We’ve reached a digital era where live chat customer support is no longer a great ‘addition’ to phone and email support services, but is now a growing ‘must have’ support solution.
You must be thinking, ‘…but phone support is and always will be the most effective form of customer service.’ Yes, I can understand why you might think that, but phone support and live chat support are actually no different than the other. In fact, a live chat support has many benefits that a phone support doesn’t.
The value of your customer service does not solely depend on what communication platform you’re using, but how well you are able to resolve customer issues.
So, let’s get straight into the reasons why live chat customer support is better than phone support:
Real-time interaction
Just like phone support, live chat support run on real-time interaction. Better yet, live chat support gives both ends the ease of messaging each other and takes away the discomfort of talking over the phone from the consumer end.
Concurrency
Live chat allows you to handle multiple customer issues at the same time rather than talking to customers individually and having them ‘wait’ for their turn. This is something that you can’t do with phone support. Of course, the number of customers being dealt with simultaneously varies in accordance to training, experience and the complexity of a problem, but it will be that live chat support can cater to several customers’ needs at the same time.
Proactive support
Unlike phone support, live chat support can be deployed as a proactive support, meaning you as a business can initiate a conversation first when a customer is on your page. It’s easy to ask if they need any assistance whilst browsing on your site.
Conveniency
Direct messaging and real-time interaction through live chat saves customers taking time out of the day to make a call and it cuts down on lengthy phone calls on the business end. Plus live chat can work after ‘office hours’, so customers still have the time to raise an issue even past 6pm. That’s a customer service experience bonus!
Keeping record
Should there be a misunderstanding or the need of a re-evaluation for a past issue, you can save and keep record of all that’s been discussed on the live chat with the ease of searching through it. With phone support, calls can be recorded but to listen to the whole conversation is time-consuming.
Cost effective
What business doesn’t look for ways to cut down on unnecessary extra costs? With live chat support, you don’t need to worry about the phone expenses as live chats are a much cheaper alternative to phone support.
Increase customer retention and loyalty
Once customers have used your services and live chat support multiple times, they become familiar with the customer support team. This over time builds trust between customers and business, thus increasing customer loyalty and retention.
Customers remain engaged
What place on the internet best represents your brand and services? The answer is, your website. It is extremely important to engage with customers who are already on your website. Live chat encourages your customers to explore and make their experience on your website a more personal and satisfying one. Just assist and direct them to the right page.
Increase company revenue
Use live chat as a tool to speed up buying process by offering instant solutions that will prevent customers from abandoning the shopping cart or cancelling mid-transaction. You can also increase sales by cross-selling or upselling while customers are actively shopping.
Final thoughts
Forget about how effective you think phone support services are. If you know how to deal with your customers over the phone, then you’ll know how to deal with them over live chat! Use the power of live chat to increase company sales and deliver a better customer experience.
Angelica Martinez is a digital marketer at Laundryheap, a laundry and dry cleaning delivery service based in London, UK. Since establishment in 2014, Laundryheap services have expanded internationally to areas within Ireland, Netherlands, UAE and US.
Live Chat software offers a host of gains over the traditional phone support on another hand a phone call gives a level of personalization many desire. Simply because Live Chat offers a fast & simple way for clients & customers to reach out to your business does not mean it will be the selected, or best method. Many consumers still want that personalized association that a phone call can provide, however, another hand, many consumers are looking to gain support as fast and easily as possible. It will be best to go for omnichannel solution.
I have mixed feelings about this. We do use live chat for sales but when it comes to tech support, it can be frustrating. There is a certain immediacy that people expect when chatting and when requesting support, just the wait to getting the agent to respond can backfire. Some companies do it pretty well but overall my experience with this has been mixed.
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live chat is the good facility to customer contact for customer care or tech support