With a large number of contact centers having adopted an omni-channel approach, there is no doubt that the customers now have several modes of communication such as telephone and email with the service provider. Recently, a new addition has been made to this list of modes of communication and that is ‘Live Chat.’

Live chat is an online channel of communication that allows website visitors to interact with your customer service agents to ask questions, seek help with navigation or gain some valuable information. With live chat, it has become easier for the customers to find answers to their queries quickly, which, in turn, helps them attain instant gratification and improve the contact center’s customer satisfaction score (CSAT).

One of the most dynamic ways to interact with your customers, live chat support can be used to deliver an improved customer experience in a number of ways. Some of these are as mentioned below:

Live Chat For Better Customer Experience

1. Keep It Visible

The option of live chat should be easily visible to a customer browsing the website on a desktop or through his phone. This is because making a customer wait to connect with the right customer care representative might lower the chances of delivering good customer experience.

Wondering how this can be done? You can use automated messages feature to welcome each user with a customized message or greeting. The customized messages can be drafted on the basis of user’s action on the website and the information you already have about them in your database.

When improving customer retention is concerned, a repeat customer can be greeted with a message like ‘it’s nice to have you back’; a customer from a different country can receive a welcome message in his/her native language, etc.

While setting a ‘chat now’ icon is important, it might, at times, get lost in the flood of information contained on the page. In such cases, it is important to send a timely chat invitation to your customers. Doing so would offer them a confidence that help is just a click away as and when they need it.

2. Stay Quick and Active

It is important to value your customer’s time. To ensure this, it is essential to be quick and always stay on your toes to offer them the required assistance. For instance, if a customer has asked a question, it is important for you to be ready with an appropriate answer that may help resolve their query. In case, you need some time to collect the requisite information, it is advisable to mention the appropriate wait time in your chat window. This would help the customer understand that you are still there as well as develop patience to find the best possible answer.

In another scenario, if the agent plans to go on a break, it is recommended that he/she changes his/her default chat window settings. This would help ensure that the customer gets connected with him/her only when he/she is available and not on a break.

3. Collect Relevant Customer Details

Collecting relevant information about your customers from multiple sources can serve as a great help in attaining maximum customer satisfaction. Keeping information such as his/her attitude in a particular situation, the way of greeting, past queries and issues, handy can be used to help them feel recognized and handle them better.

The details about his/her past queries can also be used to surprise your customer. Once his/her current query is resolved, asking him/her something related to his/her previous query such as, ‘hope your phone networks are working fine now’ might not only make him/her feel happy but also surprise them that you care about them.

Always remember that having such insights about your customers can lead to the development of a positive attitude, which, in turn, may help in delivering an amazing customer experience.

4. Stay Attentive

Whether it is a telephonic conversation or a live chat, listening to your customers’ concerns and queries is the prerequisite to delivering an amazing customer experience. This is because paying attention to every minute detail mentioned by the customer is important to understand his/her problem area better and plan an optimized customized solution.

It is important for the agents to stop being concerned about how they look when writing a particular statement during a live chat. Doing so distracts them from carefully understanding the customer’s concern and hence, does not allow them to deliver the required solution. Always remember that the need is not to offer an immediate solution but the requisite solution that may help attain maximum CSAT.

5. Don’t Rely Too Much On Canned Responses

It is certainly true that canned responses are an excellent trick to speed up the entire communication process and reduce the Average Handle Time (AHT). But, one must remember that these are not always suitable to be used in every customer-agent communication.

Canned responses are predetermined or predefined answers to some common questions asked by the customers. These are good to be used in case some technical information related to a product or service is to be shared as these include answers to some such frequently asked questions. Using these responses in such cases helps save a lot of customer’s as well as the agent’s time.

There can also be situations when the customer is looking for information that has not been recorded as a canned response. In such situations, it is better to offer them personalized assistance as this would allow the agents to offer an amazing customer experience.

Multichannel Support May Help Attain Maximum Customer Satisfaction

Offering help as a live chat agent takes a lot of customer’s time and patience. Therefore, it is extremely important to know the art of controlling your emotions and the basic rules of communication.

In this era of rapidly evolving technology, customers do not rely solely on a single mode of communication. They might switch between channels when seeking help from a customer service agent. For instance, they might request a call from a live chat agent and vice-versa. Hence, the need is to be aware of how to handle a customer on different communication channels.

One must never consider the job of a customer support agent easy as it demands a lot of effort, knowledge and skills to stay in the race and attain maximum customer experience.