"Chat Recovery" Programs - Intelligent Discussion?

[Jake]

Perhaps I'm missing something here but I simply do not get the benefit of these services based on the following:

1. We all know that surfers have been trained over the years that if they close a "join page" they're going to be presented with a better offer than what was initially presented to them. Although I don't have any solid stats, I'm guessing that a very large percentage of surfers will not join a website before closing out a the join page to see if they get a discounted offer. That being said, most of these "chat recovery" programs like to pitch their product as "found money" or "recovered sales", etc. When in fact it's not "found money" or "recovered sales", the surfer was going to join the site regardless, the only reason they closed the join page and arrived at the "chat recovery" program was because they wanted to see if they would be presented with a better offer before joining. Why would I pay someone 50% of the sale just because the surfer wanted to be sure he was getting the best possible rate?

2. Isn't 50% a bit excessive when you're talking about a potential customer that you've gotten to your site, and then to your join page through no assistance from the "chat recovery" program. You paid to get the customer there (whether from long-term branding, seach engine traffic, PPC, affiliate traffic, etc). We pay affiliates 50% of a sale when they're actually driving the customer to the site. Why would I pay 50% to another party that isn't even bringing the customer to the site? I would think something more like 10% would be more in-line with the service being offered by these programs.

I'm just looking for some "intelligent discussion" on this subject particuarly from other program owners as well as companies offering chat recovery solutions.

[$tandaman]

Jake, i think you need to split test, and track results, on all types of traffic.

And see if it adds more money to your bottom line at the end of the day.. that's all that really matters.

I agree that some technology seems to have high fees.. but i guess you have to negotiate that

[AJHall]

We've had nothing but positive feedback from the CMS customers we have who use Chat Recovery. What I'm not sure about is if most are as concerned with whether the service provider is deserving of the % as they are in recovering as many exits as they can.

To add a bit more to the argument this also doesn't consider the bookmarkers who may come back up to several times and are simply reluctant to join...but who would have likely paid full price. You're definitely going to give up 50% of some sales that normally would have been 100% in house joins.

I have to agree with Stan on this. The only way to know the ROI and if the % is justifiable would be to split test a tour that uses Chat with one that only uses your in-house discount methods.

As an Elevated X user you can easily setup a cloned version of a tour in the CMS in about 5 minutes if you want to find out

If you need help with this let us know.

AJ

[WiredGuy]

Experienced surfers expect the chat recovery window or some sort of discount to be presented. I don't think the average surfer expects it though.
WG

[Allison]

Jake, we had the same questions years ago when were being sold on similar products. Ultimately, we ended up going with our own static back out offer, rather than a chat. We found the static back out offer worked well enough and the chat option wouldn't be able to significantly more to counter the revenue share and implementation costs.

I'd also be curious how well a chat would do for your sites when the customer might prefer that the site is all Allie and not some customer service bots.

[Paper_Amar]

Originally Posted by Allison

Jake, we had the same questions years ago when were being sold on similar products. Ultimately, we ended up going with our own static back out offer, rather than a chat. We found the static back out offer worked well enough and the chat option wouldn't be able to significantly more to counter the revenue share and implementation costs.

I'd also be curious how well a chat would do for your sites when the customer might prefer that the site is all Allie and not some customer service bots.

can you show an example of how your static back out offer please? Thanks in advance!

[Allison]

Originally Posted by Paper_Amar

can you show an example of how your static back out offer please? Thanks in advance!

Yeah, although it's pretty dated. A few years old and we are just coming back to focusing on our PC sites again and optimizing. Anyhow here it is:

http://www.teensforcash.com/index.ph...n=BackoutOffer
(if there was user data filled in it would carry through the user data)

How/when it happens:
Go to a site like www.teensforcash.com
Go to join and fill out some info
See epoch & customer thinks "oh shit, I have to pay now, uhhh 39.95 might be too much)
We check the referring url (yes, won't work with all customers)
We show the backout offer for 50% of the 1 month option & pitch the access to all the sites

They can hit back again or No Thanks and they get taken back to the tour.

[J$tyle$]

Originally Posted by WiredGuy

Experienced surfers expect the chat recovery window or some sort of discount to be presented. I don't think the average surfer expects it though.
WG

Agreed.

Originally Posted by Allison

Yeah, although it's pretty dated. A few years old and we are just coming back to focusing on our PC sites again and optimizing. Anyhow here it is:

http://www.teensforcash.com/index.ph...n=BackoutOffer
(if there was user data filled in it would carry through the user data)

How/when it happens:
Go to a site like www.teensforcash.com
Go to join and fill out some info
See epoch & customer thinks "oh shit, I have to pay now, uhhh 39.95 might be too much)
We check the referring url (yes, won't work with all customers)
We show the backout offer for 50% of the 1 month option & pitch the access to all the sites

They can hit back again or No Thanks and they get taken back to the tour.

The thing about the chat recovery programs is that they get past way more pop up blockers than any 'normal' exit strategy ... AND it's "interactive" ... obviously, most users that begin chatting THINK they are chatting with a human AND the 'scripts' chat recovery programs use appear to interact appropriately with most 'normal' responses from surfers since they have so much data from what surfers have responded over the years ... AND the chat bot constantly "goes for the close"

I always thought if chat recovery programs only took $2 or $3 for the recovered sale more companies and sites would be using them ... then again, I don't know what their costs are.

IMHO coding something similar that beats the pop up blockers is probably an independent adult site and program operators best bet. It's not rocket science, you can find some off the shelf scripts if you look hard enough.

[Jake]

Originally Posted by AJHall

.....As an Elevated X user you can easily setup a cloned version of a tour in the CMS in about 5 minutes if you want to find out

If you need help with this let us know.

AJ

Once we get NaughtyAllie re-launched running ElevatedX we'll definitely want to try a couple different tours. BTW, where would you like Gene to send your cheeseburgers? ;-)

[Jake]

Originally Posted by Allison

Jake, we had the same questions years ago when were being sold on similar products. Ultimately, we ended up going with our own static back out offer, rather than a chat. We found the static back out offer worked well enough and the chat option wouldn't be able to significantly more to counter the revenue share and implementation costs.

I'd also be curious how well a chat would do for your sites when the customer might prefer that the site is all Allie and not some customer service bots.

Yeah, the numbers just don't seem to make sense but there are so many companies using these solutions that I started wondering if I'm just not "getting it".

Funny you brought up the aspect of how potential customers may feel about a bot on a site like ours as we were also wondering the same thing. If only AI was far enough along to have a realistic "Allie bot" that would close the deal for potential customers that were on the fence.

[J$tyle$]

Originally Posted by Jake

Yeah, the numbers just don't seem to make sense but there are so many companies using these solutions that I started wondering if I'm just not "getting it".

Funny you brought up the aspect of how potential customers may feel about a bot on a site like ours as we were also wondering the same thing. If only AI was far enough along to have a realistic "Allie bot" that would close the deal for potential customers that were on the fence.

You should talk to Rick at Exit Chat and Billy at Intellichat ... they quite possibly could customize the AI bot to suit your needs best as reasonably possible. Also, I'm sure you get that most surfers that haven't joined already don't intimately know who Allie is or how she interacts ... and it IS a number's game

Negotiate a couple/few $'s commission with them to customize the bot to your needs ... if you have enough traffic to make it worth their while - they may bite ... it's worth an attempt, don't you think?

[intellichat]

Originally Posted by Jake

Yeah, the numbers just don't seem to make sense but there are so many companies using these solutions that I started wondering if I'm just not "getting it".

Funny you brought up the aspect of how potential customers may feel about a bot on a site like ours as we were also wondering the same thing. If only AI was far enough along to have a realistic "Allie bot" that would close the deal for potential customers that were on the fence.

Hey Jake, there are a number of ways in which you can customize a campaign. Changing the settings and appearance allows you to try different things.

We have settings which allow you to delay activation, so you don't need to offer an incentive on the 1st exit - possibly do it on the 2nd or 3rd. You can also remove it for repeat visitors, so it's a 1-time only discount.

We have the ability to customize responses and the look / feel of your campaign... Even to the extent of using video footage of your girls.

If you're interested in trying it out drop me an email and we can discuss rates & get you set up on a free trial.

Thanks,
Billy

[Exit-chat]

I think this is a worthwhile discussion to have. The real substance is going to be in testing different solutions; something we invite all of our partners to do and something we are almost obsessive in doing ourselves. The fantastic thing about chat technologies is the layers in which we are able to test. Unlike a static solution, a clone or an email rescue (when you have contact info to email to), with chat we are able to receive real and immediate feedback from the customer which can be used to hone the messaging and incentive to the abandoning visitors' concerns, not to mention handle all the technical aspect and additional increase in revenue.


But in addressing specific concerns:

1. Are visitors trained? Will I order if I don't find any incentive? Maybe, maybe not. This is no doubt true to with any pay adult site's visitors – some will come back and buy regardless, some we are saving, some there don't even own a credit card. We have business rules that can be added to address any and all of these concerns for a client.

The great thing about chat technologies is the ability to react to immediate concerns. Last month alone with just one of our client sites we recovered 328 sales with people asking about how the charge would show up on their credit card. This type of customer will most likely not put their credit card down without having this information.

While most of our partners address this in the order page people still had the concern, and incentive or not we were able to reassure them that the charge will not be obvious. This is just one example, there are many more that prove the effectiveness of the technology.

2. The bounty you are talking about is not unreasonable considering the work we put into the chat from the get-go, as well as the ongoing maintenance. Ignoring the cost of the graphics and integration, we staff scriptwriters and audit teams who are tasked with optimizing individual campaigns as well as vertical wide performance. We also have a full tech team optimizing display rates and speeds, visitor rules and browser behavior. I would wager that we are very close to the cost that the hardest working publishers put into their effort on a per-sale basis. We do work with each customer though to ensure that the program revenue model works for all involved.

All this said, we are a tool that increases sales, assists in valuable information and always evolving our technology to offer new solutions and a better mouse trap. If we make sense for what you are doing then you should use us. We master in exit-technology, and any half measure that gives you a fraction of results but might be much cheaper or free, is certainly something to consider but YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR.


We have had clients move to testing other solutions and when it comes to support, technology, customization and results we have most customers come back and continue using our solutions.


Everyone's business is a little different but laying out the cost-benefit analysis of a chat technology versus any other system or method should be part of your internal discussions. But after 6 years in business, thousands of sites launched, I am confident that we are the best solution out there and am always willing to prove it.

I invite any and all to contact me direct and ask if we can accommodate any of your requests, challenges or needs and yes there is a FREE test available for new clients wanting a no risk option.

Please email if i am not available on ICQ and away from GFY.

Best
Rick

[Exit-chat]

There are a few other benifits that can be addressed by working with a company that has been in the recovery chat business for years and only does customer recovery, not other business...

Challenge: For some affiliates and clients, A very big question is:
"How do we work with an exit chat or exit codes when we do search since it is not allowed on PPC traffic"

Answer- We have built google and other search compliant code that allow you to use our solutions on your search traffic as well.... Google's T&C's dont allow exits on pages from google search but we have built this as a feature a few years ago that allow our clients to still use it on PPC media and is signed of and compliant for PPC media.

This is one small example of technology that is available when you work with a company that specializes in exit-chat type solutions.

[J$tyle$]

Originally Posted by intellichat

Hey Jake, there are a number of ways in which you can customize a campaign. Changing the settings and appearance allows you to try different things.

We have settings which allow you to delay activation, so you don't need to offer an incentive on the 1st exit - possibly do it on the 2nd or 3rd. You can also remove it for repeat visitors, so it's a 1-time only discount.

We have the ability to customize responses and the look / feel of your campaign... Even to the extent of using video footage of your girls.

If you're interested in trying it out drop me an email and we can discuss rates & get you set up on a free trial.

Thanks,
Billy

Originally Posted by Exit-chat

I think this is a worthwhile discussion to have. The real substance is going to be in testing different solutions; something we invite all of our partners to do and something we are almost obsessive in doing ourselves. The fantastic thing about chat technologies is the layers in which we are able to test. Unlike a static solution, a clone or an email rescue (when you have contact info to email to), with chat we are able to receive real and immediate feedback from the customer which can be used to hone the messaging and incentive to the abandoning visitors' concerns, not to mention handle all the technical aspect and additional increase in revenue.


But in addressing specific concerns:

1. Are visitors trained? Will I order if I don't find any incentive? Maybe, maybe not. This is no doubt true to with any pay adult site's visitors ? some will come back and buy regardless, some we are saving, some there don't even own a credit card. We have business rules that can be added to address any and all of these concerns for a client.

The great thing about chat technologies is the ability to react to immediate concerns. Last month alone with just one of our client sites we recovered 328 sales with people asking about how the charge would show up on their credit card. This type of customer will most likely not put their credit card down without having this information.

While most of our partners address this in the order page people still had the concern, and incentive or not we were able to reassure them that the charge will not be obvious. This is just one example, there are many more that prove the effectiveness of the technology.

2. The bounty you are talking about is not unreasonable considering the work we put into the chat from the get-go, as well as the ongoing maintenance. Ignoring the cost of the graphics and integration, we staff scriptwriters and audit teams who are tasked with optimizing individual campaigns as well as vertical wide performance. We also have a full tech team optimizing display rates and speeds, visitor rules and browser behavior. I would wager that we are very close to the cost that the hardest working publishers put into their effort on a per-sale basis. We do work with each customer though to ensure that the program revenue model works for all involved.

All this said, we are a tool that increases sales, assists in valuable information and always evolving our technology to offer new solutions and a better mouse trap. If we make sense for what you are doing then you should use us. We master in exit-technology, and any half measure that gives you a fraction of results but might be much cheaper or free, is certainly something to consider but YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR.


We have had clients move to testing other solutions and when it comes to support, technology, customization and results we have most customers come back and continue using our solutions.


Everyone's business is a little different but laying out the cost-benefit analysis of a chat technology versus any other system or method should be part of your internal discussions. But after 6 years in business, thousands of sites launched, I am confident that we are the best solution out there and am always willing to prove it.

I invite any and all to contact me direct and ask if we can accommodate any of your requests, challenges or needs and yes there is a FREE test available for new clients wanting a no risk option.

Please email if i am not available on ICQ and away from GFY.

Best
Rick

Well, there's some good info!

[Karupted Charles]

Jake,
Long time no talk. You had asked me about this in Vegas a year or 2 ago and I will say now what I said then. Anyone that tells you that it is a good idea to have an Allie bot is trying to pander to you for business. Allie is your brand and you do not want anyone or thing out there diluting that by trying to be her. Further why would you want to offer interaction with your product before they join. That is one of the perks of joining. There is allot of companies out there that can offer recovery tools. Allison has some great points about a static system and further I agree 50% is to much to pay. One of the reasons VAA was started was due to the fact these mainstream companies trying to move into the adult market who don't know how paysites really work since they never ran one are asking way to much. We wanted to make a solution like this economically feasible for the average program owner. We charge the lowest flat rate per sale and even offer month lease pricing if you want to avoid paying per sale. Hit me up webmaster at virtual adult agent dot com if you want to talk further.

[stever]

if you want to offer a discount
do it yourself with your own page
and keep 100%

just my

[czarina]

that's why we don't offer any discounts on signup. Our sites are worth the $24.95 we charge, period.

[robwod]

One thing to consider is that, in terms of affiliate programs, exit chat solutions generally rely on someone else's traffic. They have no traffic of their own, so they rely on the work you, and your affiliates, have invested. They intercept the surfer along the tour/join page, even if the potential customer checks the join page just to see prices, then clicks the back button to resume the tour. Personally, I find this type of behavior parasitic in nature.

Some affiliates will not mind having their links and/or cookies intercepted and/or modified, others certainly will.

One good thing with most of these programs is that you can enable or disable these links for specific affiliates or create an exit free tour that affiliates can choose from -- one that suppresses these exit bots.

The type of implementation should be given consideration if affiliates are part of your business model.

[ottopottomouse]

I always find the exit discount irritating. If the site can afford to drop the price by a third to still get a sale then the price should have cheaper to start with. The double layer ones that for example take $59 item and drop it to $39, then drop it again to $19 are particularly insulting.

On the other hand, i often hunt for discount codes but see using them as price minus code = true price, whereas price without code = naïve idiot price.

[livexxx]

Originally Posted by ottopottomouse

I always find the exit discount irritating. If the site can afford to drop the price by a third to still get a sale then the price should have cheaper to start with. The double layer ones that for example take $59 item and drop it to $39, then drop it again to $19 are particularly insulting.

I also think however that if someone has closed the payment page, they are basically going, so even an insult that results in a sale is good. If they didnt close the payment page and made the sale, then they never got the insult ;)

[C H R I S]

Both Exit Chat and Intellichat provide a great service - test them out and see.

[Fenris Wolf]

Does anyone have any new updates regarding their experience with any exit chat solutions? Anyone end up doing split tests and are willing to share their experiences?

[stocktrader23]

Originally Posted by Fenris Wolf

Does anyone have any new updates regarding their experience with any exit chat solutions? Anyone end up doing split tests and are willing to share their experiences?

Seems like if you had a big site with traffic you'd do good by popping a live webcam girl (non nude even) to talk to all of the potential customers in real time in a group room.

[marlboroack]

It really depends what your site is actually worth.. People go hay wire over this topic when drinking beer.

[Operator]

What's your gut and instinct telling you is going to enforce the lowest amount of communication and such conversions.