Improving the Browse Listeners (personal request) experience
Lately, it has become clear to me that the experience trying to find and chat with a specific listener (as opposed to making a general request for the next available listener with the "Connect Now" button), via the "Browse Listener" flow, currently leaves much to be desired.
There seem to be bugs that are increasing the risk of people getting ignored or left hanging, and some listeners also have trouble managing their availability.
I've heard that sorting by available listener does not (always?) work, that it would be nice to have people from your country or language sorted to the top by default, that the filtered search can be slow, and other things.
So, i thought I'd start a conversation here as I study these flows and mechanisms and try to work out the best ways to improve them in the near future.
Please share anything you are experiencing now or have noticed that makes browsing listeners and connecting with someone you requested specifically fail or not work as well as it should.
(Feel free to suggest solutions as well but you don't need to have an idea for how to fix a problem to tell me about the problem, and if you do propose a solution please be aware that we may recognize the problem and decide to solve it in another way, or as part of a more holistic improvement.)
Have at it! (and thanks! I couldn't do my job without your help!)
It's not currently an option, but a listener age range would be nice. As discussed in a recent forum trail, I am of a certain age 😊 and although I TRULY appreciate all listeners, I really don't want to chat with a 17 year old., for example.
thanks, yes, I have heard about a desire for more age categories (and not being a teen myself, I can empathize!)
I posted this suggestion on a listener forum, and will re-post it here per a suggestion from @MichaelMichael.
I have been chatting almost exclusively with 20-25 year olds. That is fine, I like young people, and this has given me food for thought about how the world has changed since I was young. Last night a 63 year old sought me out because we are in the same age group. I'm seeing at this time that 7Cups is frequented primarily by young adults. I hope this will evolve, much like Facebook started as social media for university students, and has grown to include all age groups. At 7Cups, currently a member has 2 choices regarding the listener's age: under 18 and over 18. I would love to see 7Cups move toward expanding this choice to a checkbox (as opposed to radio button) dropdown, where a member can target one or more age groups. Perhaps decades would work, such as 20-29, 30-39, etc. Another idea is to identify age groups by popular name, e.g. boomer, gen x, millenial, etc. Again, the member could select multiple age brackets.
I suggest that some emotional issues are universal, and some are specific to a particular age group. As a boomer, I can identify issues such as eldercare, sandwiching (caring for both children and parents), PTSD from Vietnam, finding meaning in retirement (a biggie), living on a reduced income, relationships with grandchildren, relationships with adult children, housing options, loss of libido, menopause,... I could go on and on.
It would be great if 7Cups, as it evolves, could offer chat topics to members based on their stated ages, if the member so chooses.
I think this is a great idea and I think we can manage it as we go back through the browse listeners experience.
The forums we set up awhile by age group, I wonder if we could use them in the meantime, of course only for people who find them.
That is in the, say 40-49 group forum, listeners could identify themselves if interested or available in taking chats with people of a similar age, or even some matchmaking could go on possibly?
@LetsHaveTea great idea , would love this because I too am 50+ , I get a lot of members who say it is nice to chat with a older listener.
I second this notion strongly!
@yzzil - I just wanted to note, that if you're 18 or over, you should never have to speak to someone under the age of 18. The age groups are split so that when you sign up, you'll only be able to speak to those in your age group. Either Teens (listeners who're 16/17, members from 13-17) or Over 18 (listeners and members who're over 18). You should never have to speak to 17 year olds as your account is an adult account.
Long post! My point is, that if you ever come across a listener who is 17, you should email community@7cups.com as the listener should be on a Teen account, not an Over 18 account!
I'll just note that you can interact with everyone in the forums - it's chats and group support chats that are separated by age range :)
thanks for clarifying that. my impression is that the idea is to distinguish adult age ranges in some way as well.
I agree. I am 64 and would love to support members with issues pertaining to middle age.
It's often not obvious to new users how to use the search feature - I suppose this is no different from the way some people know how to compose an effective Google search query and others struggle. The most common situation I've encountered is that in a chatroom someone will recommend a specific listener as helpful and it's not obvious that putting the listener's name into the field "Find Keywords" will let them make that connection. The other way to find a specific person, typing in as a URL http://www.7cups.com/@<listername>, is also a bit awkward for the less tech-savvy. While it's redundant with other ways to find a specific listener, some kind of "Find Listener by Name" button or text entry box will probably make it easier for many.
There have been suggestions in forums for specific ways of sorting listeners that are simply not possible right now (I mainly remember people wishing they could, say, find a listener of a particular gender in a specified age range). I'd like to see options for listeners to make some of that kind of personal information available to a search if they are comfortable sharing that with the site. It would also be nice to have a capability to combine things we already have, so for instance being able to search for a listener wo indicates comfort with listening to both anxiety AND eating disorders.
oh, it's good to know that a keyword search won't match a username. That is probably easier to fix than some of the other problems.
Great feedback on the challenges of search, thanks!
I've had the idea of searching for listeners by badge (like the verified listener badge) but I don't know if that could work @Krinkthemellowunicorn
You actually can currently, but it's awkward. Instead of just searching, you need to go to the listener reputation section under 'About'.
I agree it would make sense to have this option in the browse listeners section.
Could the find a listener option have a refine search option, similar to when you're shopping? Lol.
For example, you narrow down the search, by age, skills, etc, and choose from those which fit your criteria.
On the Browse Listener page, there are actually certain filter options, as follows: Age (Teen or Over 18), Category, Country, Language and you can also sort by Availability, Screen Name, Cheers, Chats and Listener Rating - although to be perfectly honest, this is sometimes hit or miss as to whether it filters as you'd want! But the age filter does tend to work :)
I think the main interest is in finer age categories than "Teen/Adult." You're right that the "Teen/Adult" filter does work fine.
An issue I have had is listeners who are listed as online aren't actually available to take requests. I wish there was more education about the status on the listeners' side of things. Perhaps a popup every so often would also be useful, and if the listener doesn't respond by clicking yes within a certain timeframe, their status would default to busy.
I also wish we could search for a listener's name in a field separate from the keyword. Sometimes I want to connect with a listener and I know part of their name.
As a made up example, say there was a listener called OvercomingDarkTimes93. I've come across them before, but I can't recall if they were OvercomingDarkTimes OvercomingDifficulties or other variations and I really don't recall the number in their name. If you keyword search 'Overcoming' many listeners are going to pop up without a related username, as it's common in the bios.
I think @affectionateAvocado35 is right about the incorrect listener status issue. Perhaps an easier fix would be moving the status menu (the one that's currently located to the top left of the chat box) to the header section, right by 'About' 'Username' and the globe icon.
It would be great if we could see our status at the top of the page all the time, not just when we're on the chats page.
Wait times for popular listeners. Or show how many people a listener is talking to. It takes me over an hour each time to connect with someone. Usually the first few connections I try never pick up - but each time I refresh it says they are available.
And get rid of that 2 minute wait time message. Thats garbage. Dont show a wait time if its never true. Its never 2 minutes - its 2 hours and you know it.
@CatPlum24 I have honestly never had to wait longer than a few minutes - I'm somewhat baffled at all the users complaining about 2 hour wait times. Maybe I just got lucky?
Quick update:
First of all, thanks to everyone who has spoken up so far. Some of these issues I was already tracking (and even then getting more detail about the experience and more points of view is a huge help) and some are things I was less aware of, but it all helps.
I'm going to let more people contribute since I put up an alert over the weekend and it's just Monday, and I'll continue monitoring the thread.
Once people have had a chance to raise concerns and also to respond to each other, I will reply as well, if I have anything to add or clarify, and then over time as I work on possible solutions to these problems I'll share them back with the group.
Someone mentioned age separation but also gender may be helpful for some situations. Name and picture ot always obvious. While I am not a listener I kept generated name and adding no pic so no clues to who I am. Some listeners may be uncomfie with this though so maybe if possible make it an optional thing then people can filter by for instance m 40-50 or w 30-40 whatever they need.
