Very often these days, when we want a chat with someone; a sales person, technical support, to get our pre-sale questions answers (etc), we see many people linking to a ‘schedule a call with me’ type of form (usually to book a Zoom call because phones clearly don’t work any more) rather than an opportunity to contact them in a simple way.
Personally (maybe because I am a bit old school) I like real life conversations but less and less people want to pick up the phone and have a direct conversation.
When I am sent a link to schedule a call I find it a bit arrogant (oh, sorry, I didn’t realise you were so important that I have to schedule a brief phone call) and assuming (maybe it’s just me but it feels a bit like being forced into their sales funnel).
In my opinion, it lacks authenticity and it puts the potential new customer in the position of jumping through hoops in order to have a conversation.
It all leads to the dreaded Zoom calls that tie each person to their desk usually, rather than phone calls that allow the person the freedom to move around knowing they aren’t going to drop wifi, lose the connection, etc and will never be told “you have to unmute yourself”.
Give me a phone number any day!
I think better when I’m free to walk around and hate being confined to my desk and staring at the screen at someone who is navel gazing because they aren’t looking at the camera, they are also looking down at the screen to see me… Oh I hate it. Seriously I hate it. If this is the future then I can’t wait for the technology that can track our eyes and make it possible for our eyes to actually look at each other than looking like each of us is admiring the privates!
And… Message bots. I totally 100% loathe them (well, the way many businesses implement them).
Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should!
If there is a chat feature displayed on a website, I want to chat to a person, not a bot, of any kind.
I hate it when websites display the chat box even when they (the business folks behind the website) are offline. It’s like having a “WE ARE OPEN” sign on the door but the door is locked and nobody is there – which you don’t realise until you found a place to park, bought your car park ticket and walked back to the door..!
It gives the website visitor (the potential next client or customer) false hope that they can get a quick answer when all you get to do is leave a message and then there will be, most likely, a 4 day wait for an answer.