Consider implementing live chat support if you want better customer service. It is an excellent way to personalize interactions and provide basic company information to your customers. However, to make live chat support a success, companies must plan its implementation and management before implementing it. Successful deployments consider chat routing, agent experience, and whether live chat agents will support other channels. This article outlines some of the best practices for providing live chat support.
Customer service through chat
The success of customer support through live chat depends on the training your team receives. When your team is appropriately trained and equipped, it will be easy for your customers to see it. A bad customer experience is never good, and an untrained live chat support agent will reflect poorly on your brand. There are six key ways to improve your live chat customer support. First, always communicate with your customers. Let them know when they need to wait. If they are in a bind, let them know they can redirect their conversations to a live human.
Live chat has many advantages. First, it helps you be more efficient. Unlike email and phone calls, live chat allows you to multitask while handling a customer’s query. Even though you’re managing multiple conversations simultaneously, most questions aren’t large enough to require an entire support agent’s attention. Live chat is great for gathering customer information and building rapport. The benefit of live chat is that it can save time and money.
Benefits of live chat support
Outsourcing live chat support has its benefits but also poses some challenges. One of these challenges is budget management, which can be difficult to oversee over the phone or through video conferences. Outsourced live chat support is often cheaper, though. An outsourced company usually handles live chat support, and contracts are often drawn up to ensure that the work is done to agreed-upon guidelines. Once a contract is in place, the outsourced company takes over the live chat support process.
The speed and convenience of live chat support are other benefits. A small support team often finds it challenging to cut response times without doubling payroll. In addition, tracking multiple inboxes can be difficult. Having a chat support system allows your team to stay on top of all requests, increasing the likelihood of a positive customer experience. Live chat support can also help you increase customer retention and foster positive word-of-mouth.
Best practices for providing customer service through live chat
One of the best practices for providing customer service through live chat is to tailor the chat experience to the type of customer you are dealing with. Live chats are proactive and intrusive, so the best time to pop up with a chat window will depend on the customer and the situation. You can measure customer satisfaction by implementing post-chat surveys and pre-chat forms. Follow-up actions will also allow you to identify how to improve your service.
The best practices for customer support through live chat include gathering customer feedback. You can do this by asking for their input and acting on it. As many as 30% of customers expect to have a live chat on your website, and this feature will give you valuable information about your customers. The fastest way to win customers’ hearts is by resolving their queries in the first contact. Once this is achieved, your agents will be more productive and responsive.
Cost of providing live chat support
When you consider the costs of phone calls, live chat can be cheaper than calling a customer service center. A study by the Customer Contact Council showed that customers who had to spend more than two minutes to reach a live agent were 61% less likely to return to a company after a negative experience. Additionally, phone support is inconvenient compared to live chat, as customers often feel rushed and frustrated when waiting on hold for more than a minute.
Depending on your requirements, you can choose to pay for an entire team of live chat operators or hire individual agents. Many vendors charge by the hour, but you can also select a pay-per-hire option that allows you to hire a team of agents to answer questions from customers around the clock. This type of plan is advantageous if you are a global company and need human assistance round-the-clock.
