Live chat sessions

Live chat sessions that are provided by companies are handy if they are used correctly.

A live chat as soon as you connect should at least acknowledge that you have connected so that you know that the system does see your request to talk to someone. It should also show you the time that you started the chat so you have an indication of how long you have been waiting to talk to someone.

A number of chats that I have used at least let's you see that the system knows you are waiting. It is also interesting to know that some chats work well with a multiple of browsers and other chats look like you are connected really aren't working.

Recently I was trying to connect to a chat using Firefox and I waited and waited without any message or anything. I had previously tried Chrome to connect to this same chat without any luck. My husband then suggested trying another browser to see if it would make a difference and sure enough it did. I connected with Internet Explorer and I immediately got a connection and someone to help me answer the questions.

If your chat only works with specific browsers it is important that you let customers know this. If you don't tell them it won't work for a given browser you will end up with extremely frustrated customers and you could possibly lose the customer as well. A chat function on a website on a website is a wonderful feature if it is done correctly.

Remember if you have a chat session on your website ensure that you know what browsers it works on and make sure you communicate that to the people looking at your website. Good customer relations goes a long way to keeping and even getting customers.