According to an article at Lighthouse on the Web text-based chat isn't proving to be as attractive a customer support option as many hoped.

Even beyond all the hype (replace phone operators; serve more customers with less), an experiment at a home loan operation in Australia showed that very few web site visitors actually chose to use chat.

We never got into double-digit figures. The message was clear: invest our time and energy in our Web site, telephone help and face-to-face service, which we know people like.