How charities can use video chat for a more personal touch

Charities have complex customers. Some are vulnerable, some have mobility restrictions, some have mental health challenges that can prevent them from even leaving the house. For all of your customers, life can sometimes feel very overwhelming in various ways. Your customer service team’s role is unique and presents its own challenges, which is why charities have to ensure they provide their teams with the right tools to support their customers and their specific needs.

For many of your customers, getting to a resolution is key, and patience may not be a luxury they have. Their stress and anxiety could create a much bigger impact with a drawn out resolution. While live chat for your website allows your customers to connect with your charity’s customer service team much faster than via telephone, video chat opens up a method of contact that will allow you to find a resolution and create a more conducive communication space.

Misinterpretation is one of the largest offenders of stressed based conversations and can be found in every form of communication, however, there are methods to alleviate misinterpretation and adding a layer of visual context helps massively with that.

Trust is important for every customer, but especially so for those who are in more vulnerable situations. Some customers prefer live chat for your website as it can be less stressful for them, but with video chat, you are able to help those who need a more personal touch. For some, seeing someone on the other side reassures them that you are there for them, and that there is an actual person on the other side.

Body language and eye contact allow a flow of natural, non-verbal communication that the mind immediately understands effortlessly. Hand gestures and facial expressions also add a layer of visual context allowing your message to be clearly communicated without any misunderstanding or misinterpretation of meaning.

Often times, we can misinterpret text as it is missing key visual context and tone which tells us whether a statement means we are in trouble or not. People who live in a high stress environment or those who have higher baseline stress levels can easily mistake a simple text for something much more scary than it should be. Visual context of reassurance and comfort removes this miscommunication entirely.

Video chat is a massive money saver for both your charity and your customers. Physical meetings may not always be financially viable for your customers and this opens the avenue for a virtual meeting without the pressure of a physical one. Your customers are from varying backgrounds and no two are the same.

You may have a customer who suffers from crippling social anxiety and physical meetings are such a difficult thing for them, they avoid them at any cost. Having a virtual meeting opens the door for people in need to suffice the obligation of a meeting without the stress of having one.

For those who are mobility restricted, virtual meetings are a massive help, financially and emotionally, since it takes the burden of travel from them. Your customers who have these vulnerabilities are already in a difficult position so by finding ways to ease their baseline stress just a little, would mean the world to them.

In the current climate, physical meetings may not always be possible or the best solution. Those who are already vulnerable should not be placed in a position where they can become more vulnerable or more stressed. During social distancing and government mandated lockdowns, it’s important that as a charity you reassure your customers as best as you can, and let them know that you are still there for them. Video calling provides that visual context and allows a degree of social interaction without putting them at risk for contagious illness.

Click4Assistance has extensive experience with finding customer-facing communication solutions for charities all over the UK. Over the last 15 years, we have worked to ensure that your data is secure and your conversations are encrypted, so you have the peace of mind knowing that no matter what, it’s private.

The Click4Assistance desktop dashboard offers your charity live chat for your website, video chat, social media integration and even CRM integration, all in one place, so that your customer service team does not have to flip through multiple apps to keep on top of communication. It’s simple, easy to use and allows your team to focus on what’s important, while increasing productivity and efficiency.

If you’re interested in deploying Click4Assistance, the UK’s premier GDPR compliant live chat software solution, to increase your charity’s impact 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.