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Live Chat Customer Support: A Brief Introduction



One of the recipes for running a successful business is to provide an excellent customer experience. A positive experience influences customers to make purchases, while a negative experience can make them stop interacting with a brand altogether. Attracting new customers is needed—but maintaining existing ones is essential to build a good reputation.


A great customer service not only involves the ability to solve a problem or answer a question promptly, but also the capability to provide a smooth and hassle-free experience. It’s a fact that many companies still rely solely on legacy solutions like call centers or in-person service. But in this day and age, of fast paced lifestyle, customers demand better options. Technology has transformed social interactions, leading to a preference for online solutions.


Staying ahead of the curve and providing cutting edge technology is something every company across the industries try to do. Making sure your enterprise communication solutions feature a ‘Live Chat Support’ system alongside email and social media management is thus one of the ways to keep up with the ever-changing customer tastes, preferences and trends. It’s an invaluable tool if used the right way.


What Is a Live chat? Is it same as a Chat bot?


A Live chat should not be confused with chatbots. A chat bot merely answers customer queries, but a Live chat does more than just that. It is a two-way communication tool that allows businesses to succeed in gaining invaluable consumer feedback so as to improve their products and services. A chatbot is just an automated service, but a live chat involves a dedicated agent.


A Live chat support is a real-time customer service using chat. It can be offered via the company website, or apps (like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger) or SMS.


Is there a need for a Live Chat Support?


Live chat makes it easy for both the parties – you as well as your customers. It allows your customers to start a conversation with you at any time. And at the same time, it allows you to connect with your customers on several touchpoints throughout the customer journey.


From instant purchases to overnight shipping, customers are used to getting what they want fast. As the focus shifted to customer service, live chat became this essential tool for businesses to engage customers and provide real-time support. A recent survey showed that 73% of customers found live chat to be the most satisfying way of communicating with a business, whereas 63% of consumers were more likely to return to a website that offered live chat.


Live chat, in recent years, has evolved from being an extra support tool to an extensive platform for marketing, sales, and customer service/relationship. With more and more businesses using live chat over chat bots, the channel’s capability now has become centered on being experience-driven than response-driven. Currently, businesses with live chat see more conversions, increased customer satisfaction, and low abandonment rates.


Check out the infographics by Invespcro.com below, for the latest stats on ‘Live Chat Support’




Top 3 Benefits of having a Live Chat for businesses:


1. Gaining insights on customer behavior and personalizing their support experience

2. Overcoming language barriers and giving customers timely responses

3. Increasing service efficiency and in turn increasing conversions and sales



DOs and DON’Ts


A bad Live Chat experience can keep customers away from your brand, whereas a good one can drive brand loyalty and increase your conversions, sales and your reputation.


Providing prompt responses, delivering customized solutions catered to individual needs and finally, giving localized support (redirecting the right native agents based on customer location data) are the basic DOs. A Live Chat must be fully utilized to obtain easily accessible customer data, to improve a business.


Delivering a scripted chat, offering a sales pitch and transferring between too many agents are the main DONTs. Oh, and also, it’s no good to provide a Live Chat Customer Support, if it is hard to find or if it is unknown to customers.

It should be easy to find, on whichever channel/s you use it. And it must be promoted on your website and your social media.



For any queries regarding setting up a Live Chat Customer Support for your business, do contact us.


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