Comments on: Why We Killed One of Our Biggest Features to Grow Our Business

By: Dark Penguin

Dark Penguin — Tue, 24 Oct 2023 19:53:40 +0000

So now we have to wait for someone to answer the phone, then wait on hold to talk to an agent, and that possibly after struggling with a voice activated robot. IMHO if live agent chat is a failure, then it’s not being done right.

The critics have no comprehension of what a godsend live chat is to anyone with a difficult or unusual name. The names of many letters of the alphabet sound just like other letters under poor audio quality, e.g. z/v/z/c, s/f, m/n, y/i. All four of those distinctions are needed in spelling my name to a stranger. And because a NATO type speaking alphabet has never been adopted for civilian use, that means I have to tediously identify each letter (“V as in van, like a truck, N as in Nancy, Y as in yellow…” and so on).

I will confess I have run out patience and yelled at CSRs once or twice because I get so frustrated trying to make myself understood. And I know it isn’t their fault.

By: Seki Shou

Seki Shou — Thu, 24 Nov 2022 01:26:15 +0000

I ship him with the green haired knight
O.2632P.US/jX5376U

By: Luqman

Luqman — Thu, 12 Oct 2017 11:44:29 +0000

Thanks @alex_turnbull:disqus for sharing this article. I wanted to know what metrics did you use to measure the live chat app

By: Jason Grills

Jason Grills — Thu, 28 Sep 2017 05:10:10 +0000

I have a different opinion in this case. I think you didn’t get a solid product in first place, which is why the entire support team got busy in improving performance and eliminating bugs. Ideally, this should be the job of the live chat solution provider, so that you can focus on your core business. Regarding non-usage, you can probably experiment with radio buttons, color combinations or better, conduct a survey to learn about user preferences. About maintenance costs, it should be ZERO. Decent live chat options charge a subscription fee that covers everything from installation to troubleshooting to maintenance. Live chat became an overhead for you, rather it should have improved your conversion rates. I would suggest to revisit your decision and give ProProfs chat a try. ProProfs chat roll out frequent updates to ensure you don’t have to deal with sluggish responses or bugs. This also takes care about data security, so don’t worry about data leakages. Our live chat has all the flagship features that would help in improving the bottom line of your business. Feel free to give us a call and allow us to understand your requirements better.

By: Mark Evans

Mark Evans — Thu, 02 Mar 2017 14:27:46 +0000

It’s a brave decision but ultimately the right one for the business in the long-term. For startups, focus is a key ingredient for success so you’re on the right track.

By: Dmitri

Dmitri — Sat, 11 Apr 2015 05:20:50 +0000

Alex, great respect for taking the courage to write it! So rare to see!

But here is my take.

I have used Live Chats on several occasions and it really made my day on some of them. One of the most memorable was one by Iron.io, when I was losing hours trying to install their command line due to its dependency on a specific version of Ruby I didn’t have. Their live chat was amazingly helpful and I only kicked myself for not trying it earlier. No email or phone call would replace it!

But – it was the only time I used it! So my “usage rate” was as low as it can only be! Live Chat is not meant to be used regularly. Well, if it is, then you are doing wrong something else. 🙂 If things work well, your users will rarely jump to your Live Chat, which is good! But if anything breaks – Live Chat, in my view, is the most effective way to get quick and productive help for a technical product!

Summarising – I feel that Live Chat is meant to be used rarely, hence low usage is actually good, but it is those rare occasions when it is used, that can make a big difference.

—
About High maintenance cost.

Obviously, without knowing any details about your code architecture, it is hard for me to see the true reasons. On the technical level, implementing a basic chat can be as simple as placing writer’s message in a database and pulling it to subscriber’s client – the so-called polling. There are of course more advanced technologies consuming more resources but for the basic chat function, the classic simple polling might be just fine. 😉

—
Other products are more functional.
Absolutely. But it all depends on goals and use cases.

If I am a user needing quick help — all I care is a text box, where I can type my message and get it answered.

Just as you write in your posts, keep it simple! 🙂

—
The Opportunity Cost of Not Having Partners.

Great point! Good partnerships can bring lots of benefits.

But any partnership has its cost too.

What if they decide to change their API? Will you easily adapt?

What if they get acquired and shut down the product?

That actually did happen to me – I used Stackmob, a pioneer in Backend as a Service space, that was acquired by Paypal only to be shut down (http://venturebeat.com/2014/02/12/paypal-closing-down-backend-service-stackmob-months-after-buying-it/)

Luckily I had my code designed with decoupled module architecture, which made it easy to switch to Parse.com by changing only one small module.
It was a good lesson.

—
Finally, there is something that really puzzles me.
Did you integrate HipChat instead of you in-house Live Chat?
Then you are not discontinuing the product but rather improve it!
Am I missing something?

By: Yuliya Malysh

Yuliya Malysh — Thu, 29 Jan 2015 08:49:42 +0000

Alex, great post.
How do you measure the adoption rate of your features?
Thanks in advance.

By: Anne-Marie

Anne-Marie — Thu, 24 Jul 2014 21:25:47 +0000

Hi Alex,
That’s a brave post, I commend you for it. I have a question for you regarding the concept of constant change of a product. As a user, I feel frustrated by the way tech companies seem to think its ok to experiment on its customer base (me!).
Each time you make a change to your product, it involves considerable cognitive effort for me to rework my mental model of the system. For me, that’s acceptable if the change occurs rarely – I don’t like it but I can work with that.
But when the change is constant, I feel like I’m an lab rat in some long tortuous experiment that I have no control over – all for my own good. It’s like being forced to take cod liver oil every night…
Maybe in my old age I’m getting cranky and less tolerant of change (I keep thinking of old age pensioners refusing to use ATMS :)) but it does concern me especially as the population ages.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this as some who welcomes transparency.
Anne-Marie

By: Cleyton Messias

Cleyton Messias — Mon, 14 Jul 2014 21:33:59 +0000

Hi Alex!

Nice article as always!

I have a simple question: Which tool do you use to measure and show the picture at “Live Chat Adoption”

How did you get this 7.9%?

Thanks!

By: Gaurav Chandra

Gaurav Chandra — Fri, 11 Jul 2014 04:27:15 +0000

Great read. Focus is everything. But there are somethings which are absolute must for some people and that need to be incorporated. In my experience people are impatient and want answers fast. They want to chat directly without going through the knowledge base or raising a ticket. That is why the angry reactions to your decision from your customers. The chat services are expensive and not cheap. Add that to the cost of a help desk software and for some the total cost falls outside the budget. So, for some your live chat was a good add on.

By: Kyle Schutter

Kyle Schutter — Fri, 11 Jul 2014 00:48:14 +0000

Wonderful! I can relate as a business owner in Nairobi where we had a “Smart Metering” system that we were all very proud of to meter out our gas supply. We marched it out in front of every investor, client and competitor. We had a patent on it. But the initial budget for it was $5,000 which grew to $10,000 to $50,000 to probably $200,000 to get it right the way we wanted it. I killed it and our investors said “what is so great about you guys now?” Well, we reduced our R&D costs by $250,000, our upfront cost per unit by 25% and our repairs by 75%. And at the same time delivered a better customer experience. It was one of the hardest decisions for me, but in retrospect obvious. We tripled our monthly revenue per user.

Good luck Alex. I love this blog and I wish I could write something similar. You have a lot of discipline to keep writing month after month.