Over the years, we’ve regularly expanded and contracted the channels through which we assist our customers. In the last 18 months we brough Live Chat back along with adding Twitter, Discord, and Official Forums as venues by which our Customer Service Staff can be contacted. We will now be closing Live Chat as one of those venues.
Why close live chat?
As with each Customer Service channel, there are strengths and weaknesses of Live Chat. I love our ability to help customers near instantly when we have Live Chat open. We are very good at assisting quickly with a very small number of issues. This small number of issues we can help with has led to a bottle neck in how we are able to help players. A significant majority of Live Chats opened result in the creation of an email ticket through help.funcom.com, because we can not help them in live chat; this duplicates the work necessary and hinders our efficiency. To relieve this bottle neck, we are closing Live Chat.
How can I get help now?
Funcom Customer Service is still accessible through email, in-game petition and forums. We also frequent our SWL’s Official Discord server and administrate the @funcomhelp Twitter account. With combinations of these varied venues, we are able to communicate more effectively with our players at large while also providing personal service through secured channels.
Will Live Chat come back?
As we have in the past, we will revisit the necessity of Live Chat as a service for our customers as we monitor and measure our Customer Service performance. Last year, in anticipation of the announcement and launch of Secret World Legends, we decided to reopen Live Chat, because it was to the benefit of our Customers to do so. We will continue to monitor our performance and track the amount of time required to assist with different types of issues.
How could this possibly improve the Customer Service you offer?
We will be better able to help more customers on our first interaction with them. We will be able to immediately transfer customers in need of account or billing specialists. We will be able to provide comprehensive information concerning a customer’s problem without the complications and limitations of a Live Chat. We will eliminate the redundancy that is prevalent with tickets generated in Live Chat. We will be helping more people more effectively with more efficiency.