Advantages of Live Chat Software
Want to keep your customers delighted? Convenience is the key!
Customers today are well aware of what to expect in terms of customer service.
They access all support channels to get answers to their questions conveniently.
They do not expect to wait in long call queues.
They want detailed answers and they want them immediately
What’s more, they expect a brand to be consistent in terms of support!
Now, can a brand offer such an impeccable customer service consistently?
That’s why we see business owners implementing tools like Live Chat software to ease their support process. You must have noticed a small chat icon at the bottom right corner of a website. Using this software as a service tool, they want to:
- Provide real-time support
- Monitor visitor activities
- Track customer feedback
- Calculate customer satisfaction rate
Besides these live chat benefits, an organization can achieve a lot more. In short, a live chat tool has become a convenient option not only for customers but also for website owners.
Let’s take a look at some of the key advantages that website owners can attain by utilizing live chat software.
Key Advantages of Using Live Chat Software
- Use departments and tags for segmentation and distribution and assignment of tickets.
- Use the extended customer information view to quickly gather information about the customer you are communicating with and access multiple integrations with other apps.
- Ticket thread lets you see all communication with a customer even if it started from a different channel like chat and continued with email.
- Quick Action Buttons help you easily transfer and postpone tickets as well as add notes, and other actions.
- The Left navigation panel lets you quickly navigate across the chat dashboard. You can check all active chats, availability per agent or access settings of chat buttons.
- After Live Chat is initiated, you can see details of the customer chatting with you, like the page where chat was initiated, IP address, or previous communication.
- Thanks to our real-time typing view you are able to see what customer type even before they click "send". You can prepare your answers and amaze them with lightning-speed service.
- Similar to live chat overview, call center offers left panel that will help you navigate inside dashboard in 1 click.
- Call history offers list of all incoming and outgoing calls from LiveAgent with full-text search.
- Action button lets you open a specific call ticket so you can access call recordings and the whole ticket thread.
- Reports are a popular part of LiveAgent. They help you to see department statistics, so you can get a quick overview of what's happening in your helpdesk.
- Inside the dashboard, you can see your online/offline agents and even initiate an internal chat with them!
- With Personal statistics you can see performance your own individual metrics like time logged in or tickets answered.
- Leaderboards are a part of gamification. They make daily work more fun and help to push performance of individual agents as they can compare their performance.
No doubt, live chat can equip brands to provide faster resolution to customer queries. However, the use of this software is not limited to instant support. There are a lot more advantages that a brand can attain from its use.
#1: Reduce Support Expense
According to a research study by Forrester, customer service provided by live chat is 17-30% cheaper than a phone call. That’s because a phone does not allow you to manage multiple customers at the same time. Whereas, managing multiple customers is a lot more easier with live chat, allowing companies to save time and resources.
Takeaway: Few live chat operators can manage more customers in comparison to a large team of phone support employees. This results in lesser support expense.
#2: Boost in Sales
Want to boost sales? Get a live chat onboard!
An American Marketing Association Study claims that using live chat can boost conversions by 20% and that the typical ROI rate from a paid live chat tool for sales team crosses 300%. What’s more, the study also reveals that people who use the tool are three times more likely to make the purchase in comparison to those who don’t.
Takeaway: Live chat helps generate more leads and subsequently converting them into sales becomes an efficient process. Your support team gets more space to convert visitors into loyal customers.
#3: Improve Customer Loyalty
Did you know that live chat can boost satisfaction rates up to 73% in comparison to email (61%) and phone support (44%)? Well, this was established by a study conducted by eDigital Customer Service Benchmark.
Overall, live chat is the best sales conversion hack we have today. From customer acquisition to conversion, the tool helps a brand to engage with visitors in real-time and resolve their questions faster.
Apparently, customers feel more confident if they find a live chat software solution on a website. That’s because they know that their queries will be resolved in no time!
Takeaway: Live chat helps you provide instant resolution and succeeds by giving the same assurance to customers. It is the perfect recipe for improving customer service and loyalty.
#4: Discover Problems Faced by Customers
There was a time when customers had to wait patiently while their call was put on hold. But as technology evolved, so did their patience level. Not getting instant answers to their queries was the most pertinent problem that customers faced. However live chat tackled the issue with flying colors.
What’s more, adding a personal touch to the conversation is a lot simpler, the reason being your operators get to monitor visitor activities in real-time. This gives them a head start on:
- Possible problems they may encounter on a page
- What stops them from browsing a page further
- What to expect in case visitor initiates a chat
To further understand various customer pain-points, operators can get easy access to chat transcripts and make a note of what not to do when providing support to the same customer the next time.
Takeaway: Discover customer problems faster, improve services along those lines and keep your customers delighted.
#5: Get Competitive Advantage
One may ask, “how does the use of live chat software give a competitive advantage to a business?”
Telus International states that major companies are still not using a live chat tool at their website. That means they are missing out on a lot of benefits this tool has to offer. However, another study claims that only 9% of websites were found using live chat services to offer real-time support to their customers.
These stats indicate that your business can gain a competitive edge over big names in the market who haven’t put live chat to use on their websites. That’s because you’ve made support approachable and instant. You also get an opportunity to become more proactive, something that customers expect from a brand today.
Takeaway: A live chat allows your business to stand out from your competitors and reach more people faster in comparison to others.
Discover on your own
Knowledge is important, but only when put into the practice. Test everything in our academy right inside the LiveAgent.
Besides these, your business can also attain advantages like:
- Improve market reach
- Become proactive
- Access reports to understand where your business lacks as a service provider
- Monitor customers’ feedback to improve your services
However, to attain these benefits, it is important to know what tips and tricks you can implement while using a live chat. It will help your business increase your customer satisfaction rate hassle-free. Let’s go through this elaborate list of tips and tricks that can help your brand keep customers delighted at all times.
Must Follow Live Chat Tips & Tricks
- Use departments and tags for segmentation and distribution and assignment of tickets.
- Use the extended customer information view to quickly gather information about the customer you are communicating with and access multiple integrations with other apps.
- Ticket thread lets you see all communication with a customer even if it started from a different channel like chat and continued with email.
- Quick Action Buttons help you easily transfer and postpone tickets as well as add notes, and other actions.
- The Left navigation panel lets you quickly navigate across the chat dashboard. You can check all active chats, availability per agent or access settings of chat buttons.
- After Live Chat is initiated, you can see details of the customer chatting with you, like the page where chat was initiated, IP address, or previous communication.
- Thanks to our real-time typing view you are able to see what customer type even before they click "send". You can prepare your answers and amaze them with lightning-speed service.
- Similar to live chat overview, call center offers left panel that will help you navigate inside dashboard in 1 click.
- Call history offers list of all incoming and outgoing calls from LiveAgent with full-text search.
- Action button lets you open a specific call ticket so you can access call recordings and the whole ticket thread.
- Reports are a popular part of LiveAgent. They help you to see department statistics, so you can get a quick overview of what's happening in your helpdesk.
- Inside the dashboard, you can see your online/offline agents and even initiate an internal chat with them!
- With Personal statistics you can see performance your own individual metrics like time logged in or tickets answered.
- Leaderboards are a part of gamification. They make daily work more fun and help to push performance of individual agents as they can compare their performance.
Constantly tracking your live chat and how visitors are behaving at your website is just one side of the coin. To experience the positive impact of using a live chat on your website, it is important to consider certain factors that give your support process a holistic view. Some call them crucial factors, while some of us find them to be efficient tips and tricks.
Add a human touch
Introduce yourself to your customers by name. Rather than giving an image of electronic interaction, your customers will feel a human touch as they would know that a real person is sitting on the other side to reply back to their queries.
Use typing indicators
A typing indicator will give your visitors an idea that your operators are actively engaged in the conversation.
Avoid using ellipses
Avoid using those three little dots during a live chat conversation as it gives the impression that operators are speaking to the customers indirectly.
Do NOT use caps
l Do not write the entire sentence in capital letters to avoid giving your customers the feel that your operators are shouting at them.
Use Emojis
You can embrace the use of emojis to give a human touch to your conversations and help your operators show their friendly side.
Utilize canned responses
Implement the use of canned responses to reduce response time and maintain consistency among all operators.
Always be proactive
l Before your customers approach you with their problems, learn to approach them first. You can send personalized proactive messages through live chat that not only indicates you care for them, but also improves your operators' productivity.
Route chats to correct departments
Live chat can help you send the right customer query to the right department. All you have to do is route them to operators belonging to relevant departments.
Enable the use of file transfer
Besides the use of emojis or avoiding the use of capital letters, another way to show your customers you care for them is to enable the use of file transfer. By sending them relevant files, they will get a vibe that your operators are actively engaged in the conversation and prefer to send the correct information on time.
Learn to use post-chat survey forms to your benefit
Rather than sending a separate NPS form to each of your customers after a certain period of time, you can also use post-chat forms to gather visitor and customer feedback for your services. This will allow you to know where your services stand and how they can be improved further.
Provide step-by-step assistance with co-browsing
Utilize co-browsing in case you don’t have self-help articles that act as a guide for your customers. With a hands-on approach during a chat session, your operators can provide an in-depth support experience to your customers.
Use chat history to know customer pain points
There must be a reason why certain customers do not approach your brand after receiving support for the first time. It is time to learn why this happens. Use chat history to analyze what went wrong during those chat sessions and how it can not be repeated in future conversations.
Capture leads and nurture them with a powerful CRM integration
Adding a live chat definitely helps your business to generate more leads. However, capturing them is not the only outcome you’d like to focus on. Integrate your live chat with powerful CRM platforms such as Salesforce, MSDynamics, or SugarCRM to shortlist qualified leads and nurture them into purchasing buyers.
Enable internal chat sessions to improve response time
Allow your operators to manage difficult chat sessions better by enabling the use of ‘whisper’ messages.
Be available for your customers anytime, anywhere
No doubt, customers expect you to be prompt. But, is it really possible at all hours? Yes, it is. With a live chat mobile app, your operators get the freedom to reply back to customer queries no matter where they are. Remember, instant support is the key to win over your customers.
Live Chat Benefits the Overall Growth of Your Business
There is so much to explore and understand customer care through the use of live chat software. However, benefits can only be achieved once you know what strategies to implement while using the software. With this article, we aim to cover:
- The benefits a business can achieve from the use of the tool
- Tips and tricks that improve its use
So implementing the use is just one aspect, getting its use right is all the more important. So, get it right!
Author BIO: Jason is customer support manager & technical writer currently associated with ProProfs Chat. He enjoys writing about emerging customer support products, trends in customer support industry and the financial impacts of using such tools. In his spare time, Jason likes traveling extensively to learn about new cultures and traditions.
