In April 2009 Chatiquette was published in Dutch by Floris van der Veen, founder and CEO of LiveCom. In addition to this book I would like to give some suggestions to companies who are currently using chat and show them the potential functionality of chatbots.

If you decide to use chat as one of your communication tools to interact with your customers, you might like to consider using a chatbot. A chatbot can filter your customer responses and give your customers chat services 24/7.

One of Floris van der Veen’s tips is not to put your chat button straight onto your homepage if you are after customers who genuinely would like to chat with your expensive chat agents. (scroll down for the summary of Chatiquette).  My suggestion would be to put a chatbot behind this chat button. An even better option would be to replace this chat button with a chatbot on your homepage. Customers will then be able to enter their questions directly on your homepage into the dialogue screen of the chatbot.

Major reasons

Four major reasons to implement a chatbot instead of a chat button are:

1. A chatbot is able to respond to customers with specific questions to confirm if their responses are relevant to your business. This is more appealing than using a standard form.
2. A chatbot is able to ask your customers to specify the question before referring them to a real agent (experience has shown that people are less precise in formulating questions when using chat compared to i.e. writing an email).
3. By using a chatbot, you can filter the questions in order to refer them to the right person. Please note that you will need a superior database with accurate information about your organization and expertise of your employees.
4. Simple questions can be answered by a chatbot. Therefore customers could use a chatbot outside of office hours. If the customers require more detailed information, they can make a chat appointment with a real agent. You could respond to the customer by using a simple phrase such as: “For this question our specialized help desk would have to contact you. If you want our help desk to contact you, what would be a suitable time during office hours?”

Chatbot rules

You will need to follow a couple of rules if you’d like to be perceived as a reliable, customer focused company:

1. Explain to your customers they are talking to a chatbot (i.e.: use a chatbot avatar and a real picture of a human employee).
2. Make sure your customers won’t be held up by a chatbot. If the chatbot doesn’t understand the question, refer the customer to a human agent straight away (automatically).
3. At the end of the conversation always confirm with your customers if the answer was helpful or if they would still like to chat with a real person.
4. Give people the option to skip the chatbot in order to talk to a real agent. For example include a ‘skip’ option in the chatbot’s reply to your customer’s first question.

If you are going to use a chatbot on your homepage, I would like to suggest testing this chatbot in conjunction with a chat button on other pages of your website. If the customer has made an effort to navigate your website and have found the information they need, it might not be necessary to use a chatbot as a filter. 

Please note, like chat in general, a chatbot is always part of the communications mix in order interact with your customers and other stakeholders. If possible, always register your chatbot customer contact details into your CRM system and/ or into your marketing communication system. This will assist you in building customer relationships. Moreover, it will impact your sales and your reputation.

English summary of Chatiquette by Floris van der Veen

This manual teaches companies how to chat with their customers

According to recent research by market analyst Gartner, live webchat will be widely used in business-to-consumer communication by 2013. Next year, this market will be worth appr. 688 million dollars. Many American companies have been chatting with their customers for a while, however in the Netherlands chat is on the verge of a breakthrough.

Those few Dutch companies which have started to use live webchat - varying from financial institutions and medical insurance companies to online retailers and smaller webshops - are quite inconsiderate, as if they feel like they have nothing to lose. Unfortunately, that’s not the case: a customer who has been treated badly during a chat conversation will be as dissatisfied as when treated badly during a phone call.

This is the one of the main reasons why Floris van der Veen, founder and CEO of LiveCom, decided to write this guide to business chatting. Chatiquette offers the reader a bunch of tips and tricks Mr. van der Veen learnt from his experiences with clients. LiveCom is market leader in online communication and conversion solutions. Live webchat is one of their main products.

Table of contents:

Preface.
Introduction. The use of chat is serious business: a bad chat conversation can change the way a customer thinks about your company.
Chapter 1.
Business chat for beginners. Benefits of web chat: direct and accessible, no contact charges for customers (especially overseas customers), practical for customers with a hearing problem, and employees can handle several chats simultaneously.
Chapter 2.
Preparations. What should you know before you start chatting with your customers? Where should you put the chat application? Chat agents are expensive, therefore make sure only serious chatters will use your chat button. Would you like to use a question form, or would you prefer to replace this form by moving the chat button to the correct page? Always combine your chat application with other communication channels.
Chapter 3.
Chat in actual practice. What if a customer has annoying questions? How do you start and end your conversation? How long should a conversation last? Make sure your customers feel welcome and respond considerately, especially to customer complaints.
Chapter 4.
Even more tips and tricks. Can you use smileys and canned phrases? What if you have made a mistake? The human touch in a chat conversation is very important!
Chapter 5.
Earning money using live webchat. Integrate chat with other sales channels, train your chat agents, chose the right place for the chat button, give attention to promising prospects.
Chapter 6.
Smarter thanks to live webchat. How can live webchat help you to better understand your customers and your call center agents? Evaluate conversations with your chat agents.
Chapter 7.
Business chat for advanced users. In the future, chat can be used during a presentation, or by co-browsing with customers to the correct webpage.
Chapter 8.
Five real-life examples. Dutch companies and organisations using webchat effectively: AEGON Bank, Huis & Hypotheek (morgages), Gemeente Groningen (City) , C1000 (supermarket) and AnderZorg (medical insurance).

Chatiquette in Dutch is online for sale (Dutch version): €9,95 (+ €1,95 mailing costs). Half of the revenue will be donated to charity. Avalable on: www.chatiquette.nl.