Afternoon
On the back of the poor service levels we’ve been experiencing over the previous months, we’re going to change the way we use chat on the site and give our customers a better experience.
We currently have a resource struggle on our hands and as such, we’re not in a position to suddenly throw loads of people onto our chat channel however, we can try to improve the experience that’s out there!
Currently on chat you will see chat as either on or off, depending on the time of day. It shows as on during our opening hours and off during our closed hours, regardless of the wait time i.e. if there is a 10min wait in the queue it will be available, as it will be, if there’s a 60min wait in the queue... This has not been a great customer experience!
From tomorrow, Tuesday 7th November, this will change.
We’re implementing auto-routing on chat, depending on what the customer has chosen on their journey through Contact Us. Then depending on which service area this should drop into i.e. Customer Services, Tech, Provisioning etc, you will see whether there is availability to chat in that specific area.
We have now defined a new service level (SLA) for our chat channel. So, if a customer is trying to get through and the maximum wait time (SLA) is set at i.e. 5mins, if we are at that level, the customer will no longer be able to chat and the chat option will show as Busy. Once the SLA drops below the defined SLA, the funnel will open up again for customers to join that queue.
This will mean customers have a better experience when getting into a chat queue, as the maximum amount of time they will be waiting is heavily reduced, as opposed to the unknown wait time they currently have when getting into the queue. For us, it means we’ll be able to have a real view of what our queue wait times are across calls and chat, as currently they are polluted with customers waiting in both channels. As wait time will be significantly reduced, this will remove the need to simultaneously call us and improve the experience in chat, as well as calls.
Customer service is always at the heart of what we and we have made this change to help you and ensure a more consistent experience, across whichever channel you choose.
Thanks Louisa
Louisa
