Since the outbreak of Covid-19, there has been an increased demand for companies to digitalize their customer services in order to provide 24/7 omnichannel services on preferred devices.
Digital transformation has impacted how companies engage with their customers; advances in technology have shifted consumer behavior and expectations. Traditional face-to-face contact has decreased, replaced by phone lines and then social media, but customers persistently seek even more personalized communication and real-time experiences online.
Outsourcing live chat support has become an established way of meeting customer demands.
This has become a necessity. By 2023, an estimated 85% of businesses are likely to use a form of online customer interaction such as live chats. Evidence supports the decision – US customers mainly prefer outsourcing live chats and more than 50% opt for real-time online support over other options. The appeal is straightforward: customers get meaningful and direct communication.
Surprisingly, only a small portion of businesses (9% according to some reports) offer live chat. This is important because data has shown that those who don’t may miss out on 37% of potential customers. Live chat outsourcing also has financial implications – people using this service typically end up spending an average of 60% more than customers using other channels. For e-commerce sites in particular, this can be a great way to boost conversions.
Companies have a vested interest in improving customer service as it has measurable benefits on the customer experience.
The average customer satisfaction rating for live chats is over 80%. This suggests why live chats have gained popularity among businesses looking to provide better support services and remain competitive.
Identifying the appropriate technologies to achieve the desired results is the key challenge.
The projected demands of new customers in 2023.
Customers are accustomed to accessing digital and online channels when communicating with their brands, but they still desire real-time support in addition to email or social media channels.
Live chat support enables customers to get immediate answers. According to Zendesk, customer satisfaction ratings for live chat rank second highest next to phone support, over social media channels and email. Phone support still offers the best personal one-on-one real-time interactions; however, customers may spend more time in queues and experience unavailability issues. To meet new customer requirements, immediacy and personal interactions from multiple channels are needed.
Live chat on websites provides an efficient way of engagement between customers and businesses, with a 79% preference according to Econsultancy as it provides an immediate response. This facilitates direct communication which can resolve customer concerns and increase sales.
Speed is important when providing customer experience, however, businesses should prioritize providing high-quality answers despite the time taken. Quick responses can be beneficial but they are not necessarily a guarantee of an improved customer experience.
To deliver a successful ticketing system, it is necessary to implement proper planning. Outsourced Live chat support should be equipped with all the features needed to effectively assist customers. In addition, what are some of the key features expected for live chat support in 2023?
Identifying the Top 6 Features for Future-Proof Live Chat Support.
Live chat is a convenient way for businesses to communicate with customers. To meet customer requirements, digital customer service solutions must be used. Cloud technology facilitates cost-efficient customer service since businesses do not have to invest in expensive solutions. This technology also enables rapid growth and easy integration of new systems and software, keeping businesses up-to-date.
Outsourcing chat support systems must possess features such as mobility, ease of management, and scalability to remain competitive in 2023. What features should live chat support adopt for success in the new year?
conversational experiences
Speed is not everything in customer support. Customer satisfaction rates can still be surprisingly high in conversations that go beyond the ten-minute mark. Depending on the complexity of the request and the quality of the response. Ideally, chat support can address issues that may have taken days by email in a matter of minutes, but it does not have to become a race against time to resolve a query. Live chat provides a perfect opportunity to listen to customer requests and converse with them.
Live chat interfaces that benefit both customers and service agents.
Establishing conversations with customers is an important part of providing assistance. This means delivering personalized services to strengthen customer loyalty to the brand. To do so, live chat can be adapted in order to support agents interacting with customers, ensuring service quality meets user standards with smart routing. Tagging features that manage and transfer chat sessions to the appropriate agent, saving time for both employees and customers alike.
The live chat should also be easy to use for agents so that by efficiently classifies. And centralizing simultaneous chats and multiple inquiries in a manageable queue, human agents can prioritize and resolve queries more efficiently.
Utilizing data insights and integrating with CRM to provide personalized experiences.
By 2023, most customers will be digital and businesses must meet their needs. 84% of customers stated that it was important for agents to respond to queries with confidence. Live chat can provide support tools for agents to help them perform better. For example, live chat can offer personalized interaction by utilizing the information given by customers when they log into their accounts. This helps support agents further understand a customer’s individual preferences and habits from prior interactions or purchases.
Integration of chat support into CRMs or other business tools can help agents draw on existing customer data to provide a better experience.
Live chats can also make use of automated triggers to engage customers when they visit the website with proactive live messages that, if used in moderation and effectively, can help agents understand the customer’s journey and activate personalized messages at the right time. This enables agents to guide a user through a product or service. This can improve sales as 44% of online buyers state that having questions answered. A live person during an online purchase is one of the most important features a website can offer.
Scripts that are created for rapid responses.
Chat scripts can seem robotic if not designed properly. But when done effectively and using the brand’s voice, they can help agents provide quick answers to customers. While providing a consistent customer experience, tone, and brand messages at the same time.
Establishing Key Performance Indicators for Live Chat.
Chat support software can provide chat metrics to help teams monitor their live chat performance and identify weak points. Different KPIs can be set, ranging from first response times, total conversations, total visitors, or visitor-to-chat ratios. All of which can provide actionable feedback to improve these rates.
Integrating knowledge bases, AI, and PLN into the process.
Customers want omnichannel support, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, in their preferred language. Providing live chat support through multiple channels is an obvious feature of competent customer support systems. The other two points may be a challenge for some customer service centers that may not always be able to implement automated translation or multi-lingual chat support. As well as provide agent availability 24/7. However, there are tools available to promote self-serve options. Knowledge bases can provide all the relevant content a customer needs when coupled with Chatbot automation. And Natural Language Processing technology, queries can be handled around the clock.
A 24/7 multilingual and multi-channel response to basic customer queries can be provided by using a bot, helping reduce and optimize customer tickets. However, bots do not replace human agents in live chats for complex operations; whilst they are able to answer 80-90% of questions. Customers still need to interact with humans for full resolution.
When interactions need human touches, solutions such as Inbenta Messenger combine live chat solutions with powerful multi-channel case management and ticketing systems. Outsourcing live chat allows for the seamless scaling of chatbot conversations to human agents. Furthermore, its case management and ticketing functionality can turn multichannel contacts into manageable queues that can be easily assigned to customer service agents. While also providing FAQs, notices, canned responses, and correct user data to ensure that agents. Provide consistent, accurate, and efficient replies with the right information.
