Today, knowledgeable customers choose live chat above social media, email, and even phone help when asked about their preferred support methods. Why? Live chat assistance is quick, easy, and handy. However, the advantages of live chat go far beyond simply providing your consumers with a faster and more comfortable means to contact you. Live chat can improve agent efficiency, help companies get to know customers better and boost the customer experience.

Do you have a live chat option on your website? The advantages of incorporating live chat into your website are numerous. This easy-to-use tool can help you raise your customer service standards to new heights, resulting in more satisfied customers. Given the tool’s limited penetration, getting started right now makes a lot of sense. The early bird advantage is a crucial consideration when implementing fully-managed live chat customer service on your website.

Some facts about Live Chat towards the end of 2021 –

• Percentage of businesses offering live chat on their website – 9%
• Average global customer satisfaction rating for live chat – 83.1%
• Expected growth in popularity of live chat in the next year or so – 87%
• Customers rating live chat as important during purchase – 44%

Top Customer Queries in Live Chat

Here are some of the most common questions your clients will ask you via live chat. Your company’s type and industry mostly decide them, but you will get a better idea when you go through these:

• Delivery cost
• Shipping time
• Deals and special offers
• Redemption of loyalty points
• Queries on gift cards or vouchers
• Product availability and other details

Fast and Efficient Resolutions

Live chat can quickly handle customer issues, with far shorter wait times than emails and phone calls. Email exchanges can take longer, while live chat exchanges can usually be completed in only one session. The average chat response time is less than 23 seconds, and the average resolution time is less than 42 seconds; 82 per cent of consumers value “rapid reaction” from a brand and live chat addresses this. Your customer service agents can work more efficiently with the help of live chat. While a person can only attend one phone call or react to one email at a time, chat allows them to hold multiple discussions at once. Topics that demand more detailed discussion can also be addressed combined with other forms of communication like emails or phone calls.

Minimise Cart Abandonment

Customers not able to obtain quick answers to their problems account for more than half of cart abandonments, illustrating the importance of being available to speak with customers before they grow upset and abandon their purchases. It doesn’t always matter how well-designed your website is or how much content it has. Many folks want to know that they are dealing with genuine people. As a result, having online chat help is critical. Live chat help is an excellent approach to keep customers from abandoning their carts. Live Chat allows you to jump in and communicate right away with visitors who are about to leave your site. Follow-up emails and phone calls begin to work when a customer has left your website. Live chat support can keep a customer on your site and help you clinch a sale. Using live chat to communicate with your website visitors will allow you to understand better what is preventing them from making a purchase and provide a fast solution.

Business Benefits

Customers are becoming accustomed to interacting with companies via chat. Live chat benefits not just giving your customers a faster and more convenient way to contact your customer service team. Live chat can help you enhance agent efficiency, learn more about your consumers, make smarter product decisions, and improve the customer experience. The data you’ll collect will increase success with chat as part of your customer support plan, enhance customer experience, and increase agent productivity.

Personalised Shopping Experience

Customers are more likely to trust a company if its customer care is tailored to them and their needs – and This chat is the ideal place to do so. You may, for example, recommend a product package that the consumer would not have known about if they hadn’t inquired, or told them about an item that better meets their needs than the one in their cart. Some people realise they can receive help via chat rather than giving up and maybe abandoning your product. By adjusting to fit a customer’s style, agents can build a rapport and establish a friendly, helpful relationship. Agents can also detect a customer’s tone and sentiment and modify their communication methods to meet the scenario.

Insights and Data Collection

The forward-facing capabilities of live chat aren’t the only advantage for your company; the backend also provides valuable data and insights about your customers, such as which device and operating system they used to access the chat, which page of your website they were on when they started the conversation, and how long they spent on your site before contacting you. When combined with the results of a post-chat survey, this data can help you form future business decisions and refine your customer service approach based on your customer’s wishes and requirements.

One of the most significant advantages of providing help via chat is the amount of data you can collect. You should be able to save, organise, and tag chats to filter them for later inspection, depending on your live chat program.

You can generate data that informs your support team and your product and marketing teams by putting in the effort upfront to categorise and review discussions.

Summary

Customers have become accustomed to interacting with companies via live chat. They not only prefer but also expect it.

Beyond improving the client experience, the potential to boost agent productivity — combined with the data you’ll collect — will help you succeed with live chat as part of your customer support strategy.

Customers’ expectations for immediacy and availability of help continue to rise as more businesses are engaged over the internet. The real-time discussions with your clients via live chat provide you with a fantastic opportunity to learn more about them, service them more quickly, and form genuine human connections. If you wish to learn how Australia’s best fully managed live chat service can help your company visit https://www.livechatagent.com.au/ or call Tracey at 1800 332 428.

• Author Details

Author Details

Tracey Horey

CEO of Live Chat Agent

Tracey Horey is a 20 year veteran of the Automotive industry and has been writing Automotive content and helping Dealerships optimise their digital space for over 15 years. Her experience working with various sized dealerships and her passion for exploring and understanding new tools for the auto industry has given her an in depth understanding of the challenges all dealerships face in a changing landscape.

accounts@livechatagent.com.au

1800 332 428