'support live chat' -- suggested timings, thoughts?

[rakeshagrawal]

We're interested in offering a web-based live chat support session where anyone that has a question about Beyond TV or Beyond TV Link can come in and ask their questions and get answers / help in a live chat session. It's the kind of thing that we'd schedule for an hour or two at a time, once or twice a week (or more if there was more interest).

Is this something you think would be helpful? Would you be interested in tuning into something like this?

What day(s) of the week and time of day would be most convenient for you?

[geoffstewart]

I like the idea of having the ability to get more-or-less instant feedback in a chat. However, I don't know if I'd tune in simply because my schedule is too eratic. The forums are good because I can check what is new since the last time I had time to look. Would the chats be archived and searchable?

[rakeshagrawal]

Yes, transcripts of the chat would be available for browsing and for searching.

[guys]

Originally Posted by rakeshagrawal

Is this something you think would be helpful? Would you be interested in tuning into something like this?

Yes!

Originally Posted by rakeshagrawal

What day(s) of the week and time of day would be most convenient for you?

Week nights ~8-10PM for me (Eastern timezone...)

[KingCerksees]

Depends......would you try and censor out anything negative about the product ?

[grillcheese]

The one thing I do not like about Live Chat is when no one is available or when I have to wait 10 minutes while it tries to connect to a rep. Unless you have a large staff to be there, I don't know that its worth it. A person who tries it a few times and realizes they could get quicker answer searching the forums will probably never come back to try the live chat again.

[merrypig]

I think he meant sort of like a 'developer in a hot seat' live chat, rather than a 'hot support' system.

My gut feeling is that this would only ever be a 'FAQ' question/answer session with the benefit of a 'face' to talk to. No problems are really going to get solved in a limited chat session - complex things will get deferred to 'upload you system info', 'send us a tech support request', or 'um.. dunno'. So only the quick easy things will get a response.

While that might be great for future sales prospects wanting to know if btv will solve a certain need, I really don't think this is a 'support' feature for actual users.

That doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad thing, but I think you'd need to be clear what identity you want it to have and pitch it right. Or you'll get posts like the preceeding one complaining that they can't get a support person online and SS doesn't care blah blah blah, when really you're trying to foster the opposite image aren't you. (at least accoridng to your blog info).

[KingCerksees]

Something cool would be a way to automatically send the log info from within BTV.......like Meedio does.

[merrypig]

You mean like it does already?

[draven]

I would suggest at least one weekend time and one weekday evening time that way it would cover hte majority of work schedules

[KingCerksees]

Being completely serious.......I would also highly suggest native English speaking tech support.

Getting a solution to a problem can be difficult enough without adding additional language and cultural barriers.

[DonK]

Our Tech Support are all English speaking Americans.... now if you get a "ya'll" in there once in a while, do you still consider that English?

[Tuck]

Originally Posted by DonK

Our Tech Support are all English speaking Americans.... now if you get a "ya'll" in there once in a while, do you still consider that English?

That would be "y'all" ("ya" is not a word). And you call yourself a Texan, Don?

[ducking]