Live Chat for Information & Referral

1. Live Chat for Information & Referral Panelists: Shye Louis, 2-1-1/LIFE LINE, Rochester NY Laura Zink Marx, NJ 2-1-1 Partnership

2. Communication is migrating from voice to other channels • The average U.S. mobile phone subscriber now sends and receives more text messages than voice calls. • -Nielson Mobile, September 2008 • http://www.bizreport.com/2008/09/nielsen_mobile_texting_vs_talking.html • Instant Messaging is wildly popular, disproportionately so for younger age groups. • 14.2 billion messages per month (2006)

3. Why add Live Chat? • Are we in the “Phone” business ? • Or are we in the “Helping” business? • Panelist history/reasons for using Live Chat services

4. Chat Keeps I&R in the Helping Business: • Accessibility to inquirers is a core principle of I&R • Inquirers who are deaf/hearing impaired • Inquirers who have speech impairment • Inquirers who prefer the medium to telephone • Inquirers who do not have access to a phone but do have access to internet • Enhancement to public searching your website

5. Common areas of concern about Chat: • Can text adequately convey connection with the chat visitor? • What is my center’s liability? • How do we handle emergencies that present via chat? • What technology platform should I use? • How much volume will we receive? • How do I train staff to provide service online? • How can I ensure I have enough staff to meet demand, without any new funding?

6. Mitigating Liability • Disclaimers • IT Security

7. Choosing Chat Software • Cost • One time • On-going • Security • Ease of Use • Ease of Installation and Set-Up • Desired features

8. Choosing Chat Staff • Not all staff are created equal when it comes to chat • In addition to excellent I&R skills chat specialists should demonstrate: • the ability to multi-task • have the ability to work under pressure • have strong written communication skills • have strong typing skills • preferably have previous experience using IM or other chat services.

9. Training chat staff • Trained I&R Specialists • Training Manual/Guidelines • Software Training • Practice Chats

10. Differences in Chat • Tone of voice/inflections are not present • Increased importance on clear, concise language • Discourages use of slang and humor • Need to “read” the communication style of your visitor and respond accordingly • Chat segment style • Chat length is generally longer than call length to cover the same material. Need to consider this when staffing chat • Takes longer to type than speak • Chat culture – inquirers might be multi-tasking while chatting • Expectation for chat staff different in terms of response time

11. Chat Process • Identical to I&R Process • Listen • Assess • Action Plan • Close • Active listening skills such as paraphrasing and reflection of feeling are still critical to having good contact • Opportunity to assist with online database navigation

12. Operational Decisions • Availability • Hours of Operation • Managing queue of calls and chats • Multiple chats • Use of chat slang, abbreviations and emoticons • Canned Responses • Information collected from chat visitors • Documentation and reporting considerations • Promotion/marketing

13. Chat Dilemmas • Out of service area/out of country chats • Prank chats • Opening links sent from chat visitors • Contact from “bots” • Repeat chat visitors • Suicide Emergencies and other emergencies – considerations in sending emergency services

14. Supervision and Evaluation of Chat Services • Self-evaluation by chat staff • Monitoring of chats in real-time • Review transcripts of chats • Post-chat feedback survey

15. Chat Demonstration • www.211fingerlakes.org • http://www.nj211.org/

16. Other National Chat Efforts to learn from/collaborate with: • Veterans Crisis Chat • Homeless Veterans Chat • National Suicide Prevention Lifeline chat efforts • Contact USA Crisis Chat

17. The Future • What else is already out there/coming soon? • Email • Texting • Integration with social networking • Video • ???