Live chat support has emerged as a powerful solution for bridging the gap between businesses and customers in the digital era. Its ability to provide prompt assistance and personalized interactions that yield higher customer satisfaction rates has turned it into an essential tool for businesses across various industries.
Unlike other support channels where customers may have to wait for hours or even days, live chat ensures a near-instantaneous response (on average, 15 seconds).
This article discusses the growing significance of live chat support and offers practical advice on how to easily implement live chat in your business.
Live chat support typically involves a chat widget or pop-up window on a company’s website or app through which visitors can initiate a conversation with a human agent by typing their queries or concerns. When a chat session starts, the support agent can quickly help the customer with their needs.
💬 Live chat support allows businesses to talk directly to their customers through their website or app.
Live chat and instant messaging apps (WhatsApp, Telegram, Line, Facebook Messenger, Viber, etc.) share some similarities regarding real-time communication. They also have distinct features and uses that set them apart. Let’s explore both their similarities and their differences.
In summary, live chat is primarily used for interactions between a business and its customers via a website or application to provide immediate support, whereas instant messaging apps serve broader personal and social communication needs.
By providing instant assistance, businesses can address customer queries, concerns, or issues promptly, resulting in higher customer satisfaction levels. Satisfied customers are more likely to become repeat customers and recommend the business to others.
With live chat, customers can multitask, thus allowing them to continue with their online activities while simultaneously seeking support. Additionally, live chat provides a written record of the conversation, allowing customers to refer back to the information provided if needed.
Here is a summary of the wide range of ways in which live chat support can directly impact customer service, sales, and overall business success.
Prompt answers and personalized recommendations build customer confidence and inform purchasing decisions. For example, the live chat support for an e-commerce website can assist customers in finding the right product, resolve any doubts or concerns, and ultimately, lead to a higher likelihood of them completing the purchase.
Customers appreciate the convenience of instant support, as they don’t have to wait on hold or go through lengthy email exchanges. When their needs are addressed promptly and with personalized attention, they gain a positive perception of the business.
Live chat support enables support agents to handle multiple chat conversations simultaneously, thus boosting their efficiency and reducing the need for additional resources. This multitasking capability allows businesses to manage a higher volume of inquiries without having to hire a large support team.
Chat transcripts can be analyzed to identify common customer pain points, frequently asked questions, and areas where improvements can be made. These insights and analytics enable businesses to make data-driven decisions that will improve their support processes, product offerings, and overall customer experience.
Live chat support is an increasingly popular customer service channel due to the numerous benefits it offers customers, which we will explore next.
In this section, we’ll discuss the dos and don’ts of live chat support to help you deliver exceptional customer service.
Here is how you can create a positive and engaging customer experience.
Aim to keep the response time short, ideally within a few seconds or minutes. Use features like chat notifications, automated message previews, and canned responses to streamline your responses and provide quick assistance.
Address customers by their names whenever possible, and use a conversational tone in your chat interactions. Tailor your messages to the specific customer and their needs.
Consider localizing your live chat support if your business operates in different regions or serves customers from diverse locations. This involves having agents who can communicate in the customer’s native language or know the local culture and practices.
🎓 Consider offering multilingual support or having agents with language proficiency or cultural expertise.
Leveraging both chatbots and human agents can optimize your live chat support. Chatbots can handle routine queries, provide instant responses, and gather basic information from customers. They can also assist in routing chats to the appropriate human agent.
On the other hand, human agents can handle complex issues, provide personalized assistance, and engage in deeper conversations.
By understanding what not to do, businesses can prevent frustrating customer experiences and ensure that live chat interactions are positive and productive.
Being transferred multiple times can be frustrating and time-consuming for a customer. Instead, the agent should strive to handle the customer’s issue within their capability and involve a supervisor or specialized team only when needed.
While having prepared responses can be helpful, it’s crucial that your agents don’t sound overly scripted or robotic in their conversations. Customers appreciate genuine interactions, so responses should be tailored to the specific situation.
🗣️ Agents should use their own voices to engage with customers.
Live chat support should primarily focus on addressing customer queries and resolving issues. Avoid using the opportunity to promote your products or services, as customers may perceive that as being pushy or insincere. Instead, focus on providing helpful and relevant information that actually contributes to solving their problem.
Communicate your availability clearly to customers. Inform customers upfront if there are specific hours or days when live chat support is unavailable. Providing accurate information about your availability helps manage customer expectations and avoids disappointment.
Businesses have a range of powerful live chat tools and features at their disposal for enhancing customer service.
This ensures that customers are connected with the right person who can provide the necessary assistance. For example, a business can implement chat routing based on agent skills, language proficiency, or specific product knowledge, reducing the need for multiple transfers.
This invites customers who are spending a lot of time on a product page to ask questions or get help. Proactive chat helps businesses anticipate customer needs and provide timely support.
This enables businesses to track metrics like chat volumes, response times, customer satisfaction ratings, and more. By studying chat data, businesses can learn when chat agents are busiest, measure customer happiness, and identify ways to improve support.
Chatbots can greet customers, collect basic information from them, and answer frequently asked questions. If the chatbot cannot address complex issues, it can transfer the chat to a human agent.
🤖 Chatbots help businesses handle high chat volumes and provide 24/7 support.
Such AI systems can understand intent, interpret complex queries, and provide accurate and personalized responses. For complex issues or problems that require human intervention, AI-powered solutions can seamlessly transfer the chat to a human agent.
These forms gather information such as name, email address, and a brief issue description. By collecting contact details, agents can follow up with customers if the chat gets disconnected or if additional assistance is required.
This allows customers to provide feedback about their specific chat experience, thus ensuring that their voice is heard and helping companies to identify areas of excellence or areas that need improvement.
This allows support agents to view and interact with the customer’s screen in real time. Agents can highlight specific areas on the customer’s screen, demonstrate how to perform certain actions, or directly address issues, resulting in a more seamless support experience.
This facility translates real-time chat messages between support agents and customers who speak different languages. Thus, customers can engage in live chat support without language limitations, ensuring that they get a more inclusive and accessible support experience.
Having the right tool for live chat support can make all the difference in delivering exceptional customer experiences. That’s where Touchpoint comes in. Our platform helps businesses connect with customers instantly, offer personalized help, and simplify their support operations.
Here’s how you can make the most of our comprehensive customer support solution.
To add live chat support to your platform using Touchpoint, follow these steps:
Congratulations! You have successfully added live chat support to your platform using Touchpoint.
After adding live chat to your platform using Touchpoint, you can customize its settings to enhance the user experience. Here’s how:
Please refer to the screenshot below for an example of targeting settings:
Once you have customized the live chat settings, save your changes, and apply them to make them effective on your website.
Here is how you can connect your service team and ensure they are equipped to handle live chat inquiries:
When implementing live chat support in 2023, choosing the right tools that align with your business needs is crucial. By utilizing Touchpoint, businesses can streamline customer support management and deliver personalized and efficient assistance, taking into account not only live chat, but, most importantly, their clients’ preferred channels.
Raluca Mocanu is a copywriter at Touchpoint and began her content writing journey in 2016. She loves traveling, reading, on-stage drama and recently discovered a deep interest in psychology.
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