Here to help and always smiling!
It’s been just over two months since I started the Shopping Helper interactive chats and displays on Perfectly Shaped World, and a bit over a month since I expanded the service to cover all of the Lass Group Mall stores.
Since last weekend, the chat displays can be viewed on any of the store sites (except the blog-based sites like Plus Size 411 – still working on that).
Visitor response has been extremely positive.
Interesting Non-Mathematical Factoids:
1 – The most popular hour for Shopping Helper requests is 7:00 PM Pacific; second most popular is noon.
2 – About 80% of Shopping Helper requests come from Windows users; 2/3 of those use some form of MSIE, most of the rest use Firefox. A small handful use Safari. A tiny handful use Chrome. One uses Opera.
One fellow joked that he wasn’t sure he was talking to a human.
“Are you sure?” he quipped.
3 – Speaking of moods, about 97% of visitors are in a good mood, or if they start out in a bad mood, they’re in a good mood before they leave. About 2% are resigned to being in a bad mood – I respect that. Less than 1% are downright rude.
4 – In two months of chats, only one person has been unbearably vulgar and resorted to foul language and vulgarity. About 10 seconds later, I mastered the art of the Ban command.
5 – Nearly 60% of people forget to put in an email address when sending a message request (which is the default action any time I’m offline). This means I can’t send a response to them. Yesterday I figured out how to require an email address before a message will be accepted.
There are downsides: One early-morning visitor sent a second message five minutes after her first email, upset that she hadn’t already received a response to her first message. Her second message didn’t have an email address either.
6 – About 85% of visitors want to see a display of items they’re looking for. Most will look, shop and leave without much more interaction. About 15% of them want their displays saved for later. A few want advice, like what color shoes will go with a dress.
And some just want someone to chat with while they shop – and those can be the most fun of all!
I’m enjoying being the Shopping Helper. I’ve met wonderful people, helped quite a few of them get through shopping visits with fewer hassles and delays, and had nice chats with some fascinating individuals.
Have you had experience with “normal” live chat support? I’d love to hear your opinions and feedback!
The Shopping Helper button has been removed from Large Lass. I’m glad to help people find what they’re looking for, on any of the other stores.