Have you ever done an online chat with a company? How about texting a company’s telephone number to communicate with it? Super helpful to get immediate service, right?
Six years ago, Darianna Bridal & Tuxedo added the ability to do an online chat with us. In addition, we set up our actual store telephone number to be able to receive text messages from customers! A few years ago, our service provider added the ability for us to initiate a text chat with customers directly.
We always knew about online chat systems but when we realized that our store’s landline could send and receive text messages, we were convinced this would be the best service on earth. And we were correct! We send and receive thousands of text messages to and from our customers every month. The system is on about 16 – 17 hours a day and we the owners and founders actually answer all chats and text messages, even when the store is not open! Yes, this is a commitment timewise, however we see how convenient and important this service is. Our brides and grooms tell us how much they love the ease of communicating with us and we love being able to provide immediate answers to you.
So with thousands of text messages and chats each month, we’ve learned a thing or two about how to make this service more efficient for you. In addition, we’ve received some interesting text messages and chats over the years, to say the least!
The following blog will help you communicate more efficiently with your bridal and tuxedo store. Our advice and tips are purely from what we learned over the years with customers attempting to text or chat with us.
Our Chat and Text System is NOT a Google Search!
Every month, we receive text messages from customers as if the person is trying to do a Google search. Here’s an actual example of a text message sent to us: “mother of the bride dresses near me”. When texting or chatting with us, you are actually communicating directly with the owners and our daughter, in real time! We don’t use computers or bots to answer, you are actually speaking to a person when you text or initiate an online chat with us.
If you type in your text message or the chat box words that you would normally type in a search engine, we will most likely ask you to clarify what you are asking or what you are looking for. We read every text message and chat and will be able to have a conversation with you as if you are talking to a friend or family member, it’s that simple!
So our advice is to be very clear about what you are looking for.
Text Chat Advice
If you initiate a text chat with us, be specific and tell us how we can help you. Tell us your name, what you are looking for and how we can help you.
If you send a picture, please tell us what the photo is and how we can help you with it. Random photos that are delivered to our text chat system don’t help us help you without adequate explanation. Are you looking for the dress you sent us? Are you looking for a similar tuxedo to the one you sent in the photo? Giving us your name allows us to be more personal with you. If you are looking for our hours, it’s very efficient to text or chat us by writing: “Hi, my name is Lisa. Can you tell me your hours”? You’ll receive an immediate response with the exact information you are looking for, thus saving yourself time.
When you start a text chat with us, all we can see is a phone number and nothing else. Your name and what you are looking for would help you receive a quicker and more complete response. Oftentimes, a customer will text us “did my dress arrive?”. If all we can see is your phone number, we unfortunately don’t know who you are and what kind of dress you purchased. If you give us your name and / or tell us that you purchased a wedding dress, we will be able to more quickly look up the information for you.
Try to Finish the Conversation
Whether you’re doing an online chat or a text chat, try to stay with the conversation. We often have someone text us or write to us through the chat system and then they stop communicating in the middle of the conversation. Eventually the system times out and the conversation automatically ends. Texting us is not like texting your friend who looks at his or her phone throughout the day and can pick up with the conversation later in the day.
For your privacy, our system will end the chat when there is inactivity for a certain period of time. We understand that you may get side tracked or you may be at work, so a starting new conversation later is no problem. However, the systems are designed to end the text or online chat after there is no activity after several minutes.
We Aren’t keeping Your Information
As we mentioned before, we receive and send thousands of messages every month. We don’t have the time to look back at your phone number or chat information, other than to answer your questions, set an appointment or say hello. If we could post a day’s worth of chat in the blog, it would go on for a hundred pages! Your information is safe with us. As a family owned business, the most precious thing we have, other than our employees, is our time. We just don’t have time to go back to your phone number or chat information. Your information is also automatically purged from the system to help with privacy.
Online Chats
Online chats work a little differently. When initiating an online chat, you are requested to fill out your name and email address so that we can communicate with you in a more personal manner. Again, you are talking to a live person when you chat Darianna Bridal & Tuxedo. Our goal is to answer your questions as quickly and thoroughly as possible. The more information you give us, the better we will be able to answer your question. If we don’t have an immediate answer, we will tell you that we will text or email you later. This often happens when the staff is busy with other customers or if we are texting or chatting with you outside of business hours. We may need to answer your questions when we are in the store again.
We Are Available About 16 Hours a Day!
We leave the chat and text system on for about 16 hours a day. We will answer you virtually immediately. If our system is turned off for the night, you will receive an immediate message that we are offline. However, when we turn on our phones or our computers, we will see your message and be able to answer you. No messages are lost and we will get right back to you.
Be Patient
When we receive an online chat request or text message, we are often responding from our iPhones. We typically respond very quickly but sometimes we need a minute to grab our phones or open the system on a computer. We promise, we will answer you pretty quickly but sometimes we are at the gym (yes, we have the chat system with us no matter where we are!) or finishing up with a customer.
Changes are Coming
It is not often that you see a small family business, like ours, offer live chat or text chat. While online or live chat has been around for a long time, being able to text a company’s telephone number is relatively new. Text chats are not as common and we don’t think everyone is perfectly comfortable with it yet, but with the substantial increase in volume of text messages we send and receive every month, we feel that text chatting will become more common in the next two years. Obviously, this hasn’t stopped our millennial brides and grooms from texting us! They love using the service and we love providing it.
Go Ahead and Try Texting or Chatting with Us!
Now that you can initiate an online chat or text the owners of Darianna Bridal & Tuxedo, why don’t you give it a try! Our phone number is 215-491-8500. Or click on our chat button and Wendy, Franco and Daria will be at your service!