In the last years I've seen new strategies to convert potential customers into actual ones.
I am from austria (europe) and I have a particular view about not being pestered while I'm in my decision-making process. If I want help, I ask for it.
But I registered while working with usa branches, that some americans have a different perception of it. They actually expect to be pampered to some degree.
The question, because since I'm just one person.
Do you actually like getting this super attentive approach? 'Hey, can we help?' When you just want to skim through a feature and price-list? on a homepage?
Or the classic shaming strategies 'If you are not doing this, blablabla' ? 'people will miss you blablabla' (facebook deactivation of your account)
In general I don't mind having a chat-bubble for support, but I want to activate it.
Same goes for the 'we miss you approach' instead of a 'if you leave you are a bad person - because approach'.
I know they are less effective because they are less imposing.
They seam to have a measurable impact otherwise companies would probably not use them increasingly.
So the question remains.
Is it okay for a company to pester us to pitch their sales? As a business person I see the appeal, but as a citizen I get annoyed by having 10 adds and 1 letter in my mailbox.
What do you think?
I don't think it has much to do with rights. The company has the right to be pushy, I think. It's rather annoying, so we have a right to let it negatively affect our purchasing decisions.
So, I kind of work in this space. On websites you can have prompts or call to actions that get triggered after a certain amount of time or scroll position or page being looked at etc. These will show a "new message" in the chat bubble to say "can we help you with anything?" I don't particularly find this invasive but I do find it annoying as I do usually know what I'm looking for when going to a website. However, I know, as you agree, companies use these techniques to upsell and gain increased online sales. And they work.
Then you raise a second point about emails. This would be completely different as the business in question would be contacting/spamming you directly. This scenario will soon be covered by GDPR, in the EU, so this will be less of a concern as of 25th May 2018 for EU citizens. I don't know think the prompts in the first case would be affected by GDPR, as long as the data isn't stored anywhere, but it might still fall under the "processor" business type covered in GDPR.
I guess there is also a psychological aspect to this as well. If you prompt users during their "session" then it can provide instant gratification as the visitor doesn't have to do anything, and the chat bot/agent will do it all for them.
tl;dr I think their is a balance, if the prompts are intelligent enough to know when, 9 times out of 10, a user is stuck then all good. But if a company is using it these kind of tools without any thought to the end user then they need to re-evaluate how it values its users.
For me, it depends on how the pestering is done. Are you going to overlay the page and put it smack dab in the middle so I MUST dismiss it to continue? Or are you going to be somewhat nice and put it a corner somewhere with a minor animation to let me know it's there? If it's in my face, I'll often just leave.
I was like you. Then because of being contacted so much by sales (hmm, should we call them account exec or customer success, I'm always lost with those subtle terms) I tend to get used to it... as long as it's reasonable.
Here's my point: as a service user, I understand they need to get money to run the service, and so they try to make us pay for the non free-tier. That's fair. But when I start playing with a tool/product/service, if I haven't answered your 'hey let's have a chat and see how we could help you' first email, then the second (and 3rd, ...) ones are not likely to get more responses. And when I actually need to talk to find out more information about pricing/feature/missing doc, the first email is still there (even if in the trash, it's deleted after 3o days, which is usually the same period as the trial, if not more)
So back to your question: I don't mind a poke, that's part f the game. But repetitive requests give me a bad impression (ok, you're clearly not here to help, but more to get my money)
As with everything, it's not black or white, everything is in the nuance and the context ;-)
So now I got several answers :) I think it's time for the discussion before I forget.
The emails, they are basically regulated you can sue any company that sends you an unwanted email in the U.S as well as in the EU
That's the right of privacy, but ofc they pester you 'at home' which is a different thing.
About the instant gratification, I actually used it once, they answered 2 hours later ;D .... which defeats the point of a chat-bubble. Because I can write to a contact form as well.
And I don't mind the chat bubble I mind the 'hey can I help you' pop up with the sound. as Joe Clark or Marco Alka mentioned a subtle approach one / good UX is not an issue.
But the general pestering seam to increase and even on a professional level. I know balance is hard and B2B vs B2C is important factor as well.
So as Mark mentioned the freedom to do everything with consequences. Which to some degree is a fair point but there is also as always a limit, for example exploiting psychological weaknesses. Which for example are shaming techniques.
The main issue is perspective to me.
For a company the goal is to sell something, so everything that makes them reach the goal is good. There is usually no to little moral unless enforced by the government.
For a citizen / an individual there are different rules, to get tricked into spending money is a bad thing.
But ofc this is a general thing and I don't say pestering chat-bubbles are tricking us to buy something. No the overall trend with big data and instant gratifications, without boundaries is my issue.
I think we adjust to the new reality of this medium, we have social rules governing our society these laws of interaction should to some degree be reflected in this free space.
Anyhow ;D .... already a way to long an complicated reply
Personally, I do not think that is's only a cultural thing, but also a personal opinion. I live in Germany, and for me, too, those popups are annoying. I know how to fill a damn form online most of the time. However, I also know people, who do not want to do stuff like that. They want someone else to explain everything to them, make a simplified suggestion and then pay money. They are German, too, but they have a different opinion.
For a company, it is difficult to decide whether you want the additional help or not. So they will usually just go ahead and try to make things simple for you, ideally promoting a product which maximizes their wins while keeping you in a good mood, so you keep buying. Go to Amazon, take a look at different products. Amazon will offer you a "Amazon's Choice" product, which is usually not the cheapest or best product. And even when taking a look at a product, Amazon will always promote products which are sent from their warehouse, even though another seller has a cheaper price. It's their way of "choosing for you and making your life easier that way", but which also is the biggest benefit for them (not you). Most of the time, that strategy will work, and you might not even notice what just happened.
Now, what I think you mean by an annoying website, is when this concept goes wrong. A company overdoes its "help" or does it in a wrong way, which leads to a rather bad user experience. Imho, it's not a problem of the concept, but rather an error on the company's side. As such, I think it is fair to avoid making business with that company or even write negative PR, based on your experience.
So, what should you do if you have to decide if and how to support or pamper a user? Basically, it boils down to planning and creating good UX. Helping your user is always a good idea, but if I had to do it, I would try to stick to passive elements, which creep into the the application, for example by making decisions for the user without them even realizing it. Additionally, I would, if possible, add very a very simple way to actually get support from a human - for example a button, which you can click in order to initiate a pop-up text chat. A user should not have to decide every little thing, they should not have to decide everything at once, and they should feel that they are not alone.
Good UX is difficult.