Contact Us, CallBack, Live Chat
February 14, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Arriving back on Irish shores in 2001 from the customer-service rich land of Australia, there were a number of things that I’d taken for granted that had to be let go:
- Service with a smile
- Eye contact when purchasing something
- Expecting serving staff in convenience stores to actually bother to say the amount owed and then ‘thank you’
- Thai food without water chestnuts
On the plus side, there were many things that I was pleased to welcome into my life:
- Ability of most people to remember my name and not automatically abbreviate it
- Being able to pronounce the letter R correctly for the first times in ages. As in “or” and not ‘ar’
- Being able to speak in my natural accent and not having to endure the monotony of questions which goes a little something like this:
- You’re from Ireland? Yes.
- My grandmother came from Ireland. [Feigns interest] Oh really?
- I’ve never been to Ireland but I’ve always wanted to go…
- Not being surrounded by insecure people whose cultural focal point is the plastic side of Los Angeles
Perhaps the single biggest thing I had to let go of in the online environment was the response time expected from contact us. My experience was to ensure that all enquiries to a website be replied to within 24 hours. When I started working in Ireland, I’d often be faced with looks of disbelief when I made this suggestion. So I let it go, and concentrated instead on eradicating ‘click here’ from Irish websites.
I’ve noticed recently that not only has this changed and in fact, many commercial sites are replying within 24 hours, but many have also added ‘live chat‘. Real time chat with their people. You click the live chat box, type in your question or query and a person on the other end should reply. Simple. Amazing and it works!
Or for businesses that don’t have too many staff sitting on computers at the other end, call back is a great option. You want a question answered, you don’t want to wait 24 hours for a reply to contact us, so you hit ‘call me back button’, type in your name and number, and magically a member of staff will call you back in a couple of minutes. We’ve added this feature to some recent sites, have a look, but please don’t click unless you’re interested in Fleet Management or Fashion: Merrion Fleet and MacLeod Agencies.
Sadly though there are some cases of where call back / live chat is horribly wrong - like on the hosting company, HostIreland.com website for example. You’d think that a company of their nature (web-based, ‘tech savvy’) would get it right but no. This morning, after spending 15 minutes on hold on their phone line, I clicked the link to LIVE CHAT, filled in my details, and was hoping for a response.. but no. Those idiots have actually put a contact us form on their site posing as live chat. I don’t know why they have done that.
It’s -100% customer service points when you pretend to offer something.
Another case of the basics being done badly is the Bord Gais website. Designed and developed by Strata3, so it can’t have been cheap. It looks lovely. But I’m still waiting on a reply from Bord Gais from 3 weeks ago. I used the contact us button to ask a question - why do I not receive any notice in relation to direct debits? Bills arrive with huge amounts and my bank account is hit the same day, or in some cases, a day earlier. Doesn’t give a girl a chance to prepare…
What’s your view? Are Irish sites finally coming into the customer service era? Does increased competition mean more service? Does a slowing economy make us more hungry for converting enquiries into sales? And why oh why do our public service sites lead the way in terms of how not to do it?
Apple Users Take Note
May 23, 2007 at 7:14 am
A couple of weeks back, we had some ‘technical problems’ which meant that one of our trusty machines had to be sent off to hospital. Of course we back up our data. But what does one do when you’re 1 laptop down in a busy but small office? ie. we don’t have banks of computers on which to hop onto.
What we did was get in touch with Nostra Systems. I met them through the Dublin Chamber of Commerce networking evenings which have generated rather a lot of good contacts and business for me in the short space of time I’ve been a member.
Nostra Systems rented me out a high spec massive screen Apple mac. At a very reasonable weekly rate, this beautiful piece of design not only solved our problem, but looked good in the office too! Rather like needing to get in some hired help, and they deliver a super model (but not Naomi Campbell).
When I got a call last night from someone whose Mac Book Pro had just started acting up, I passed them on to Nostra. For all Apple users out there who might sometimes feel a little alienated or penalised for having taste, take note of Nostra!
And they talk about transport
May 8, 2007 at 9:18 pm
All the politicians have something to say about transport and how awful it is. Well I’d just like to say that our online transport options are appalling. I just tried to look up a Dart time on the new and disimproved iarnrod eireann site and it’s just not possible. I even went to the site map and dug out the old page that used to be used for checking timetables and because I didn’t have the name of the station exactly how they have it (and their javascript thingy isn’t working) I couldn’t find the info I needed.
Who is responsible for the new site? Whoever it is must know how s**t their work is - because nothing came up when I Googled “cie iarnrod eireann + client + web design”. If you know, will you post the answer as a comment? You don’t have to put your name to it, and we don’t have the Stasi style surveillance switched on.
2007 Webbys Awards
May 2, 2007 at 9:36 pm
The 2007 award winners were announced yesterday. I didn’t get to post on it then because I was in the middle of moving my blog from yucky old Blogger to sexy Wordpress.
I’m pleased that Youtube and eBay got honoured with People of the Year and Lifetime Achievement Awards : the former because they have reshaped everything from politics to pop culture. And eBay because they made auctions cool again and have enabled many people to make money out of unwanted goods. I’m surprised eBay hasn’t been honoured before though.
I’m going to spend some time over the weekend checking out all the other winners and will give you my full report on Monday.
Testing
May 2, 2007 at 8:59 pm
my new blog hurray
Twittering Twits
March 29, 2007 at 3:51 pm
With all the talk recently about Twitter (to Twitter or not to Twitter?), I was interested to read about a series of new reports that found limits to multi-tasking.
Original post I found here, but the detail about all the studies is here.
One would think that the kids are great at multi-tasking because they have grown up around digital devices. My nephews IM their mates while playing Nintendo, with the telly or music on in the background. However, according to the New York Times “recent research suggests that popular perception is open to question. A group of 18- to 21-year-olds and a group of 35- to 39-year-olds were given 90 seconds to translate images into numbers, using a simple code.
random thought
March 29, 2007 at 3:29 pm
here is the way to santas cottage where he lives all year round and not the north pole.
I love this ad for Heineken…
March 6, 2007 at 3:26 pm
All About Vzines : Interview
February 23, 2007 at 8:45 am
In November, eircom was the first in Ireland to introduce ‘v-zines’ into its marketing mix. View it here. A new way of communicating with customers, and the perfect way for eircom to showcase their services, we caught up with the woman behind the initiative, Debbie Byrne, Director of Consumer Marketing at eircom.
What prompted eircom to come up with the concept? How long did it take from conception to execution of the first one? How was your experience of working with video, rather than text?
The key driver behind this project was to showcase the best of video content & encourage our customers to get the most from their broadband connection through engaging video content, increasing time spent on-line & therefore usage of our products & services. As well as show-casing excellent video content & sites, we are starting to develop a library of “How to Guides” targetted at our more Techno-Shy consumers giving them a step by step walk through in video format on such topics as “How to create on-line photo-gallery & send photos”, “How to create, store & share video” etc. This was a 3 month project from inception to sending out the first issue.
What are the main benefits of delivering information to consumers in video format as opposed to more traditional methods?
Altogether more engaging through use of music, video & a presenter.
How have your customers responded to the v-zine? Are you able to track visitor response rates? How do these metrics differ from traditional tracking through email?
Open and click through rates as per with an email. In addition we have tracking in place that shows which content & part of the V-Zine people use.
Some people might be put off adding video to their website because of the perceived lack of broadband penetration in this country. What is your response to that? Have you any up to the minute stats on b/band penetration broken down by business sector?
Broadband penetration is increasing rapidly in Ireland, latest estimates for consumers post the Christmas period are 14/15%. [Business penetration would be much higher.] Obviously we were sending it to people who we know have broadband but anybody else looking to use video can always have a version that can either be video or text based to accommodate dial users.
What is your view on video and vzines as a format on websites? Specifically, how quickly do you think it will be taken up by the Irish market?
Today everyone is time poor. Video offers businesses a opportunity to engage with their clients / prospective clients in a differentiated & engaging way. It allows products to be featured in a less one dimensional way which should lead to better sales.
Finally, do you have any valuable tips for businesses looking to add flash/video to their web sites or marketing mix?
With the advent of Youtube, MySpace etc, video is essential in engaging with younger audiences online in particular. Apple & Mini have had sone excellent online campaigns using video which have enhanced their brand values & created a sense of ‘cool’ around the brand with strong viral effect.
Thank you Debbie. Best of luck with the next Access All Areas. View current one.
Email Design Guidelines
February 22, 2007 at 9:35 pm
Last year we altered the way we design email templates to take account of the fact that a majority of people view emails through the preview panel, and only decide to open based on what they see in the top part of the email (above the fold in old DM terms).
We also include a link to a web version of the email for those poor souls who cannot receive html emails properly (Lotus Notes users, eircom.net users).
So it was with delight that I came across this list of design guidelines for emails. Here’s a summary of what you should be doing to meet each of the guidelines.
- Never use images for important content like headlines, links and any calls to action.
- Use alt text for all images for a better experience in Gmail and always add the height and width to the image to ensure that the blank placeholder image doesn’t
- Add a text-based link to a web version of your design at the top of your email.
- Ensure your most compelling content is at the top (and preferably to the left).
- Test your design in a preview pane, full screen and with images turned on and off before you send it.
- Ask your subscriber to add your From address to their address book at every opportunity.
