Live Support

shockym

shockym

New member
I love it when I need it and I think our hosting clients should always have access to this, but when it comes to someone jumping into the chat today (most times this is handed by others but I was helping someone out) some guy popped in and wanted our paypal address to send a payment to.

This would not be such an issue had the person already been a client (even though client exec sends them an invoiced email detailing how to send paypal payments) but this was someone who refused to have any contact info at all for our company to reach them (used user@gmail.com and so on).

How do people expect to work with legit companies when they act this shady. I actually spent over an hour explaining to this person I was a real person, we work in a real office building, with real phone lines, etc.

They even refused to call and check, even after making sure we were a real LLC via Google. :crash: This has been a really long week for me. Others want to chime in on the insanity of web hosting? :(
 
I love that my hosting company has a Live Chat support. I've used it for quite some time now, but just for short administration questions, never like that. I feel for you shockym... :)
 
Live help we're active on as often as possible - definitely M-F 8am-7pm CDT. We have a "subject" or "question" line just like any other chat program, and people put "hi" or "got a question" rather than anything else. This then means a Level 1 answers it, has to pass it to the right place. It's like calling an office, and being greeted by an Operator and then having them reroute, but instead of telling them what department you want to talk to, you just say "I want to speak to someone about something". :)
 
But is there an issue in giving out paypal address to unknown users even ? We never had to send paypal address to anyone who is not our customer though.

Live Support is a great option, second to phone support. Our customers love it whenever they wanted to contact an admin as an emergency.
 
I've never given our paypal address to a client even. If they pay directly with paypal, then we have to manually enter it into the billing program, so instead, users can pay with paypal by clicking the link within their invoice.
 
I do not provide live chat only ticket support which works great; but back to the point...I used to offer it and when I did I would encounter strange people. Some would ask math questions becuase they got stuck on their homewokr, and some even asked me how much their car payment should be...weird conversations.

But, like shockym I had to explain to a few people in my day that we do not sell their information. But, people are stuborn at times and refuse to listen. I personaly like it when clients have their legit information as it helps me when it comes down to billing, of if I need to contact them about their account (general purpose or emergencys). But, I would never hand out my paypal address if a client asked for it, or non client. If someone doesnt want to have correct data in their account, then why should I honor his request?
 
That is a very strange scenario for sure. We have had clients who have asked for our paypal address. Its not that huge of a deal.

On live chat, I received a lot of incrrect e-mail address and names. There is a lot of people who try to block their IP address. Those are typically fraud though.

If someone was unwilling to give me legit information, I simply wouldn't host them as a customer. It was a violation of our TOS to provide false information and could result in a termination of your account.
 
We offer two different live chats - one for service (LivePerson) and one for sales (LiveZilla). I take calls on the sales side. Kind of a weird scenario you brought up. I require legitimate contact info before I send anything anywhere.
 
Yep...Acting and behaving professional will get you far in this business. If you bad mouth a client, act rude I can guarantee you that client will tell all his friends, his friends will all their friends and your reputation will be ruined....Not to mention people who have dealth with unprossional behavior will post on major forums to alert other potential clients that you do not act professional and should be avoided.
 
If someone isn't willing to provide legitimate information I'd assume it's fraud. There are still those who are afraid of giving their information online, but unfortunately for them they either need to wise up to the way things work, or stick to buying everything at Wal-Mart :)

As far as live chat goes, I'm all for it for sales inquiries. The problem with offering chat support is that many technical issues require some investigation and the nature of live chat is that it's "live". If something is going to take 20 minutes is the customer going to wait? I've had many experiences with hosts that I've chatted with for support and it was always frustrating when they'd ask me to submit a ticket. The reality is that technical support is best handled via tickets because it allows you to research issues, prioritize things, and in most cases doesn't require re verifying customer information as each ticket is generally linked to their account.

At the same time, it doesn't really make much sense that existing customers must submit tickets and potential customers get a live person. You really have to find what works best for your business, staff, and customers.
 
Yes, have come across some very strange conversations on live chat. You will get those that are truly interested in asking about your services and then you get those so called pranksters with nothing else to do. It surely keeps the days interesting lol. :)
 
Live Support is key but not always needed in a Web Host. If your able to call them, email them or use a support ticketing system which is fast and easy to use then thats just as good as Live Support.

But in a Web Host sense, its a two-sided issue... Tryign to have live support manned, be kind to the parksters, be knowledgable in your area but also be good at selling.
 
Some really good points made! I agree it's both a good and a bad, at the moment we are looking at how we can differentiate between live chat for sales / support.
 
personaly, i love livesupport, i can chat to customers direct,

but when im unable to be on livesupport, dont you just think the offline logo that looks bad?

an i hate it when people change it so it says online even tho its offline dont you think?
 
I assume this tool should be helpful to the potential and existing customers and that is what we need to take care of
 
I've noticed that live chat support gets most of the traffic. Communication today is becoming very impersonal and almost completely digital. Mobile Marketing and texting are rising in popularity. There are so many social networks out there, that it makes people used to typing to get their answers. Which are all reasons why I think many people prefer the live chat options.
 
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