Re:“Yes, I am human:” learnings from fast customer service v...
by davelittle on Friday January 21, 2011 @04:14AM
(#2126913)
As a hobby I volunteer as "support" for an MMO, too. I go into an open chat room and answer people's questions. I'm very obviously a human - every response is different, the answers fit the questions (because I'm typing them!), I abbreviate people's names, I share anecdotes etc...
Still people not only ask if I am a bot constantly, sometimes they just decide that I am. (Of course, they still believe me if I start talking to them directly and "prove" it, but in those cases I don't like to ruin the joke if I don't have to!)
The only robotic thing I do is type about 90wpm - and read fast enough to keep track of a quickly scrolling chat room. It's not superhuman, but I am "above average" compared to the casual participants. I can understand people being surprised at first.
But making the leap into assuming a fast typist is a bot - despite all the evidence to the contrary - well, sometimes there is no actual problem. Sometimes people are just ridiculous.
Re:“Yes, I am human:” learnings from fast customer service v...
by manoloe on Thursday January 20, 2011 @11:50PM
(#2126495)
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.
Re:“Yes, I am human:” learnings from fast customer service v...
by alanfalcon on Friday January 21, 2011 @12:02AM
(#2126516)
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?"
Re:“Yes, I am human:” learnings from fast customer service v...
by manoloe on Friday January 21, 2011 @12:33AM
(#2126559)
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!
Re:“Yes, I am human:” learnings from fast customer service v...
by elxx on Friday January 21, 2011 @02:39AM
(#2126762)
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.
Re:“Yes, I am human:” learnings from fast customer service v...
by manoloe on Friday January 21, 2011 @02:50AM
(#2126781)
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.
In short, there's very likely to be an actual problem when your customers ask if you're a robot ... not a "cute" problem like you were too quick to answer their initial request.