Webgreeter.com Decides to Hire Only Applicants with Good Typing Speed

In the cutthroat world of online business, tiny glitches can cause huge losses. To avoid losing potential customers and to attract more, seemingly trivial shortcomings have to be disposed off. Which is why, Webgreeter.com has decided not to employ applicants with a slow typing speed for the position of a Live Greeter.

Customer retention is primarily done through Live Greeters since they initiate the conversation and grab details from the customer regarding what product/services they desire. All this is done over chat so everything depends entirely on the efficiency of the Live Greeter and it is needless to say that typing speed matters more than it seems. It has frequently been observed that slow typing speed causes visitors to click away and browse to competitors’ websites that may provide a speedy response. Apart from the fact that slow typing speed annoys visitors, it also causes spelling mistakes, which happen to be the most frequently committed crime amongst language errors.

In a verbal conversation you obviously do not have to spell, but in a Live Chat Session, visitors invariably judge Live Chat Agents on how they spell words, and the smallest of errors become the subject of close scrutiny. Spelling errors are a poor reflection on the company itself and are just as undesirable as a slow typing speed. Live Chat Agents with slow typing speeds have to resort to using short versions of real words, which makes them seem unprofessional, leaving the visitor with an unpleasant and unfriendly experience, who is then understandably forced to click away.

Webgreeter.com employs only those applicants who have a sound command over the language and are not likely to committing language errors.

Having a good typing speed is essential for Live Chat Agents since they are required to handle three to four conversations at a time, which can prove to be a Herculean task for someone with a slow typing speed. A Live Chat Agent is required to pay due attention to each and every customer, listen attentively, and understand and acknowledge what they are saying. Slow typing speed spoils the whole experience, leading to inattentiveness, carelessness, misinformation, and, eventually, customer dissatisfaction.

In essence, good typing speed and good language skills are more than just standards. As one can see, they are also necessities.

2010-06-30T15:58:41