If you’ve ever considered introducing live chat to your website, you may be surprised at how easy it can be to get started. The great thing about this conversational platform is that it’s completely free. If you’re unsure about how it works, let’s get started by learning what it is and how it works. Live chat support can help you build long-term relationships with your customers and increase your business’s bottom line.
A Critical Component of Business success.
Excellent customer service means connecting with customers and providing them with a positive experience. Companies are usually reactive and don’t try to build a culture around customer service. This is not enough, though; every team member should be able to connect with customers. Customers expect quick answers, efficient solutions, and a sense of understanding. To deliver on these expectations, you should ensure that your customer service agents have the right tools, are attentive, and communicate realistically and clearly with customers.
The best customer service teams understand how to make a customer feel important. They approach each interaction with a customer as an opportunity to sell something. A good customer experience is the best marketing tool. In the past, customer service was defined as help before and after a purchase. Some companies considered their customer service departments reactive and only focused on assisting when a customer had a problem. Today, however, customer service teams must approach each support interaction as a sales opportunity.
Today’s customer service trends show that 96% of businesses fail within ten years. Good customer service can help you attract new business, retain current customers, and boost sales among your existing client base. Providing excellent service will also help you lower employee turnover, a significant factor in business success. So, what are some ways to improve customer service? Customer service is an essential aspect of the business. You can do so by focusing on the customer’s experience.
Good Customer Service Professionals
Good customer service professionals should be patient. Customers who reach out to customer support are usually frustrated and confused. Being patient while handling complaints can help alleviate their frustration. Your team should also be able to listen to the needs and problems of the customers so that they can resolve the issues quickly and effectively. And they should be prepared to take on new challenges and learn. The most important skill you can have is the ability to learn.
Good customer service can increase revenue. Eighty-four percent of companies report revenue increases when they improve customer service. By offering excellent service, you will increase sales and customer satisfaction. And, 86% of consumers are willing to pay more if your customer service is excellent. That means more revenue. Building a customer-centric culture that prioritizes good service doesn’t cost much.
Conversational Platform
Increasingly, companies are implementing live chat support to provide better customer service. While FAQs and support sections can answer common questions, these don’t always address complex customer needs. The right kind of chatbot can anticipate needs and quickly address them. Live chat can help eliminate conversion roadblocks and increase sales by providing the correct information at the right time. Here are three ways to improve customer service with chatbots:
Instant contact is beneficial to both the customer and the business. Customers who have a good conversation with the company will remain loyal to the business. Additionally, business owners can learn about customer preferences and needs through these conversations. As a result, these interactions can lead to better decisions for the business. But how does live chat support help the company? The answers to these questions are crucial to the success of the business.
ThriveDesk’s interface is optimized for maximum efficiency. Users can customize every aspect of communication with the software. These settings include colors and notification sounds. For example, a company logo or message can be added to the live chat. The platform also provides tools for automatic replies, conversation history, and posting data. Live chat support can also be integrated with email through a shared inbox. Once a company implements ThriveDesk’s powerful tools, it’s easy to start.
Live chat can significantly increase customer satisfaction. It can reduce customer inquiries’ average handling time and increase agent productivity. Live chat lets agents handle multiple customer queries at once, resulting in higher customer engagement. Email-based support is still essential and should not be wholly replaced by live chat. Some issues cannot be resolved in real-time. In addition to improving customer service, live chat can increase your sales.
Long-Term Relationships with Customers
One of the most important things to remember when offering live chat support is to be personable. Customers expect a casual, open manner when chatting online. If your support team regurgitates pre-conceived answers and is too formal, your customers will realize it. Fortunately, proper chat training can help mitigate this problem. Moreover, training new team members on your brand’s tone is crucial.
While providing live chat support 24 hours a day is ideal, it is not always feasible for all businesses. Smaller businesses often don’t have enough staff to provide such service. Therefore, it’s essential to strategize when to make your live chat support team available. Consider also that your customers are from different time zones. This may be challenging if your live chat support team is located in other cities.
One of the essential advantages of live chat customer support is that it allows customers to multitask while accessing help at their convenience. Furthermore, many customers prefer live chat customer support because it’s easy to save a conversation so that customers can reference it whenever needed. Moreover, emails can be lengthy back and forths. Live chat support is an excellent way to resolve queries in a single session.
Forms of Communication
One of the main benefits of live chat is that it enables you to answer customer queries on the spot, and many consumers have little to no patience for waiting for an email response. On average, one out of every five chat requests is never addressed. Not being available when customers need you is an effective way to annoy them. It also lets them multitask. For example, 51% of live chat users can shop or check their email simultaneously. In addition, seventy-two percent of customers expect live chat agents to know their personal information when they engage.
Another benefit of live chat is its speed. Only 9% of companies use live chat on their websites. Unlike email and phone support, live chat gives a company an advantage over the competition. For example, a company can answer many customers simultaneously with live chat, whereas only one person can respond in the latter. Another reason for live chat’s speed is that it is much easier to provide follow-up questions and answers to customers.
The number of people willing to use live chat is growing steadily. More than 50% of millennials prefer live chat over email or phone. The numbers are even astounding when you consider that 77% of customers would not purchase a product if they could not talk to a live agent immediately. These statistics show how important live chat support is for a business. Yet, despite all the benefits of live chat, many business owners are still unaware of the full potential of their marketing strategies.
