How many sites do you promote which have LIVE CHAT SUPPORT for members?
 

serious question...how many members areas have you seen with LIVE SUPPORT CHAT to members? And which sponsor programs are those sites with? Trying to get a feel on how others members support is like?

Do any do it?

Think of the time & money you'd need to staff it - probably 5-6 people working 40 hours a week, just to answer questions that are probably not that urgent.

I've never worked in the customer support field (phones or chat or anything) but it seems that even if the program had 5000 webmasters, they'd still probably not need live support. Boards & emails still work wonders :)

Well yes, we've had Live Chat Support for our members on all of our sites members areas for a long time now...true you need staff but 1 full time person can handle a lot of members if organized and structured properly. I think this is a great and important factor in keeping members happy and keep em cuming back :-)

are we talking live support for webmasters or live support for the surfers inside the site? 'cause either way I have no idea :D but live support to surfers would seem that it would help retain memberships because your sites can't suck ass or they will let you know real fast

Yeah - I did read it wrong - LOL

But, the 5-6 people working 40 hours a week thing still holds - live support is sorta useless unless there's someone on the other end :D

If a member can't figure out how to click a picture or start a movie, they probably don't have the raw animal intelligence necessary to properly jerk off either.

well in this case we are talking about Live Chat Support for surfers who become members...for webmasters Art talks to them on ICQ...

http://www.betrev.com/

I was only getting a run down on how amazingly effective live member support is with retaining casino members last night.

Was wondering straight away how that might translate to adult site retentions.. With casino, a big part of it is the additional trust factor handing over cash to a site where humans can be asked questions I think.

Not a "paysite" exactly, but, DVD Dollars(DVD rentals and sales) has live chat support.

I have suggested several times to sponsors that having a live chat window on the signup page might help conversions. Some sweet sexy thing to help you through the process, and then meet you inside.

Like anything, you have to have enough volume to merit the work. If you are getting 1 or 2 support calls per hour, it might be hard to justify paying someone $100 a day to sit and answer the calls, unless you have something else for them to do in their spare time.

If you are getting enough requests for customer support, then I can see it as being worthwhile.

Whatever you do, please don't outsource it to some country where english is the 4th language. You will lose more clients than you will keep.

Alex

We have a fully dedicated site http://www.membersupportcenter.com/ with live support on it and you will be surprised how many people we save or get.

Do you interact with members crusing porn? I get the feeling they might be up to other things when in there, and not enjoy a chat message iniated from our end (which is how it is used in the casino situation)

I'm sure it would help reduce chargebacks if placed on the cancel page.. but if you care enough to have "member support" at all, chances are you dont have a chargeback problem in any case...

I really was very impressed with the idea as it was explained to me to work for the casino... had only thought about these live support systems as marginally useful before.. but am definitely all ears re ideas of other ways to use it as a direct money maker now!

That's a really cool idea. :) Customer service is one of the main things that distinguishes one business from another these days since so many offer the same or similar things. And unique businesses can only be helped by excellent support. I think ARS has live chat in their customer service section.

Live help is a great idea and I am sure it would pay for itself many times over. But, too many programs lose touch of their members after they signup. And then they wonder why chargebacks are so high.

I think it is a great idea to have support for surfers/members in the members section... we have all seen sponsors members sections that suck like broken images, movies and links.... if you have live support they can be fixed right away and you get a good idea of what your surfers want/like and should help keep members longer

I cant imagine how companies would lose touch with their members....thats what the name of the retention game is all about...in fact we send them a free DVD every month they stay...incentive for retentions also!

i'm a robot

ROFL... I bet you have heard paysite operators say "Dont talk to members, that will only remind them to cancel" just as many times as I have over the years!

(thankfully times have changed for the most part)

I don't recommend it. Most surfers that would interact with a live operator are going to assume that the customer service rep is there to perform as a sex surrogate.

Unless you are paying them to be such you are going to find turnover is high because it gets annoying fast.

We have great customer support and that is one thing our members NEVER complain about. We do offer a "live" rep as final solution but between our support ticket system, our site doctor optimization protocols, and emails we do just fine.