Chatting It Up
I've been working on a story for the Summer issue of 1to1 Magazine about companies that offer online chat as a sales or service channel. Some of the research I've come across suggests that while customer adoption of chat is growing (especially among younger generations). However, everyone I've talked to says phone will remain the dominant communications channel indefinitely.
What do you think? Do you prefer to speak to someone on the phone, or do you take the "click-to-call" or "type a question" option when they're available?
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The answer isn't there! It all depends what I want to achieve. I LOATHE premium rate numbers for alleged customer service, I detest speaking to someone who speaks accent with a trace of English in outsourced call centres, and I HATE being told "you will have to write in"
What wins my vote is a toll free number, except that my mobile phone calling plan charges me for that!
Good point Ian - I should have set up the survey as multiple-choice. If you were running a company and could only offer one option to your customers, which do you think would be most valuable? (Let's say it's an e-commerce company to avoid the multiple-choices).
I voted for a single option because that was the survey's restriction - but a more accurate answer would be: it depends. For more complex technical support questions, I'd choose the phone channel. For more basic product configuration or product feature questions, I'd prefer chat.
I imagine that many people would have different preferences depending on the task they needed to accomplish in the interaction.