I'm thinking about IM

For years I played down the value of IM as a software solution for chat reference. I've been a believer for years in the fancy web contact center software that online merchants like Lands' End pioneered on their sites. But now I'm beginning to think we should add an IM reference service to complement our chat service that is currently powered by the software from 24/7 Reference. What made me start to rethink IM? All those posts of Michael Stephens at his Tame the Web site. Missed all his posts on this topic? Here's a link to all of them.