Effectively using live chat to improve your customer service

Live chat integration is a commonly used customer service communication tool that can greatly improve your business’ sales and customer service departments. Finding the right tool can be difficult, especially when there are so many options to choose from, but how can your business use a live chat to effectively improve your overall customer service? Isn’t it just a normal chat where existing customers levy complaints? Or can it be a much more powerful conversion tool when effectively used?

Time to get personal

With live chat, it’s important to remember that it is, in fact, a chat. This can allow you to become a little more personal with a customer, and develop a better rapport with them. Similarly, when you’re speaking to a customer over the phone, sometimes laughing or having a joke with a customer where possible, can go a long way to developing a much deeper and more meaningful relationship with a customer. When you’re chatting with someone, remember to ‘loosen the tie’ a little and respectfully allow the conversation to develop naturally. Remember to use their name, always be respectful, and use language they will understand, without getting overfamiliar, or using too much colloquial slang.

While your customer service agents are loosening the tie a little and getting personal with customers, it’s critical to remember to watch the tone and not be too formal or familiar. Show real empathy with your customers, as they will respond a lot better, should they feel understood and that you have listened to them. Empathy will deepen that rapport, as well as show the customer that your company genuinely cares and will do what is needed to rectify the issue, which is what most customers really want. If you respond too formally, it can be taken as hiding behind the corporate brand, but also takes the conversation around a sharp turn, which can have an undesired impact during resolution. Be personal, show empathy, don’t be too formal, and your customers will be much happier.

Go slow

One of the most requested improvements for many customers who have been surveyed after a live chat is asking for less information at a time, and pacing the volume of information sent in a short space of time. Many customers are not always familiar with a chat integration, so it’s important to go slow. Ask the pertinent questions, but also wait for a response before firing over the next question. When you are sending over the solution, send it in smaller bite-sized amounts rather than all at once as it can be overwhelming. Some customers may need you to explain more, so it is important to take your time with each customer and ensure that they understand any solutions you have offered. Taking a few seconds to allow a customer to digest the information received and reply with any questions will massively improve your customer service satisfaction rate and allow a better relationship to be established with that customer.

Tell them that live chat integration is faster

When your customers call your office, be sure to offer them the alternative of live chat if they do not want to wait in the queue. Your customer service agents can speak with multiple customers at a time with Click4Assistance’s live chat integration, but only with one person at a time over the phone. This will instantly reduce the telephone queues and the call volume to your office, just by offering a live chat alternative.

Live chat can provide an instant response, especially if it is paired with an AI chatbot like Click4Assistance’s Artie, who can engage every website visitor instantly and answer basic questions without human intervention. By providing a faster communication option, your customers will be much happier, and when you have an AI chatbot that is always online and available to assist with basic requests, this will provide an additional increase in positive reviews, as your business’s website is now available and online 24/7.

Click4Assistance has over 15 years of customer service solution experience, working with businesses just like yours. The full suite works seamlessly and provides your customer service team with the right tools for the job, while providing a solution that is not only scalable and secure, but remote working friendly and increases productivity. Our dashboard is accessible from any device with a Chrome browser, giving your team the opportunity to work from anywhere seamlessly. With live chat, video chat, Click2Call, SmartContact, AI chatbot, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and your own CRM integrated, our dashboard gives your customer service agents all the tools they need to get the job done effectively and efficiently. 

If you’re interested in deploying Click4Assistance, the UK’s premier GDPR compliant live chat software solution, to increase your business’ productivity for 2020, give us a call on 08451235871 or send an email to theteam@click4assistance.co.uk and one of our experts will be with you right away. Not ready to reach out yet? Discover how it works, try a demo, or better yet, try Click4Assistance completely free for 21 days.