Sponsored by Kayako:
Customer support is one of the most important aspects of running a business without a doubt, but a lot of people face some uncertainty about what kind of customer service works best in which environments. Live chat is arguably the best way to give customers the support they need, and there are a number of reasons why this is the case. Listed below are some benefits that could potentially be obtained from using a live chat service like Kayako.
1. Lowered Costs
One of the main problems with call-based customer support is it costs a lot more than something like live chat customer support would. The added expense might not seem like a lot at first, but the fact of the matter is that in the long run you’re going to save quite a bit of money.
One of the biggest expenses you’re going to save on is CSR salaries. You’ll end up hiring far fewer phone representatives since a smaller support group would be able to take on more work.
2. Higher Quality Service
Phone calls require a lot of improvisation — something that is very difficult to teach. When it comes to live chat, teaching CSRs how to be good at their job is going to be a lot easier.
Live chat representatives will also have an easier time figuring out what to say to customers since they’ll have a bit more time to provide every response than they would via the phone. Overall, live chat can really improve the quality of the customer support you provide.
3. Customer Preference
The world has changed by an enormous amount in the past decade or two. Talking on the phone used to be the preferred method of communication for a lot of reasons, but in the present day, instant messaging is considered to be far more preferable.
This is for the same reason that higher quality services can be provided through the use of live chat; people on both ends are able to measure their responses and figure out what they want to say more effectively than would have been the case otherwise. When your customers feel more comfortable, they’ll be more likely to approach your business for help rather than just leaving a bad review.
4. More Efficient
With phone calls, CSRs are usually only able to handle a single customer at a time. No matter how good they are at multitasking, after a certain point, they’re going to end up sacrificing quality for quantity because the enormity of the task is going to end up overwhelming them.
With live chat, they’re able to handle multiple customers at the same time without sacrificing quality in any way, which makes it easier for them to do their jobs and makes your customers happier.
5. Easier to Automate
Automation is the best way to maximize the efficiency of the work that’s being done. That being said, a lot of the aspects of customer service are very difficult to automate because they involve so much knowledge and expertise.
Talking on the phone, for example, is virtually impossible to automate apart from queues and the like. Live chat, on the other hand, is very easy to automate. This can help you vastly improve efficiency and save an enormous amount of expenses — both of which can help make your company more successful overall.
