It is not surprising to hear that more and more companies are considering investing in live chat as another way of effectively connecting with their customers. For those organisations that are doing so, they are already reaping the rewards.
In a recent survey carried out by MPL Contact, web chat was considered the 3rd preferred method of contacting an organisation (after phone and email), and Econsultancy reported that Live Chat has the highest satisfaction level of any customer service channel.
Have you been thinking about offering your customers live chat? Here are 4 reasons why you should:
1. Increase in productivity and reduced handle time
Phone operators can technically only manage one interaction at a time, whilst live chat agents have the ability to look after one to ten chats at a time, depending on the complexity of the issue at hand. Some versions of web chat software can monitor real-time visitors, enabling the agent to see the page the customer is looking at and identify the issue quicker than over the phone or email. This means faster customer resolutions and reduces the chance of a second interaction for the same issue.
2. Increase in customer engagement
Due to the speed, immediacy and simplicity of web chat, more and more customers are preferring to use this method of communication with businesses. Web chat is also considered a less formal way of talking to an organisation and so consumers are more likely to emotionally engage with a company and remember their experience.
3. Higher customer satisfaction
As previously mentioned, web chat has the highest satisfaction rates of any customer service methods, and that is because it is quick and efficient, the two things that customers value the most when speaking to a customer service department.
4. It’s cost effective
By offering customers a multi-channel experience, employees can use a variety of ways to interact with customers, rather than just over the phone. This can mean a reduction in call waiting times, allowing for more calls to be answered, more customers to be looked after and more orders to be taken.
It is clear that live chat is not just another customer service phase, and is going to become more popular as time goes by. Thinking of introducing multi-channel within your contact centre but don’t have the resources in-house? MPL Contact’s outsourced contact centre services are underpinned by the latest technology, giving us powerful multimedia capabilities and the power to look after your customers across a variety of channels.
If you are considering an outsourced contact centre solution, please contact us on 0800 088 7899