal support, rather than a main point of contact.

Trouble tickets and phone support are the ways to go!

I don't think monitoring the various messengers are a waste of time at all. I believe offering as many contact points as you can for your clients is a good practice.

 

[webfreak08]

I don't think monitoring the various messengers are a waste of time at all. I believe offering as many contact points as you can for your clients is a good practice.

Yes, offering a few points of contact is no doubt a good thing. However, if you're managing large amounts of clients, it seems it would become quite inefficient.

 

[PWRseth]

Inefficient, interesting. And what about script based live support? (phplive, live help, ect)

 

[webfreak08]

Inefficient, interesting. And what about script based live support? (phplive, live help, ect)

I think for basic billing, sales and support, an integrated chat system is okay, since the transcripts can be automatically saved and easily accessed. If I were calling the shots, I'd use live chat as a way for visitors to quickly get the information they need, so they'd be more likely to purchase or upgrade.

However, I still feel email is the most effective and efficient way of handling issues.

 

[PWRseth]

Fair enough and much agreed on "purchase or upgrade"

 

[EQWebHost]

I suggest you try Trillian, you can Google it and find it. I think its from Corillian designs (or something like that). It allows you to run all of those messenger simultaniously in just one messenger.
In my opinion, that's the best way to do it. That way you have all of the messengers covered without having to have 5 of them open at once!

 

[Artashes]

I think that it will be more time consuming to make sure the messengers are always connected and someone is always there to help, because it would sure look bad if you offer 5 messengers as point of contact and the person is not there...

Then when you are not available you have to make sure one of your staff members is online which means sharing accounts and more time management.

I would rather focus my energy on answering quick support tickets.

Best,

 

[hostechsupport]

Client will be happy to get as many source to get in touch with your support.You can also use software's like trillian to handle various messengers all in one, But recommended to have a email address or helpdesk system along with a live chat where your clients can contact you.This reduces a chance of missing to respond any of the clients

 

[Marks]

I agree with webfreak08 you should focus on the important point of contacts not being worried your customer can't contact you by their preference.

Consistancy is the key. Yes Having MSN, AIM, Yahoo, ICQ, Skype, Phone, Trouble Ticket, Live Support, Forum may work very well in a very small business because there is little demand. But if your thinking long-term I highly doubt you will still be doing that if you had 10,000 Customers. If you are consistant and reliable in the main areas of: Phone, Ticket, Live Support and Forum you don't need anything else because using 10, 20 methiods Point of Contact may work against you in a long run if for example your company was hit by a DDoS attack and all 10,000 Customers were screaming at you in all the contacts mentioned above.

 

[tickedon]

Everything I'm involved with uses email through a ticket system (or god forbid the telephone! ) as the main point of contact. In each case though, we've got our IM's (Google Talk, AIM, Yahoo, ICQ and MSN... I think Skype is the only one I don't have) and some customers do use them every now and then for quick things - for some things, they are GREAT to use as it avoids the 'back and forth' with emails required to get things sorted and works out much quicker and so better for everyone. Other things they aren't so good for, and so that’s when I nudge them towards email and the ticket system.

Having lots of different contact points is a good thing I think. How you use them is the important bit - ensure you know what each is good for, and don't hesitate to politely ask customers to drop in a ticket (or conversely, open an IM with you) so that you can deal with their issue(s) as efficiently as possible.

 

[Hypnotique]

True, how you use them is the primary factor. How you manage the points of contact is everything. Honestly, I don't think 10,000 customers will be on my messengers. Also, if there was a DDoS attack, I don't think I would be on my messenger, instead I would be focused on fixing it. If I am on a messenger when that happens, you better believe I'm not going to be online and have that risk of all the customers coming at me and distracting me away from resolving the problem.

 

[Jade]

I do use Msn as a means of contact, and I have had several customers ask if I have a yahoo messenger account thing. I didn't so I went and got one, and so far it's ok as we are only small.

My main ways of contact are either through our live support which me and another staff member attend to, or directly through my email which I maintain. I prefer to solve problems through the live support than email in my opinion.

 

[Marks]

If I am on a messenger when that happens, you better believe I'm not going to be online

Like most providers probably wouldn't be online, But your customers would be expecting you to be online if you have offered Messenger Support unless your Service Agreement says otherwise thus people will be complaining on several webhosting forums.

 

[Jade]

I have now switched to using Trillian so I can use four of the most popular messengers. I don't so much use the messenger for clients but more for staff.

Using it to talk to my staff is much better than the conventional email etc.

 

[Kevin K]

We only offer 1 messenger service and that is MSN. I feel that if the customer wants to use the messenger service that bad they will install the MSN. With all our other contact methods available this MSN service is just an added convince and not necessary.

The downfall of using a messenger like MSN is th client feels like they can contact you about any little question or detail where if this was not available they would not even bother to ask for support. So it can get hectic with this method.

I think using more than one or maybe 2 messenger services would be too much hassle and would cause alot of confusion. Especially if you use also use these same programs for personal use.

 

[ldcdc]

So it can get hectic with this method.

Yes, and the bigger the company gets, the harder it is to properly man and administer this sytem. If further down the line the company realises it's not longer a feasible to use IM, the customers are likely to see it as a sign of lower support standards, even though its not about that at all.

 

[-GWS-]

I used to use Gaim for my messengers. It will allow you to use several different at the same time and it is free. But I have to agree with most that it can become pretty hairy when you have alot of people requesting support at once. I feel that the easiest way is to use a ticket system and phone supprt as well. I tried several live chat programs and found that most of the people will not use them. One advantage I did like about them was that fact that they had live visitor stats. You could see who was on your site and what page they where actually viewing. It helped me fix some of the other problems that I had and get more conversions. If you do use a live chat type system I did notice that about 99% of the customers would run when you tried to initiate a chat session. I guess they thought it was some sort of popup ad.

 

[hanber]

well messengers such skype can only be useful if you provide a real chat + messengers for those who would like to talk via voice and do not want to make a call, then this would be a real benefit (surely if you do not provider any toll free number worldwide LOL)