Using Live Chat for customer support

Customers today are looking for fast, personal, reliable, and real-time support. They want to chat with you directly and right away without having to wait on hold for hours to speak with someone over the phone. That is why it is so important for businesses to adopt Live Chat support. But simply adding the channel to your communication mix isn’t quite enough.

You need to ensure your support reps are aligned with the technology and the tools you have. Read on to learn more about Live Chat, how it works, key benefits, and how to successfully implement it to deliver a great support experience.

Live Chat is an online communication tool that connects customers with actual human support. It enables you and your website visitors to chat in real-time, get answers quickly, and resolve issues immediately.

Businesses today use Live Chat as a replacement for phone and email. It is the fastest way to support customers and one of the most preferred channels. In fact, 79% of customers prefer live chat over any other communication channel.

Customer service is where Live Chat shines. It provides uninterrupted, always-on customer support. And while it is very similar to chatbots, Live Chat connects customers with human support agents. However, you can mix chatbot automation and live agent support to enhance every touchpoint across the entire customer journey.

So how does it actually work? Live Chat connects your website or app visitors with a live agent via instant messaging in a separate browser. The customer can start a chat with a live person who is available to assist after clicking a link or button.

The convenience and immediacy of Live Chat make it an appealing communication channel for everyone, especially customer service agents. However, the advantages of live chat go far beyond simply giving your customers a quicker and more convenient way to connect with your support team.

In fact, Live Chat can increase agent efficiency, help you learn more about your customers, and help you make better product decisions. Other benefits include:

When it comes to customer service channels, Live Chat is probably the most challenging to implement successfully. Not only do you need to deliver real-time support, but you also need to know how t multi-task and, most importantly, deliver a personalized experience.

Here are five Live Chat best practices you can use to your advantage:

You can start being proactive by adding a live chat button to your website’s bottom corner, making it easy for customers and convenient to use the tool.

You can also invite a visitor to start a live chat by sending a targeted greeting. For example, if someone visits your website, start a conversation such as: “Hi there! I see you’re looking at our products. How can I help you today?

It’s important to personalize your live chat and give it a human touch. You can do this by integrating a cloud contact center solution that allows you to engage and talk with your customers on any channel, such as Live Chat, all in a unified and simple workspace.

A cloud contact center equips your team to do their job well and improves the agent experience by having all the information they need at their fingertips. This will allow you to unify your communication and deliver personalized customer experiences that will increase satisfaction and retention.

Chatbots are a great addition to your communication mix due to their 24/7 availability, speed, and automation. You can use a chatbot to answer FAQs, route customers to the right agent, and eliminate repetitive tasks.

But chatbots can do so much more than answer simple FAQs. They can help with revenue growth by adding a new dimension to your up-sell, cross-sell, and lead generation efforts. Not to mention, all of this can be done with a human touch.

Everyone has a preferred communication channel. You want your website widget to have many channels similar to Live Chat, such as WhatsApp Business, Messenger, SMS, and email.

An omnichannel interface will allow you to manage cross-channel communication easily and without losing time jumping from one application to another.

For instance, when customers click on Messenger, they are taken to the Facebook Messenger application, where they may immediately begin a chat. This chat will be available to your team in one overview and conversations from all other channels. You can be active on several channels without keeping track of each separately.

It is always important to ask for feedback. Simply put, when a customer ends a chat, you can offer them to rate their experience in one click.

Asking a question like “How would you rate your chat?” is all it takes. You can then track customer satisfaction and get feedback to gain better insights and improve the overall customer experience.

Our mission at Infobip is to bring you closer to your customers through frictionless and personalized interactions. In other words, we want to be able to help you build trust and establish lasting relationships. But that doesn’t happen overnight, unfortunately.

Providing accurate information is only one aspect of high-quality service. Another is understanding your customers’ expectations and working with the right technology partner to meet them. Meet your customers on their preferred channels and be ready to provide the best-personalized experience possible.

Live chat can help you facilitate a more casual conversational style, allowing knowledgeable support agents to ask the appropriate questions at the right times and rapidly get a customer to where they need to go. As a result, you will achieve high customer satisfaction and return business.