Incredible Sitemap

[jont]

I think the term "used to have" says it all really.

The Ken & Kenneth characters from the Fast Show spring to mind with that sort of system

[chris ashdown]

Or what about getting three involved

1st Company Man "Can I help"

Customer "I am looking for a new XXX"

2nd Company man not known as a company man to customer" That looks a nice XXX great price"

Customer " not quite my required colour"

!st Man " we can make it in your own colour at £xx extra"

2nd company man "thats what I call a great offer "

and so on

[dogzilla]

I think the term "used to have" says it all really.

The Ken & Kenneth characters from the Fast Show spring to mind with that sort of system

A little known company called Rackspace....

They are the leaders in the managed hosting sector... with data centres around the world.

It certainly works for them.

[leehack]

Managed Hosting Vs Ecommerce Sites, round one..............

[jont]

Do you want a VPS Sir? Do you? Ooh. Suit you Sir.

[leehack]

This summer I will be mostly wearing........pastels.

[Duncan Rounding]

'Were you with a lady last night sir? Did she want it sir?

[Mark H]

A little known company called Rackspace....

They are the leaders in the managed hosting sector... with data centres around the world.

It certainly works for them.

That's spooky, I was going to mention Rackspace in this context. It looks like they've toned it down a bit. I seem to remember that the chat box would appear on every page you visited regardless of how many times you'd closed it. Very irritating.

I should add that their service and customer service is second to none IMO.

[gabrielcrowe]

I hereby challenge any interested party, to invent the perfect system for 'feedback and interaction with upselling oppertunity with your customers', and write down how it works.

I will then implement this system for Actinic, at a fair price.

- How would it work?
- What would bring the most ROI, with human responses?
- What information on browsers and clients is actually useful?
- How can we make genuine use of this data?

Answers on a postcard.

[LINGsCARS.com]

Well, my online chat works really well.

It is provided by a company called whoson (British company).

Apart from anything else, what you get is a live view of everyone on your website in real time, matter of fact that's how I came back here just now, there was a user from this thread (reading my Dragon's Den page, using FF/Win XP). So, I click the referrer and come straight back here. Yes, you can do this from logs, but how much better to see trends and visitors and referrers in real time?

I don't invoke chat. I allow users to do that. However, every single chat gets answered and I often leave my baby laptop open in the evenings to take chats. 33% of my proposals for cars (orders) come in outside 9-6. I have told Stephen Parker who makes it, he may jump in.

Parkersoft provide full api and devkit so it can be modded, remarketed etc pretty well 100%, and they have an "isp" version which may suit. Support is great, the boss is there on the phones and email support (making my live customer prison camp page for instance) is always instant.

The chats close customers, especially in my business where there are many questions. My staff treat customers like adults, not all polite canned rubbish, they are quite direct. Works really well for me.

[Mike Hughes]

Gabe, this is where I get all analytical.

Here's the issue. We've all got terrific websites, filled them with stuff that people want to buy, built a solid value proposition for the customer (whether value, service, delivery, expertise, problem solving, oriented etc), created great content to capture the customer's heart and mind, have plentiful reviews so they can see what other people think, set a clear and simple action path for them to follow to purchase, and asked them to take action.

We have all done this, right? (OK, that's probably another discussion)

We then drive relevant traffic to the website and get what? typically somewhere between 1-4% conversion rates. This means something like 96% of potential customers are still not buying.

Ok. If we've done a good job on all the above it might be more like a 10% conversion rate, but that still leaves 90% of potential customers not buying.

The standard assumption seems to be that there is still some level of uncertainty / lack of trust in the customers mind.

- Unanswered question about the product. (Will these inline skates be OK on slightly bumpy paths?, etc)
- Purchase uncertainty. (Is there a better, cheaper choice? I haven't heard of this brand, are they reliable? etc)
- Policy uncertainty (What happens if they don't fit? What happens if I don't like the colour? etc)
- Seller uncertainty (I haven't heard of these people, will they actually deliver? How quickly? can I trust them? etc).

'Chat' systems are being sold on their ability to get around these kind of problems, but I'm not sure the statistics are that favourable and I'm not that surprised. It seems to me that the very people who need this kind of support are the kind of people who aren't likely to to use a chat system.

I suspect a telephone number with someone to answer any questions is far more successful at answering any remaining questions and allaying concerns. The only problems is that this really needs manning at all hours. Not very practical.

So is there a better system? I'm wondering about some kind of module that helps customers find the answers to their questions. It needs to be very easy to use, customer focused, reassuring and helpful. It should be very accessable when customers need it but unobtrusive when they don't. I'd want to log which parts were accessed so I could see which areas customers were concerned about. It should probably be context aware so it knows whether customers are likely to be thinking of product, policy, company concerns. It might also be self-ranking to put the most requested information in a more prominent position.

I guess what I'm thinking of is a bit like an interactive FAQs module but very customer focused. More like an 'I need help' button that launches an interactive, customer re-assurance system.

I'm almost convinced that this sort of system would make sense. Any other thoughts on how this could work?

Mike

PS. I'm as bad as other website visitors on this. On Saturday I wanted to buy some foamboard. I found a supplier, good price, looked reliable, delivery charges OK. The only question on my mind was "I want this quickly. it's a Saturday. If they don't send it on Monday then it might not arrive until later in the week." So I didn't order. Well now it's Thursday and I still haven't ordered from anyone yet. If I'd have found something that said "95% of all orders dispatched same day" I'd have bought there and then.

[leehack]

That kind of system has existed for a while, you ask a question and it searches a DB based on what you wrote, it still lacks the human touch though because you are in effect talking to a snazzy KB which produces a set text written answer. Childish people could of course ask rather different questions as it was a machine and not a person, of course I wouldn't get involved in having a laugh that way, but I heard others did. IKEA started it years ago IIRC and it was good to a point, unless she didn't understand WTF you was asking.

If you have all the factors in place as you say, there is only design and service to differentiate you. Design gets the door opened for you to show your service.

At what rate do we accept conversions have topped out is an interesting topic. It seems to often be forgotten that people just like browsing. You only have to stand at the doorway to any shop to see the amount that go in and come out with nothing. Any site (non-adword) achieving 10% conversion or more would tell me something is wrong somewhere.

[LINGsCARS.com]

I guess what I'm thinking of is a bit like an interactive FAQs module but very customer focused. More like an 'I need help' button that launches an interactive, customer re-assurance system.

I'm almost convinced that this sort of system would make sense. Any other thoughts on how this could work?

Mike

As customers progress through my sausage machine (remember my process is minimum 3 weeks, maybe 3 months) I have to keep them entertained, onside, and interested and not lose contact.

I have 10 videos which I feed to them in my online chat system LINGO, at various stages. Which pre-empt questions, gives instructions and are pretty clunky but quick and fun.

You can see them at http://www.youtube.com/lingscars , the one that is in the big window, the Quote video, is one. Look for others in similar style of look.

It's hard to do anything automated which isn't immediately a) far too generic, b) too polite and plasticcy c) boring.

If I was to have an avatar answering questions it would need to be like phonejacker I think.

[Mike Hughes]

I know what you mean Lee. When I say interactive I wasn't thinking of 'ask a question and get an answer'. I was thinking of a friendly, menu (image?) driven module much like a typical website is. We wouldn't ever have a website with a plain page and a question box saying 'What are you trying to buy?' and the same thing applies here.

The question of conversion rate is interesting. I tend to think people 'browsing' are really looking for something to buy (even if only subliminally) but not finding what they want. Put something they like in front of them, and present it properly, and there's every chance of getting a sale. Even if that wasn't their purpose when they arrived.

Mike

PS. There's some interesting stats on livechat here: http://www.getelastic.com/ecommerce-...ort/live-chat/ they seem to suugest that checkouts with livechat achieve a lower conversion rate than those without. I'm sure this is more to do with certain site categories trying to address a problem (it seems to work with clothes sites) but it sertainly doesn't seem to be a clear winner.

[leehack]

I know what you mean Lee. When I say interactive I wasn't thinking of 'ask a question and get an answer'. I was thinking of a friendly, menu (image?) driven module much like a typical website is. We wouldn't ever have a website with a plain page and a question box saying 'What are you trying to buy?' and the same thing applies here.

I am going to be trying something like this on a site soon, whereby rather than setting up the site with products in normal categories, we are going to have a product builder/finder/wizard type approach, pointing particularly at answering the "what do you want to buy". Each of the 300 products that will be for sale will sit ultimately in just one section, as the user makes a choice at each level, the choices become narrowed down and they get nearer to what they want.

This is of course along the same lines of most navigations, however we feel this is more focused and personal, rather than general. Hopefully the user feels that we are helping them to make an informed choice along the way, rather than just plonking products in sections and hoping they find them. This will run alongside a current store selling the products in the traditional way, so will be good to see the success. My own feelings are that this and the normal way need to be on the site. Our aim is in effect to rationalise the steps/choices a user goes through on live chat and make these clearly as navigation steps instead. A content tree mirroring the format live chat takes in other words.

They wouldn't land in a section full of blue widgets to mooch, they'd end up in a section of blue widgets that only met their criteria.

The biggest issue with navigation to a product IMO is the correct deepness of structure, if you can willingly get people to go that extra step or two, have it cleanly laid out and explained what is happening, then the 3 step rule is a load of claptrap nowadays as I see it and both site owner and visitor will have a better experience.

I bought some turf from http://www.rolawndirect.co.uk/products-turf.html this week, their procedure is brilliant IMO, sizes you up, woprks out your delivery and gives you all the advice you coudl need along the way. An exemplary example in an area where you could get lots of browsers and people worried to buy.