In Praise of the Click-to-Chat!
Click-to-chat buttons, we don’t really like them, and are these even real people answering my questions? Much maligned and considered suspect, the chat button does however have its place and it does provide a vital and immediate link to your business for your audience.
The other day I was having a conversation with a colleague about a feature on a web site. The feature in question was a way for an association’s membership to get advice on any subject, a classic helpline. The colleague lamented that the feature no longer garnered the large response rate it once did and that it should be scrapped. I argued however that it should be kept but modified to accommodate the changing audience demographics of the association’s membership. I suggested that we should add a “Click-to-chat” button on the page that housed the help line. Chats are a great way to keep in-touch with and talk to an audience.
Her first response wasn’t very positive, but as we talked it became clear to her that maybe this would add some life to this poor preforming option. She also worried that it would overload the volunteers who manned the help line, I assured her that could be taken care of by having clear operation times posted and by using artificial intelligence (AI) for some of the calls, but we could talk about all of that later. The way this particular helpline worked was by using email, it had the user send in their question via a blind email address. Once in the “in-box” it would be picked up and answered in 24-48 hours, all of this was clearly stated on the page that housed it. 10 years ago, when this feature had its hey-day for the association in question, a 24 to 48-hour turn wasn’t great but it was considerably faster than any other options available, so it worked. Times have changed and the idea of blindly throwing your question over the wall in hopes that it will be found and acted on? In 24-48 hours no less? As far as Gen-Y goes that is the kiss of death for any communication and for every other generation that’s no way to run a railroad.
We all know Gen-Y loves chat, so no brainer right? add a “Click-to-chat” button. It’s immediate, it’s discrete, and its short hand allows for quick communication. Email is the exact opposite so it’s not so great for this younger generations. But the other, older generations are catching on to texting’s advantages and it’s being more widely adopted and accepted by boomers and Gen-x’rs. That in-turn means it’s being used throughout the internet to connect audiences to the companies they want to interact with. Two big advantages for click-to-chat is that it’s platform agnostic, and it links the desktop web site to the mobile platform, those are a big plus’s. Mobile is especially important because that’s where the web is going. How many times have you been in a store looking to buy something and you needed more info? Having the ability to click-to-chat with an agent directly from the manufacturers web site helps you make the right purchasing decision.
The ability to “pop a chat” has been around for the past 12 years. It’s a fairly simple process to install the software on a web site or establish the connection to a vendor for it and set the criteria for launching it. AKA: “pop-a-chat”. That “popping” can occur when a viewer comes to a certain page, stays on a page for a set period of time, or if the viewer preforms certain tasks or clicks certain buttons, an automated window will appear. From there, depending on the host company’s budget, the depth of its CRM database and its set-up, AI will govern the interaction and then hand it off to a human at a certain point or if it needs help. With that said, the majority of cases where a chat button is clicked? The entire process is human controlled and is likely a human-to-human interaction; it’s very seldom that it is entirely AI or computer based. But using AI does help to keep the human workers form being overwhelmed.
I am not trying to trivialize the action of adding a chat button to a site and I am not totally naive, I do know that this does cost money and does require staffs to monitor and manage this. I also know that this kind of thing is not cut out for all businesses or products. But, the times they are a changing and this should be considered a cost of doing business. Especially if you want to engage with younger audiences.
So having a click-to-chat feature on your site is key to giving your audience the feeling that you’re interacting with them not just passively waiting for them. Immediate 2-way communication is required now-a-days from businesses, so having a click-to-chat button helps to facilitate that. It’s especially important since taking your time to respond in this day and age is never a good thing.
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