[manoloe]

Not exactly. As you see in the transcript on the blog, we responded with a simple "Hi, how can I help you?" and then we're asked if we were a robot. We don't use pre-written responses, nor do anything else like you suggest. We're just online, working away.

[alanfalcon]

And you'd be much more likely to be seen as a person if you opened with, "Hi, this is Jorge. How can I help you?"

[manoloe]

Interesting... we'll do some tests on alternate ways to introduce ourselves. Being able to test out different approaches real-time is another benefit from live chat. thanks!

[elxx]

My first thought looking at the transcripts was that seeing "IndexTank" as the screen name answering the questions rather than a person's name would make me suspect "robot" at first too. Either way, I agree that introducing yourself to the user with your own name will do a lot to reduce the suspicion.

[manoloe]

That's a great catch. We chose the name for the account when we started using Olark, and labeled it with the company name. We decided initially to have only three accounts and rotate them among our team, so all of the accounts were given IndexTank labels. As we are expanding our use of Olark, we will give each of our developers their own account, and they could put in their first name there.

We will test it out. thanks.

[Herring]

Another possible response might be "Negative, I am a meat popsicle".

[elithrar]

Jorge the robot? If someone is anticipating a bot, I don't think greeting them with a name is going to dissuade them from asking.