You know what I don't get about website live chat buttons like Intercom? The fact that you need to stay on the website to continue the conversation. Why not just provide a link to open a conversation in existing channels, like email, Twitter, Telegram, WhatsApp, etc.? That way the customer can choose whichever channel they already have or prefer, and the conversation continues seamlessly after they've left your website.
Yes, I know Intercom offers the option to seamlessly switch to email, but at that point you could just build a simple 1990's email contact form in a fancy JS popup and it's effectively the same thing.
I understand Intercom made a billion dollar company out of their chat widget because businesses want to look savvy, but that doesn't mean it's actually a good experience for users. As a startup founder myself, I care more about a seamless experience for my customers than for me.
It is not a good experience from the support side either.
In my experience, if the internal employee on the Intercom chat escalates the issue to Zendesk via their integration, the setup treats it as though the initial employee has no further need or relationship with the customer.
To the Zendesk agent, the ticket is created ‘from’ the customer, not the employee that initiated the ticket.
The agent has to manually add the employee back to the ticket, so they can also be in the loop.
Not to mention the ticket is mostly just the chat transcript.
Sales-team likes the shiny of Intercom, and also having Intercom on your public-facing site is a bit of a status-thing.
But, also, Zendesk pricing is per agent, whereas Intercom is tiered for a number of users.
Then, to upgrade to the Talk, not the full Suite, is an additional per agent cost.
So, basically, sales can function as Tier 1 support, since they should have basic knowledge of the product they are selling.
We don’t need a Zendesk agent license for each salesperson, only each support person.
Zendesk is pretty powerful between its well documented API and native ‘triggers’, and also its new reporting and dashboard tool, but it is pricey for enabling extras.
I was attempting to write an integration with our phone system, basically having a screen pop-up with the call info inside Zendesk, and could show all prior and open tickets if their is a caller ID match.
I need to pay for Talk just to access the pop-up API.
Also, having multiple forms for a ticket, that costs extra, too.
What we have seen is some customers prefer chat buttons especially when they prefer not to give out their personal information.
In Chatwoot the channels like email, twitter, Whatsapp etc are also considered primary conversation channels. So its helpful even when your primary support channel isn't chat.
We used to use kayako.com which switches from online to email chat, but they've since updated their pricing and screwed us around a bit so we've left them.
Now we've switched to chatra.io, and this does the same and the price seems fair.
Yes, I know Intercom offers the option to seamlessly switch to email, but at that point you could just build a simple 1990's email contact form in a fancy JS popup and it's effectively the same thing.
I understand Intercom made a billion dollar company out of their chat widget because businesses want to look savvy, but that doesn't mean it's actually a good experience for users. As a startup founder myself, I care more about a seamless experience for my customers than for me.