Looking for Chat Testers - WE NEED PICS!!!
Dear Writers,
It doesn’t take us long to begin changing things after we finish making updates. So, at this moment we are making plans for our newest upcoming development.
The new development is a step toward something we’ve been pursuing for a long time - Chat (or Instant Messaging as it’s known by some) between writers and customers. Last year we tried adding chat, but the technology available at the time and the general public’s level of comfort in using it was very low. Since then, chat has become much more prevalent in places like, for example, Facebook. In fact, thanks to Facebook we now have lots of new chat apps to choose from and they do not require downloading a client app, as we found this time last year was the standard and a major obstacle in its adoption.
To keep this post short, we plan to offer chat to our customers in test mode. By ‘test mode’ we mean, that while any visiting customer will have the ability to chat with writers, only a few writers (numbering under 50) will be chosen to interact with customers. Here’s why…
1) We need to figure out the primary purpose of customers chatting with writers…is it for answers to writing questions? Is it to be led to specific letters? Or, is it to request the writers to write for them?
2) What must we provide writers to make answering questions easier? An easily searchable FAQ section? An easy way for writers to search their own letters to provide customers something that will work for the customer’s situation? A link for the writer to provide the customer for the customer to hire the writer exclusively?
3) What protocol can we design for all writers to interact with customers and lead them to the purchase of letters or prepaid requests?
4) What safeguards can we put in place to prevent writers from using LetterRep as a lead-generation center and taking the customers away?
There are probably more things we need to be watching for, but we just don’t know to ask those questions yet.
Here’s the general layout. Check out this image:
(If you see your pic here and you’d prefer for it not to be, please don’t panic. This was simply the mock-up used to show the developer what we had in mind.)
We are, however, in desperate need for writers to upload pics to their profiles so that we can begin the process of choosing which writers will be selected as testers.
Why would you want to be a tester?
We have been conducting a survey on LetterRep recently, maybe you’ve seen it on the customer side. While the #1 answer to the question ‘Why have you visited today?’ was ‘To browse,’ that answer only stands at 41%. 37% (as of this post) have wanted to ‘Ask an expert’ - YOU! Here’s part of the results page:
Marketing research and customer studies indicate that this 37% wants a letter immediately or wants someone to write one for them. Besides discovering answers to our questions above, we are providing the group of writers chosen for testing the ability to interact with customers and lead those customers to their own letters.
Testing should turn out to be very profitable to the closed group of testers, if they handle it properly.
We have very few pics of writers at the moment and we know this is a basic requirement for a tester. If you are interested (and we hope you are), please visit the writers side of your account and upload an image of yourself.
We hope to see you soon. 
~Rob
July 20th, 2009 at 1:47 pm
Hi, Rob. I’ve only written a few letters for Letterrep and only sold one. I’m considering “applying” for your new chat option, but wasn’t sure what would be required. Will we be able to choose the people that we “chat” with? Will we be trained for specific answers? What if one of those folks with a ridiculously long request wants me to write a letter and I do not choose to? Also, is dial-up an option? Sorry about so many questions!
I just don’t want to apply and then not be able to perform the tasks you are needing. Take care! Windy Lanzl
July 20th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
Hi Windy,
These are really good questions.
First, the only thing really needed to apply is to upload a pic. Customers seem to really want to chat with a face and not a default profile image.
Next, we are going to do our best to provide writers with answers to commonly asked questions, like the ‘Searchable FAQs’ I mentioned in the original post; however, based on the hundreds (maybe, thousands) of messages I’ve read from customers, I think you’ll find you can answer most of these without much studying:
“I’ve lost my password. How do I find it?”
“How much does it cost to joing?”
“How long does the membership last?”
“Do you automatically renew my account when it expires?”
The customers who will be the trickiest will be those who need a letter. Those are the situations we are most interested in tracking. When a customer comes and begins chatting with you, we want you to be successful in answering the customer’s questions and either finding a letter of your own that will suit their needs or convincing the customer that you are fully capable of composing a letter for them. The goal, of course, is to have the customer purchase your existing letter or have the customer prepay to have you write one.
To answer your question about the ridiculously long letter requests, we have an answer…
You should be able to negotiate a price.
Other writers have done this and here’s how it worked…
The customer requested a writer to contact them so we gave the request to a writer. The writer found out that the letter was especially long and explained to the customer that, according to the LetterRep.com Customer Terms of Use, LetterRep’s letters are generally 1-page long. At that point, the customer and writer agreed to a set price. The writer then told the customer to send the fixed amount (plus 2.9% + $0.30) through PayPal.com to the address ‘payments@letterrep.com.’ The writer then notified me to be on the lookout for the set amount. Upon LetterRep receiving the amount, the writer began working and sent the draft to the customer. Upon final approval by the customer, the writer told the customer to email me at ‘admin@letterrep.com’ with a confirmation. Once I received the confirmation, I posted the entire amount minus LetterRep’s member fee (the most recent case is roughly around $35) to the writer’s account.
That’s really about it.
BTW, we are continuing to work on ways for writers to recommend themselves exclusively to customers and ways for writers to negotiate payments. Thanks for your patience.
Great questions!
Please upload a pic.
~Rob
July 20th, 2009 at 5:30 pm
Hi Rob & everyone — I am interested in being a chat tester! I do have a photo posted already…is this one ok, Rob? Or would you rather I send a pic with just me & not my pup too? He helps me writer, but of course I can make him incognito if you like :-))
Chaz
July 20th, 2009 at 5:31 pm
Ugghh, a silly typo threatens to undo me! I meant ‘write’ above, not ‘writer’. Looking forward to trying out this new chat feature.
Chaz
July 20th, 2009 at 9:56 pm
Hi Rob!
I’m interested. Saw my pic on the mock up layout. All your plans for chat [especially item (2)] would be perfect for everybody’s benefit. Hope it would be implemented as soon as possible. Best regards.
August 3rd, 2009 at 4:53 pm
Dear Rob,
Good day Sir!
As time marches by, I’m finding myself more deeply intrigued by the process you have begun here. Where I believed was simply an original avenue for a Writer to occasionally make a casual buck - every now and then, indeed shows you have designs to make the well more expansive.
Your “CHAT” project is, I believe, an extremely interesting and quite service oriented mission and I ask that you’ll entertain my request to be allowed to help in any fashion where you feel I might fit in.
Sales and Marketing are not my forte but I do have an inordinate amount of time on my hands.
Congratulations on a wonderful and UNIQUE venue.
Cheers, and here’s to YOUR - thereby ‘OUR’ - SUCCESS!
gypsyzghost
August 6th, 2009 at 11:43 pm
@R. Mansfield,
Sorry for the delay in replying, but thank you very much for your nice post.
Yes…I am working to try to create a very unique service for all of us. I’m writing the next blog post which I think you will find very interesting. Please let me know your comments.
Thanks again,
Rob