7 Costly Live Chat Mistakes
Prevention is better than cure. If you know what rubs people the wrong way, you don’t need to wait until they’re gone to take action. Address these 7 common pitfalls to ensure your live chat is an asset instead of a hindrance.
1. Intrusive sound alerts (no option to disable)
Few things are as annoying as constant pinging sounds from a live chat window nagging for your attention. While sound alerts can be useful to notify you when an agent responds, for example when you are in a different browser tab, don’t be the boy who cried wolf! Unsolicited recurring sound notifications will make visitors ignore you or leave altogether.
The biggest faux-pas here is not giving visitors control over their browsing experience. Don’t be that company. Provide an option for visitors to disable sound alerts or use a more subtle notification method.
2. No option to speak to human
3. No indication of agent status
4. Long response time
5. Repeating the same questions
6. Requiring email before access to FAQs
7. Repeating pop up windows
Pop-up windows can be annoying, especially when they keep reappearing. Limit the number of pop-ups and make sure they are relevant to the customer’s needs. When a visitor dismisses a chat window that pops out, make sure it doesn’t pop out on every page or tab they go to next.