Staples chat: That wasn't easy!
We're all looking to take a few shortcuts when shopping, especially online, so when I recently ran into an issue on Staples.com, I opted to give "chat" a try. Although not a big fan of online chat, the fact that the 800 number wasn't easy to locate was a big motivator.
The issue was simple: Staples.com was advertising that if you spent $150 on the site and used VISA Checkout to pay, you would receive a $30 credit. The details were sketchy, such as whether this was a site credit or a VISA credit, but what the heck? So, I upped my purchase about $60 to get over the minimum and got ready to use VISA Checkout. However, after selecting that payment method there was no sign that any credit would be forthcoming. So, before clicking to submit the order, I opted to chat with Staples.
Nine system messages and nearly three minutes later, I was happily chatting with "Aditi P." The rep asked whether I had a VISA account, followed by whether I had selected VISA Checkout as the payment option, and then verified that the $30 credit was not showing up. After chatting with the rep for five minutes, it was suggested I check out Staples' "exciting daily deals" while waiting. Then, we went over instructions as to how to enter credit card information on the website. After, two more rounds of "checking in to this" occurred, we had a total elapsed time of over 23 minutes, so I gave up, reduced the order to what was originally intended, thanked the service rep, and left the chat. (See a transcript of the chat.)
To be clear, there was nothing wrong with the chat function itself. What is wrong, is the way Staples and other retailers apparently use chat:
- Chat is being used to reduce costs, rather than improve customer service. I draw that conclusion here because an 800# is not easy to find on the Staples.com site, and industry sources say chat is typically a lot cheaper than phone interactions.
- Information is requested that is not used. In this case, one has to submit an e-mail address in order to chat, although Staples already has that information when loyalty members are logged in. The e-mail address provided was not used after the chat to provide an answer to the problem.
- Although it may or may not have been the case here, chat agents are often working on multiple cases at one time, delaying customer response times at the expense of good customer service.
- Chat is being outsourced – nothing wrong with that, except that in at least this case the agent wasn't provided with enough information to solve even the most basic problems.