When it comes to delivering good customer service, it goes without saying that providing your customers with as many ways to get in touch with you as possible is absolutely essential.
But while there are many channels available for customer support in today’s business world, very few have been embraced by businesses and consumers alike in the same way that live chat has.
With its ability to seamlessly connect a customer directly with a company representative right through your business website, it naturally brings a long list of benefits for both parties.
So, if you’re still unsure whether live chat is right for your business, take a look at the benefits of live chat below to see why so many businesses have embraced this nifty online tool.
What is live chat customer service?
When it comes to answering the question ‘What is live chat customer service?’, the answer is quite simple – it’s exactly as it sounds! Think of any business website you’ve been on in the past week or so. If they had a little chat box in the bottom corner, that’s their live chat.
From here, customers can directly message and talk with one of your customer service team and attempt to resolve whatever query they have in a swift and seamless manner or put them through to your live answering service if their problem requires a more complex solution.
What are the benefits of having live chat on your website?
Now that we’ve touched briefly on what live chat is, let’s get into the details of why you should be using it for your business by touching on all the benefits of live chat customer service for your business, below:
1. Improved customer acquisition
Firstly, one of the core benefits of having live chat on your website is that you can check in with customers directly with an open dialogue, rather than having to wait for them to come to you.
This allows your team to check in with a customer and see if they have any questions about what they’re viewing. And by doing so, your representatives can hopefully help convert them into paying customers and increase your sales.
2. Easy rapport building
Secondly, unlike many other modern customer support channels, live chat happens in real time, meaning your customer doesn’t have to spend time waiting around for a response.
This instantaneous exchange is great because it makes this interaction feel more like a natural conversation, with the beneficial side effect of increasing both trust and satisfaction in your customers – provided that your team uses proper live chat etiquette.
3. Increased productivity
As useful as a live answering team of virtual receptionists can be, one company representative offering voice support on a phone can only help one person at a time, which can sometimes lead to customer backlogs.
However, with live chat at your side and in the hands of a skilled team, each member of your customer service department can engage with multiple customers at the same time, enabling you to help more people at any one time.
4. Insight into product performance
Finally, by logging live chat conversations, you can quickly review customer opinions and pain points around certain products you’re selling and make informed decisions on how to improve these products and the customer journey.
What are the benefits of live chat customer service for customers?
As useful as live chat is for businesses, it also brings plenty of benefits for the customers coming to visit your site. We’ve highlighted the major ones below as further key reasons why you should be investing in live chat:
1. Fast response times
If there’s one thing customers don’t like about contacting support services, it’s waiting for minutes at a time on hold. If anything, this is likely to deter them and they may start turning to your competitors for a solution instead.
However, while providing customer support over the phone can lead to long hold times, live chat bypasses this problem by connecting your customers with support specialists at a significantly faster rate and improving customer satisfaction.
2. Efficient problem-solving
In many cases, a customer coming to your team with a problem might not know exactly what the cause is, and troubleshooting over the phone may not be the best solution to working this out.
But with live chat, your customer has so many more options for troubleshooting, with your team having the ability to instantly send links to guides that may help or even screen-sharing to start problem-solving directly on their computer for a more efficient process.
3. Reduced repetition
One of the main downsides of communicating over the phone is that customers often have to recount the issue they’re experiencing every time they’re transferred between operators.
With live chat, however, even if the customer is transferred, the new representative can simply review the log of the chat to get up to speed. This can dramatically decrease much of the frustration associated with customer support experiences and eliminate repetitive conversations that take up precious time.
4. 24/7 support
Finally, live chat allows your company to provide customer service around the clock. This means that your customers will be able to get the answers they need to their problems no matter what time they run into an issue.
Grow your customer service team with VoiceNation
With all those benefits covered, you should hopefully have a much better idea of why live chat is such a useful tool for every business out there. And if you’re looking to get set up with this service as soon as possible, then get in touch with the VoiceNation team today!
Whether it’s live chat, live answering, or virtual receptionist services, we’re experts in the field of customer service. Get in touch to find out more about our services, and don’t forget to ask about our free trial period.