[system2]

I have a feeling the author does not have enough experience with e-commerce. Adaptation of livechat increased conversion rates and sales and it is visible in the reports. Return rates also go down with livechat. Especially women's products (hair, makeup, shoes) are benefiting from instant answers and change the conversion rates dramatically.

Having a human talk to you thru your screen is a game changer in e-commerce. I personally use amazon customer support chat myself very often.

[brushfoot]

Yep, the author is thinking like a developer, not a consumer.

> If I need assistance, I will most likely do one of the following:

>

> Find a support e-mail.

> Go to a physical store.

> Ask a friend.

> See if I find an unintrusive live chat that I chose to enable.

This is a developer mindset: take the time to solve the puzzle. I get it, but the majority of people don't think that way.

Most people don't want to solve the puzzle. They want to buy the product and get on with their day. Live chat lets them do that, and by the numbers, it works.

[BeFlatXIII]

That’s why I have such contempt for my fellow voters.

[nonameiguess]

How in the hell?

A few weeks ago, I had Amazon accidentally send me someone else's package, who lives about five blocks away from me. Not even the same street name. But it reported my own package as having been delivered, which clearly was not the case.

I wrestled with that stupid chatbot for probably two hours. There was no option in its menu for this specific problem. It would only allow to report not receiving something, and the only option given to me was to wait a few more days, or report the wrong item had been delivered, in which case I needed to send it back. I tried calling the support phone number instead, but it was just the same chatbot but over voice, with the same options.

But this wasn't my problem. I had the right package. It just wasn't mine. It wasn't addressed to me. If I returned it, how would they know if it was me who sent it back?

I don't even remember how I finally found a phone number to call that connected me to a human, but I'm pretty sure I had to outside of Amazon to find it. As soon as I got connected to a human and explained what happened, they were more or less instantly able to help me, but it was incredibly frustrating not having the bot itself give me an option to talk to a human. I could only complete it's automated workflows.

Amusingly, the CSR told me to just keep this other guy's package and they'd send him another, even though I could have easily walked down the street and given it to him. Fine, I guess. It was a pressure washer attachment that actually does fit my pressure washer.

[drdec]

> I had the right package. It just wasn't mine. It wasn't addressed to me.

I think this assessment was the root of your problem. This wasn't what happened. What happened was two separate things and the mistake was tying them together.

You didn't get your package they claimed to have delivered. Full stop. Deal with that problem.

Second, you received a package addressed to someone else. Deal with that separately.

[NotYourLawyer]

>It would only allow to report not receiving something, and the only option given to me was to wait a few more day

If you need the package soon, that’s not great.

[tgsovlerkhgsel]

The problem is that as a customer, it's hard to distinguish between the chats that are actual, human-will-respond-in-near-real-time chats, which are just a piss-poor FAQ bot that leads nowhere, which ones are a FAQ bot leading to a human, and which ones will ask me for an e-mail address (and if they do, which ones will spam me instead of contacting me in case a followup is needed).

Actual chat that's passively available on request and makes clear what it is is great. Anything that pops up, makes noise, or otherwise begs for engagement, or isn't "click here for human", is an anti-feature.

[jackson1442]

I think there's a difference between live _support_ chat and live _sales_ chat. If I'm seeking support I'll take live chat any day of the week.

I actually just complained about this yesterday- I do _not_ want to have your shitty version of clippy[0][1] flying around the screen, pulsing, and asking if I need help while I'm browsing your page. Stick it on the support/contact page and that's plenty good for me.

[0]: https://media.welsh.cc/Mod27D

[1]: https://media.welsh.cc/e1tniz

[Sujan]

Came here to point out that the right question is if it works for the company that offers it, not how a minority of users experiences it.

You answered that. Thanks.

[conductr]

The availability of chat isn't what's wrong. It's the implementation. It should just be a static button in the header/footer or where ever. When I need it, I can find it, just like every other link.

[zulln]

> I personally use amazon customer support chat myself very often.

For what?

[conductr]

It's the best way to do something you can't on the website. As example, I've had to return products that have said they were not returnable or beyond the return date, chat is the easiest way to talk to someone and get it resolved.

[system2]

Exactly this. Usually they even say just take the money back and keep the product (when livechat is used).