matthewsullivan•2mo agoProlific Poster

Showerthought: I had to pick between a detailed FAQ or a live chat for my site's support page back in 2019.

I went with the FAQ to save on costs, but now I'm wondering if adding a chat option would actually help people get answers faster, has anyone switched from one to the other?

3 comments

3 Comments

anderson.mia2mo ago

Remember trying to set up a chat widget for my blog's contact page. Spent a whole afternoon fiddling with the free version of some service, only to get bombarded with spam messages about SEO and guest posts. Shut it down after a week and just stuck with a plain email form.

joseph_murray82mo ago

Sounds like you dodged a bullet. A whole afternoon and a week of spam for a blog contact page seems like a lot of work for a problem that doesn't really exist. Most people are fine with an email form. It's not like you're running a 24/7 customer service line for a bank. The simpler option usually works just fine.

tyler_mason292mo ago

Actually made the switch to a chat option last year and it was a game changer. The FAQ was great for common stuff, but people kept asking the same few questions that weren't covered. Adding a simple chat widget let them ask those directly. It cut down on support emails by a ton because we could answer in real time. The key was using a service that had a good free filter for bots to avoid spam. Took some setup but was totally worth it.