According to this article found on CNN.com, online sales chats are helping online businesses increase sales and rapport with their customers. They are even helping to seal the deal with those sometimes hard to sell sales. Online web chats and IM's have been popular in the past, but this old technology has undergone a recent face lift and has emerged as the face and voice of many businesses personal salesperson, ready to help a customer 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The only thing about this salesperson is that you can not see them, shake their hand or look into their eyes and see if that deal they are giving you really is true.
Many online businesses have made online sales chat a part of their website or e-commerce site. These online salespeople can answer questions about products, find information on pricing and approach potential consumers by offering guidance and assistance. With the addition of online sales chat, some businesses have seen increases of sales of 10% in just a short amount of time.
~Angela
http://money.cnn.com/2007/10/03/technology/live_chat.biz2/index.htm?postversion=2007100408
It is interesting to see this technology resurfacing for this use. I still think it is rather annoying and somewhat outdated but they are trying to revitalize it. I think thats partially due to the relatively low costs of operating on the internet. I think it really depends on what website you go to, but some of the live instant chats with their representatives can be annoying.
ReplyDeleteI agree, When I am encountering a problem with a product, trouble with my cable, want to return a sweater I do not want to talk to some automatic response on the computer. This is often a crazy frustration when have already entered a difficult situation. 24.7 is great because they are there all around you don’t have to worry about calling from work or their being high call volumes. Online chats are immediate and convenient in that sense.
ReplyDeleteThis blog post hit a couple of the key points that needed to be hit on and it hit them well. First off the blog had straight facts feel to it. The source used for the information is even sited so it has some credibility. The blog does a good job of hitting on the evolution from sales in person to sales over a digital medium. The blog also makes a good point about online commerce showing the influence of the technology on society. The move from analog to digital is a show of a step towards scientific progress. I believe this particular piece of technology is bad for art though. A lot of technology improves art, but this damages it. The art of the sale is a difficult thing to achieve. If the process is automated it's a form of art that's been abandoned for a digital medium that will never work as hard as a real salesman to sell an idea or product.
ReplyDeleteI am surprised that businesses have seen an increase in revenue from online sales people. Every time I have had to use an online contact for assistance, I have found it to be more difficult to communicate my needs, and that it takes much longer to explain the situation through typing. It is the future, however so I best get used to it!
ReplyDeleteOnline chat to talk to support personnel for a company has gained in popularity of the last few years, but sales personnel has not been as popular. I personally would rather wait 5 minutes in front of the computer to chat with support people and then spend 3 hours on hold with a phone pressed up against my head, that is what I consider annoying. If I truely needed to talk to a person to make a purchase I would probably be much more likely to use an online chat feature than actually pick up the phone and wait on hold to talk to someone.
ReplyDeleteChatting is a good way of selling a product to a consumer. Because like me, many people out there that needs help if they need info on some product that they might be interested in buying. Nowadays every company has a sales people working 24/7 helping people out in anything from selling to tech support. I think every company should have a tech support 24/7 just for convenience of people so they can purchase anything at anytime.
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