I had an interesting conversation with a colleague yesterday asking what I knew about live chat services to field patron inquires as an addition to email, phone, or social media offerings. From a technical perspective, it has never been easier to implement a solution, like LiveChatInc.com, via your website but it is still rare to come across a performing arts org that offers it alongside primary points of contact.
Based on my discussions with arts administrators, the challenge isn’t technical so much as labor; having someone knowledgeable enough to field questions who is also available outside of regular business hours is not an easy nut to crack. To that end, I’m curious to hear from arts admin readers out there to help aggregate some light on this shadowy subject.
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For those who either offer a live chat offering or have explored it within the past year, I’m sure everyone would be grateful to hear about your experience and insight so thank you in advance for laying some knowledge on us via a comment.
If there's a reliable topic that can always get stakeholders talking, it's artist bios. You're sure to hear plenty about the mind-numbingly dull regurgitation…
I never even considered that arts orgs might use such a system, but it’s great to hear people are thinking about it. Chat is always my first choice when I need customer support, and I’m always disappointed when a company doesn’t offer it.
Same here, I opt for it so long as the wait times aren’t too bad and it isn’t a fire level emergency. By and large, they work great except for those staffed by under-trained reps (but that’s no different than any other customer service point of contact). I do know that one of Venture’s users, Palm Beach Opera, is trying out a live chat service: http://screencast.com/t/Oe6ZZlEoaCsm but I don’t know what the plans are for hours, staffing, etc.
We just installed it today on our website (pbopera.org) and I’m looking forward to seeing if anyone uses it. I will be manning the chat during business hours and in the evenings during the test period. If we decide to keep it, then we’ll create a rotating staff schedule for it.
I had an interesting conversation with a colleague yesterday asking what I knew about live chat services to field patron inquires as an addition to email, phone, or social media offerings. From a technical perspective, it has never been easier to implement a solution, like LiveChatInc.com, via your website but it is still rare to come across a performing arts org that offers it alongside primary points of contact.
The Sydney Symphony Orchestra offers live chat, although only during regular box office hours.
I never even considered that arts orgs might use such a system, but it’s great to hear people are thinking about it. Chat is always my first choice when I need customer support, and I’m always disappointed when a company doesn’t offer it.
Same here, I opt for it so long as the wait times aren’t too bad and it isn’t a fire level emergency. By and large, they work great except for those staffed by under-trained reps (but that’s no different than any other customer service point of contact). I do know that one of Venture’s users, Palm Beach Opera, is trying out a live chat service: http://screencast.com/t/Oe6ZZlEoaCsm but I don’t know what the plans are for hours, staffing, etc.
We just installed it today on our website (pbopera.org) and I’m looking forward to seeing if anyone uses it. I will be manning the chat during business hours and in the evenings during the test period. If we decide to keep it, then we’ll create a rotating staff schedule for it.