O2 UK’s online chat service ‘Ask Lucy’, is currently receiving around 1,000 questions per day as it nears the end of its pilot period, Mobile Today reported. The results of the pilot so far show that customers are choosing instant messaging over a telephone conversation to resolve service issues. Orange UK, T-Mobile UK and 3 UK also offer live chat services with agents on a PC, who ‘chat’ with customers to sell, upgrade or solve problems. T-Mobile’s chat service ‘Ask Laura’, was launched in February. T-Mobile head of the service Elliott Lawrence said feedback has been positive and that T-Mobile will look to further develop the service.

3 UK’s live chat service, offering technical, sales, billing and coverage advice, is understood to have diverted an increasing number of customers away from its call centres. Orange is piloting a service called ‘click to chat’, an instant messaging service that enables customers to talk online with a real customer service agent. The assistant also appears in a window on the Orange website if a customer is on the site for a certain period of time. Operators appear to be transforming the way they interact with customers, becoming increasingly focused on online services and cutting customer service jobs. O2 announced 160 redundancies in customer support last week, due to a ‘transformation in customer service’, as consumers’ requirements changed in the face of specialised products. Vodafone has previously stated its ambitions to move into live messaging. However, the network said that ‘online services will be the focus for ongoing investment’, after it announced 500 UK job cuts in February.

via http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/2262713/