Introduction
In this fast-paced digital world, speed is the king. From instant access to overnight shipping of the product, customers want things quicker than ever. But unfortunately, in the case of customer service, it does not happen so quickly. For instance, the average response time of customerтАЩs issues on social media and email response is 10 hours and 12 hours respectively. On the contrary, live chat enables the brand to respond 100% faster than any other digital service channel. According to ForresterтАЩs report, nowadays 33% of the customers expect live chat for a quicker response from every brand. From the e-commerce sector to the banking sector, companies use live chat for improving the response time.
Top 10 Live Chat Benefits That Business CanтАЩt Ignore
Live chat empowers the customer support agents in providing proactive assistance to the visitors and the customers. The use of the live chat feature is known for strengthening customer relationships and improving customer service communication. Below is the list of benefits of live chat services that will create a positive impact on the overall growth of the business.
1. Meeting Customer preferences
According to the ICMI report, online customers prefer live chat as one of the top digital contact channels to their favorite brands. Most of the brands prefer live chat for their real-time solutions compared to other modes of digital channels. Live chat is known for its faster response time with its advanced features such as canned tags and responses. Customer service agents use live chat for reducing the number of touchpoints thus increasing customer satisfaction rates.
2. Proactive Customer Support
Users feel delighted whenever they get quick personalized support from a brand. Live chat is known to be the first preference of most of the customers because there they get the fastest response than any other digital channel. Implementing live chat can help in providing proactive support to the customers while engaging them in a fruitful conversation with the help of visual engagement tools. While delivering real-time customized solutions, an agent can handle multiple conversations easily thus the queue time gets reduced.
3. Prevent Cart Abandonment
Cart abandonment is one of the biggest challenges that brands face across the world. Customers take some time before purchasing any product online. They might have any queries related to the product or maybe during the buying process. Live chat on the website helps customers in answering their questions immediately. A proactive live chat reduces cart abandonment and can convert potential buyers to customers.
4. Deliver Contextual Support
Nowadays, various software and tools are available that can add value to the live chat feature in providing contextual support to the customers. It not only creates customer engagement but also helps in delivering personalized solutions to the customers, thus increasing customer loyalty and improved sales. Live engagement tools help in making a faster resolution process thus reducing the number of touchpoints. Visual tools improve the FCR (First Contact Resolution) by preventing customers from returning with the same query.
5. Improved Customer Experience
According to Forbes, 75% of the brands tend to improve customer experience as their main agenda. Live chat helps in resolving customer complaints way before they become pain points. By using the latest features of the live chat, proactive support can be provided to the customers within a fraction of seconds. What attracts more for a live chat integrated website is the instant connectivity with the customers, thus serving a rich customer experience.
6. Superior Website Experience
Live chat integrated on the homepage of the website leads to an improved website experience for the customers because customers get their queries solved within a few seconds. Hence, they can become a regular customer from a potential buyer. As per Forrester research, 57% of the customers abandon their cart if they donтАЩt get an answer quickly from the brand. The same study has found that almost 44% of online users like to have their problems resolved by a person in the live chat while in the middle of their purchasing process. While improving the customer experience on a companyтАЩs website through the live chat feature, customers are 3 times more likely to make a purchase.
7. Informed Product Decision
Due to the advanced features present in the live chat tools and software, customer service agents can collect data from customer interactions. It is one of the major perks of using live chat that data can be picked from the software by developing a set of tags and feature requests and helps in changing the features of the product that customers are facing issues with. Or, in the case of any services, improve service quality or change any aspect of the service that is creating a problem for the users. The marketing team can also use the data to frame marketing strategies that can help in connecting with the customers with the brand.
8. Personalize The Brand
Collecting the latent needs of the customers is the main agenda of every company across the globe. But when a thick layer of cyberspace separates brands from reaching their customers, live chat is the option that helps in breaking the mold that helps in building long-term customer relationships and loyalty. Smart routing modes of the live chat can automatically connect the users to the frontline person from the company. Hence, the agent can easily resolve the customerтАЩs query while providing him a customer delight experience.
9. Boost Agent Motivation
Live Chat is not only about customer satisfaction and loyalty, but also it motivates the customer service executives. Visitors get instant feedback from the live chat feature on the website that is a big relief for the agents. The chatbots help a lot in answering the basic customerтАЩs queries. Compared to talking on the phone 24 hours a day, writing small texts is a good way to deal with customers, especially those who are unhappy. Thus, chatbots help the customer service agents to focus on more critical tasks rather than doing repetitive tasks.
10. Increased Sales
Implementation of live chat on your website can increase the sales rate. According to American Market Association, B2B companies that have used a live chat feature in their website have witnessed a 20% increase in sales. While purchasing a product, a customer may have multiple questions in mind. With live chat, they will get the answer immediately and they can make a purchase decision accordingly. Live chat helps in overcoming the objections faced by a potential buyer by reaching the buying decision. A report from eMarketer depicts that 35% of customers make a purchase decision after using live chat services. Hence, companies having live chat services integrated into their websites witness more sales than brands that donтАЩt have any live chat feature.
Final Words
Redefine your brandтАЩs customer experience with the live chat feature by adding a new meaning to its digital communication. Businesses nowadays are understanding the immense benefits of live chat in increasing the efficiency of the customer service team by providing proactive real-time assistance to the customers. Beyond the improved customer experience, live chat also increases the motivation and productivity of the customer service agent тАУ combined with the collected data that will lead to greater success for the business.
