There is a thread on Edward Tufte’s website about the use of IVR systems. I take an atypical view on this – I think that consumers have a completely unrealistic expectation of telephone customer service. It’s just too expensive to provide. Progressive companies need to come up with other support channels, or better still they need to come up with products and services that don’t need as much handholding.
So what about IM-based help?
I came across this lately. It just depends on whether your call centre can deal with more than one IM support session at a time. If they can deal with multiples, fine, there is some saving; if not, well, it might end up being even less economic than telephone support.