What Are the Ways Live Chat Improves Customer Service?

Live chat is invaluable, but how does it bridge the gap between customer and service? Let’s show you how it’s the olive branch your business needs.

We are constantly focusing on getting the right tools to improve the customer service experience. Live chat is one of the most incredible opportunities for us to make a more personal connection with customers. There are a variety of reasons why it can boost your business as far as customer service is concerned. What are these, and how can you incorporate live chat into your business to increase customer satisfaction?

How Does Live Chat Improve Customer Service?

Live chat is a fast and efficient process, not just for businesses, but for customers. But the benefits don't just stop here. Here are some of the most significant benefits that show how live chat improves customer service.

Live Chat Improves Support Experience

The main reason customers prefer live chat to speaking to someone over the phone is not just because they will get their query answered quicker than waiting on the telephone, but they get the answers in black-and-white. This immediacy improves customer satisfaction ratings for live chats over other types of support.

Live Chats Help Your Agents Build Rapport With Customers

One of the best ways for agents to develop a rapport with a customer is to match their tone and style. We can do this easier through a live chat. It becomes a more authentic way to show your customer service agents personalities through other channels.

It Improves Customer Acquisition and Onboarding

According to Forrester, consumers that use chat are 2.8 times more likely to convert than customers who do not. It is a perfect way to connect with prospective customers, as we can give them the confidence they need to spend money on our website. Even being available to provide help if it is required builds trust.

It Stops You Going Round in Circles

Repetition is one of the problems when it comes to conflicts, especially over the telephone. If a customer contacts a business with a problem, and they have contacted about this before, their frustration will naturally increase because they need to repeat themselves. With the best live chat provider software, it provides every piece of the puzzle so the customer service agent can come up to speed quickly.

Live Chat Boosts Your Business's Productivity

From a customer's perspective, they may be multitasking while speaking to you on live chat. Additionally, it can improve the productivity of your customer service agents. As customer service agents can juggle more than one live chat, this guarantees your business remains productive. While a customer is on a live chat, they have the opportunity to browse your website further, and make an informed decision, or ask more relevant questions about a product. When a customer service agent can answer these questions in great detail with live chat, it gives the information to the customer in clear text that they can use to make their decisions.

Implementing Live Chat Best Practices

As you can see, live chat provides a variety of experiences to improve customer service and the business. But that's not to say that it is plain sailing. If you want to improve the user experience for yourself and your customers, you have to implement the best practices. Here are some live chat best practices to incorporate:

Staffing Requirements

Before implementing live chat, businesses need to determine the level of support. While the best customer support agents can deal with three customers at a time, it's important to deduce if a customer service agent will require extra support to solve the problem. If a customer service agent is dealing with three customers at the same time, they will need to leave the chat window, not just to deal with the other customer, but also to conduct research. Therefore, it is crucial to deduce how staff are able to deal with a certain number of customers, as well as incorporating a practical training approach so customer service agents can deal with the issue appropriately.

Optimise the User Experience

As helpful as live chat is, you will need to consider the customer and if live chat is considered and welcome. It would be best if you struck the right balance between helping users who may need assistance and remaining unobtrusive. It is crucial to consider components such as the location of the live chat on the screen, timing on the website, as well as access to the chat. These three areas can ensure that you are not interfering with a customer's experience.

Use Live Chat as an Opportunity to Acquire Additional Customer Data

Live chat can deliver several data points about the customer journey, such as the customer's URL before the chat, their device's operating system, and their interactions with live chat previously. Considering all of this information can help to improve the customer experience and provide a more seamless transition from the last interaction with the brand to this one.

How Chatbots Are Integral to the Customer Service Experience

Live chat is an incredibly beneficial practise to build the bridge between business and customer. However, it's unrealistic to assume that your business can operate 24/7. But this is where AI and chatbots could be a massive benefit for customer service agents and customers. 80% of queries by customers are easily solved, and chatbots can help customers use a self-service portal to solve less complicated queries. It is also a beneficial way to utilise your customer service resources. In fact, chatbots are highly recommended. According to the CX Trends report, 45% of Australian consumers said they would rather interact with a chatbot than a human agent, as long as it resulted in an accurate response.

Chatbots and live chat are key tools to the customer service experience. Live chat is the best way for customers to have their problem-solved. And with 86% reporting that customers would use live chat again, it is the way forward for businesses to improve their overall customer service experience and offer that all-important olive branch to the customer. Companies need an edge over others, and customer service is the way to do it. Live chat is the key component missing in modern business.