I was browsing some comparison shopping engines recently and I came to PriceFish.com. Before I could go any further, my nice quiet speakers were interrupted by a video-like person in the bottom right corner blabbering about PriceFish.com. The first time I went to the site, there was no way to stop the talking … except to leave, which I promptly did. They have now fixed that so you can close it immediately.
My company periodically (okay, daily) receives advertisements around small business ecommerce. One of them is from SitePal.com, which promises more engagement from customers due to their talking characters.
Personally, I believe it is not smart to surprise the customer (even pleasantly sometimes). Customers do not like surprises online, and noise coming to their speakers is always a surprise. The top ecommerce companies do not do it, and live chat or displaying a phone number works just as good (or even better, in my opinion). So at the very least, let’s make those sidebar talking people optional.
Tags: PriceFish.com