Auto Greeters

[Rya Nitely]

We have this great script that when the owner uses one of our boats they can select an option that says 'Check for updates'. If an updated version is available it will be automatically and instantly sent to them. So it leaves the customer in control. If you don't want updates or you don't use the boat anymore then you won't be bothered.

[Madeliefste Oh]

Being greeted by a bot or script feels to me more as an insult than as a welcome. The first impression of your business is a minus, when you use such a greeter. By irritating me with this greeter, you have influenced my shopping experience at the entrance in a negative way. Your merchandise must be very good to make me step over it. 
It is just a little irritation, but when you are the sixth shop in a row that welcomes me with a greeter, it might be the reason I stop shopping and go back home to build, or log out to work on a sculpt or mesh.

Though it won't irritate everybody as much as it does me, it still is the reason I don't use auto greeters in my shops. When I'm around in the shop I welcome visitors myself. But since I build more and more outsite SL, I'm not so often in my shop, so most costumers are not greeted at all.

I do use a subscribers group. When our scripter was still working on the group script, customers often asked me why I had no update group. When I told them we were still working on it, they all asked to put them on the list or let them know when they could sign up for it.

I never push anyone to join the update group. It can happen when I talk a while with someone and I tell something about a new products I have in mind and he shows interest in them that I ask 'are you member of our update group?' I have the possibility to put their name on the list without the need for them to come over to the shop to subscribe themselves. But I will never subscribe someone without their permission. It is a service, you are free to join and free to leave.  

[Pamela Galli]

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Madeliefste Oh wrote:

It can happen when I talk a while with someone and I tell something about a new products I have in mind and he shows interest in them that I ask 'are you member of our update group?' I have the possibility to put their name on the list without the need for them to come over to the shop to subscribe themselves. But I will never subscribe someone without their permission. It is a service, you are free to join and free to leave.  

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This partly explains why my customers seem so easy going -- only the ones not irritated by a drop down stay around to shop. :smileyvery-happy:

I had and still have the same conversations with customers, but found that way too often when I told them about the update/gift group, they were unaware of it -- despite signs everywhere. This was unacceptable, because there are significant benefits to being on my list (which I have already mentioned). I have a large, busy store -- it is just not feasible to talk to any significant percentage of customers about my list -- I have to automate that discussion to some degree.  For me the proof is in the pudding -- once customers were more effectively made aware of the list, and could join by clicking a drop down button, the list began expanding rapidly; and my business grew. An expanding business is one of my primary goals.

If getting more people on the list who want to be on the list costs me the business of those who hate drop downs, that's fine. This is SL and everyone should be able to shop where they please and run their businesses the way they believe best serves the greatest number of customers. My customers are best served by being made aware of my list.

I don't expect everyone to like my store or like everything about it. Some people don't like drop downs, some don't like the kind of things I sell. MY store is for those who don't mind drop downs so much they refuse to shop where they encounter them, and for those that like what I sell. It's not for anyone else.

 

 

 

 

 

[Mila Edelman]

Overall, my shop has done better WITH the brief greeter, than without it. We also must remember the thing they teach all programmers: most people who use our stuff are NOT tech-savvy! It's not a shame to them, really. It's not. Not everyone needs to be a programmer. There's this silly idea that's been floating around for over a decade that every man should know how to use a computer at an engineer's level. I don't know why that is. While we, as experienced users, know how to make LM's, many users don't. I've actually had customers comment later that they were glad, when they were new, that OTP gives LM's, because they didn't know how to make them at the time, and wanted to be able to find the store again.

That said, I try not to be intrusive. I programmed my current greeter myself, so that I can edit it via a single text file on my http://www.oldtimeprims.com server. My main store and satellites have a slightly different greeting, and I can change all of that in one place (my web server), without having to run all over to update config files at all the satellite shops. All it does is send a private message (which appears in main chat for the specific user, since a script is messaging them, rather than an actual avatar), letting them know, in brief, of the latest stuff (right now, it's skins with vintage make-up, and realistic, classic shapes), how to contact for help (the mailbox by the door), how to sign up for the mailing list, and what the website address is. OTP's website is meant to be used, not just as a company fluff piece. It also provides style guides for all products on the individual product pages, gives more detail, options for buying, etc. Customers have made a point of thanking me for doing that.

I had contemplated providing style guides inside the product boxes, however, the better option was to include that in product pages on my website (for an example, see: http://www.oldtimeprims.com/1950s/1950s-ladies/1950s-ladies-dresses/marlene.php). That way, if I change something, I can simply change the website, instead of having to update tons of boxes and sales posters all over the grid. Customers really appreciated being made aware of this upon entering the store, so that, if they were going for a specific look, it was easy to do.

I can't stand greeters that feel the need to read me the equivalent of an entire novel, however, those that give information that's important to customers, I do like, and so do my customers.

[Mila Edelman]

On a related note, every time I have hired a person to greet customers, sales went down. Customers noted being kind of creeped out by it for some reason. My greeters were never weirdos. I don't personally understand why customers were creeped out. They just were. I try it again now and then to see if the perception has changed, and a human greeter would be helpful. So far, not.