Online communication is becoming more and more common in business as well as personal life. What does it mean to deal with people who are just lines of darkened liquid crystal on your screen?
The company has set up a chat line from technical support. You know that this kind of help can be effective and is much less complicated than calling on the phone. When you do call on the phone, you don’t get to see the person you are talking to and you certainly don’t get to meet him or her in person either, but the human voice has a certain reassuring quality–it seems closer to the foibles of a living person.
An Increasingly Popular Option
Marketing statistics indicate that a growing number of customers prefer live chat lines to phone operators. For customers who visit business websites, 62 percent expect to find a live chat alternative. The popularity of live chat is growing fast. Live chat is to be used in 25% of customer service support operations by 2020. The living voice of a customer service agent is not so important. Customer service by phone is often much more time consuming than the chat alternative. There is also a certain charm in the voiceless, image-less interaction that goes beyond pure utility. Text chat takes you into the realm of imagination.
You ask for an expert to contact you on the chat line. Soon you get a few words appearing on the service department part of the box in the website. Hello, I’m Dierdre, how can I help you. This could be a bot named Dierdre. Why do you think it is not? What happens in your mind when you speak to this remote, silent presence that (or who) is going to help you. The interaction with chat line customer service is rife with social fictions and fantasy creation. Much of the suggested dialog for the chat line is taken directly from what it would have been for the spoken phone line. There is a certain clarity in the typed word over the spoken word
The Scripting of Chat Lines
Customer service chat lines are scripted much like bots would be. First, the chat line agent asks for the customer’s name. Some advocates of the chat line customer service method suggest that the initial greeting be neither too long or too short. It should be something like “Hello John, this is Dierde. Thanks for contacting personal service. How can I help you.” Formality is one of the keys. The message should be business-like, pleasant, and distant. Others suggest a bit more informality and a looser tone, something like, “Hi John. How are you doing?” Then there are lines like “I am really glad to hear that. How may I help you today?” or “I am really sorry to hear that. How may I help you today?” These messages have about the same level of personal tone as a phone contact would have.
The interaction with chat line customer service is rife with social fictions and fantasy creation. Much of the suggested dialog for the chat line is taken directly from what it would have been for the spoken phone line. A chat operator may say,
John, I will need to put you on hold for a few minutes to run a few tests…would that be ok with you or would you prefer I call or email you with the details…”
The Chat As A Visual Experience
There is clarity in the typed word over the spoken word. It has to do with the power of the visual over the auditory sense and with the fact that visual images last and auditory messages vanish as they are spoken. This may be part of the charm of chat lines. They offer automatic documentation. And the chat line always spurs the customer’s imagination far more than the more information-rich telephone call.
For more information about inbound marketing and chatbots, or to schedule your free digital marketing consultation, please call 720.248.8185, e-mail info@friedmansocialmedia.com, or click here.
Please note: The Friedman Group is an inbound marketing agency based in Denver, Colorado, and we work with professionals and business owners across the U.S. Our digital marketing services include: inbound marketing, social media marketing, email marketing, and digital marketing strategy and implementation.
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