Consumers today expect that the brands and companies with which they interact provide prompt and helpful customer service. Online live chat support is one of the quickest and easiest ways for businesses to help customers through their questions and concerns and build brand loyalty.
When a company utilizes live chat it empowers customers to ask questions about services the business offers, a product they have purchased, work towards resolving issues or provide the firm with feedback.
What is Live Chat?
Live chat support is a form of customer service in which a customer service representative provides troubleshooting, order tracking or general information services to a customer or prospective client. Live chat support is usually carried out through online chat boxes, instant messaging or text messaging.
Live chat support offers many benefits to businesses and consumers alike – people who have purchased your products or services can receive speedy customer service and issue resolution. Businesses can utilize the customer service interaction as an opportunity to improve brand strength and customer satisfaction, generating strong customer relationships.
Real-time communication between a customer and customer support agent usually looks like customers sending inquiries through a pop-up chat box built into the company’s website or social media page and receiving expedited, personalized issue resolution and experiences.
With the interconnectivity of the global economy meaning that your next customer could come from anywhere, customer service representatives need to be available at the drop of a hat to respond intelligently and quickly to your next customer inquiry. Making such service available 24/7 greatly increases the chances of a user converting into a paying customer.
Because the cost of hiring local operators in your business locale might be expensive, many businesses around the world are looking to call centers and BPO vendors in the Philippines, India and Albania to outsource customer care services at affordable rates.
Typical Chat Support Structures
Live chat boxes will usually live on the bottom right corner of your company’s website or can be accessed through the website’s contact us page with a button directing users to a customer service representative.
Many companies find it beneficial to add an automated FAQ section to the chat window pop-up. This can help reduce the customer support workload on agents as many questions can be easily managed with a list of the most commonly inquired about topics and issues.
If the website visitor’s question cannot be answered by the FAQ they are then prompted to type a personalized question into the chat box and are then connected to a customer service representative.
A plethora of software tools exist for deploying live chat channels to support customers as they navigate your website or look for help with existing orders and services. Some popular website builders and social media platforms provide built-in live chat options that can be set up and customized easily. Custom solutions for more advanced troubleshooting and support are also available for companies that want to provide in-depth support via live chat.
What are the Benefits of Online Live Chat?
Outsourcing live chat to a trusted BPO provider with experience in customer care can help your business benefit from gathering data on product and service design, improved customer experience, increased sales and cart abandonment prevention.
Valuable Services & Products Feedback
Providing live chat services allows prospects to ask detailed questions about products and services before making a purchase decision or leaving your site without making any move to buy. This provides your firm with valuable feedback about website design, product feature desirability and what clients are looking for.
Different software vendors provide the ability to then analyze live chat outputs in an organized fashion so your business can utilize keywords and conversation patterns to identify what’s important to clients. This data can inform marketing, design and product decisions.
What are customers actually looking for when they shop for this product or service? Do they require more documentation than is being provided? All these questions and more can be answered by providing live chat services and analyzing the data they produce.
Improved Customer Experience
Quick, personalized responses are the main reason why most customers prefer live chat. A user can reach out to your business the same moment they experience an issue or have a question, receiving professional help with issues they can’t resolve by themselves.
Because results are instantaneous, asynchronous-provided and easy to achieve, most customers rate live chat services higher than email or phone for customer support. This generates customer satisfaction with your brand and helps create repeat business from loyal customers, along with favorable reviews and word-of-mouth marketing.
Increased Sales
A happy customer is a returning customer – when clients feel that their needs are met with excellent live chat services, they are more likely to return to the business and make repeat purchases or to sign up for subscription services, building out recurring revenue sources.
Websites are today’s digital storefronts. When customers access your website and can easily receive support from service personnel, they are more likely to come back and shop at your business again.
Providing a live chat agent to answer questions and concerns helps pique customers’ interests as they learn more about your firm’s products and services and realize the value offered by your company.
Cart Abandonment Prevention
One of the biggest obstacles facing ecommerce companies in particular is cart abandonment. Many customers start off excited, adding items and services to their cart, only to lose steam and log off before checkout.
Providing live chat services ensures that customers can have their questions and concerns addressed immediately. This helps them feel more confident with their purchase as they acquire the necessary information for going through with the purchase and knowing that the company is present at all times to help them with their questions and concerns in the future.
Providing live chat provides customers with a feeling of security that the company cares for them, wants to provide the best information it can and that there will always be a service representative available to help with future issues and concerns.
Learn More About Live Chat Services, Today!
By outsourcing live chat with an established BPO vendor such as Sara Call Center your firm can enjoy savings of up to 70% with our cost-effective labor practices. We take care of screening, hiring and training for you with our highly-trained, English-speaking staff.
Get in touch today to learn how to boost customer retention, lower cart abandonment and increase sales with remote live chat!