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Pushy Salespeople Showing Up Online... In Pop-Up Boxes
from the oh,-great dept
One of the nice things about shopping online was that you got to avoid pushy in-store sales people, but that might not be true any more. Many sites are experimenting with technology that lets them pop-up a chat window on the computers of people who are visiting their site. They try to time it so that they hit the person when it appears they're confused or "stalled" in some manner. While it may seem the same as just having an in-store sales person ask if they can help, it's creeping out a number of people who don't like the feeling that they're being watched online (even if it's true). Still, the companies using it say that it's helped them increase sales and decrease the number of people who abandon the shopping process, so we can expect many many more. In most cases, pop-up blockers won't block these chat windows, though I imagine it'll be the next thing they figure out how to block. Another nice idea would be to somehow standardize these, so people could put up a "do not contact me" notice that would block all such pushy sales requests.
Reader Comments
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what a job
can you imagine the sort of abuse these chat salespeople are going to take? I mean, a unauthorized chat window opens up on your computer and you can type whatever response you want. you know at least 3/4 of the people are going to type "F**K YOU!!!" and the other fourth will just close the window...
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No Subject Given
It's a fad.
I think once the novelty wears off, users will start complaining about this technology the way they complain about other popups.
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This is a test ... of the emergency chat pop up sy
I've opened a window over @ HP.com and am looking @ digital cameras waiting to see if I get one of these sales people.
Anyone have any suggestions for questions I can ask them ?
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Shoplifting
What a pity you cant online shoplift. :(
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Re: Online Shoplifting
Sure you can. It's called Kazaa ;)
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Maybe Reqeust Only?
The pop-up boxes may be useful for people who are indeed lost on a site...but ONLY if they can be invoked by clicking on a link...maybe something that says "click here for assistance". Nothing automatic and annoying please.
MLO
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