Live chat has become an important part of every company’s customer support service. The reason for this lies in the fact that consumers around the world prefer to use the Internet. Only a decade ago, customers would turn to a company’s phone support to have their issues solved. However, with the advancement in technology, customers have started seeking customer support online through channels such as email.
But, to go a step further, live chat has been developed to offer immediate contact with customer support. It comes with an abundance of useful features that not only helps to improve customer support but also increases productivity of agents working in that department.
Let’s take a look at how workplace productivity can be improved with a live chat software tool.
Higher number of served customers
Serving a higher number of customers is known to positively affect their satisfaction. This is precisely what live chat software provides for customer support agents. They are in a position to communicate with multiple clients and solve their issues simultaneously.
However, it is important that agents go through in-depth training, that will allow them to use the right phrasing, so the customer does not feel left out or ignored. For example, a live chat agent should notify the customer that he or she is going to need 30-45 seconds to share the most appropriate answer with them. Also, they could request the customer to review the information provided in the link and come back once they are finished. In some cases, this can provide time for the agent to work with another client simultaneously.
This type of approach enables agents to serve more customers, creating an effective team of people with higher productivity. Additionally, this kind of performance is motivating for team members, especially if they are praised by a manager or another higher authority.
Continuous data collection for future reference
One of the features that live chat software boasts of is information recording. Over time, collecting this type of information can lead to significant improvements in agent productivity.
For example, a high number of customers is contacting the support team about the same problem. Having an insight into this data enables the team to create message templates which speed up the process of communication. Doing this enables an agent to offer an effective solution to the customer, which eventually increases the number of completed tasks.
On the other hand, companies also rely on FAQ and wiki pages as their first line of offering customer support. By collecting data from live chat software, these pages can be significantly improved that helps to reduce the stress on the customer support team.
Also, the collected data is valuable for the future performance of the team as a whole. Team managers are in a position to view communication and performance details of all customer support agents. He or she can then work individually with each of them, thus helping them improve their performance and driving the whole team’s productivity up.
Ease of use
Ease of use is very important for team productivity. Businesses are afraid of implementing these software tools due to a fear of driving down customer support productivity. However, as this software tool is easy to use, businesses do not have to suffer from loss of productivity in two cases.
New tool implementation – Whenever a new tool is implemented, employees have to go through special training that can sometimes take weeks. This type of transition can significantly slow down a company and cause a drop in productivity. But, with a tool that is easy to use, dedicating a day or two for training is more than enough. It will enable the team to continue working more effectively, without losing time.
Employee acquisition – The employee hiring process can be tiresome, especially if your business is relying on a set of tools that require a lot of training. However, the ease of use of live chat can make the whole adaptation period much easier.
For example, “Dell” has improved the productivity of their customer support teams by 25%. This was performed by adapting of many new practices, one of them being short and effective new employee training. By using it, their customer support would get a new member in only a matter of days, which leads to easier improvements of the team’s productivity.
Ease of use plays an important role in using any type of tool. It saves time and makes the adaptation and learning period easier to complete.
Integration with other software tools improves customer support effectiveness
Even though the live chat tool is a great way to improve company-wide productivity, its true power lies in integration with other software tools. Making live chat integrate with a knowledge base or a CRM software solution is a great way to improve other tasks.
For example, when a client contacts support, the agent can use some additional data about the client to improve communication and present the whole brand as an entity that actually cares and listens.
Imagine a scenario in which a customer gets in touch with the customer support and the agent already know what products he or she owns. Or, imagine them making contact on his or her birthday and receiving a promotional code as a gift.
These little things matter a lot, as they can significantly improve the customer satisfaction rates as well as the productivity of the whole company. Sales departments can create a great upselling strategy that could be deployed via the live chat software. All this flexibility enables employees to get more work done and achieve better results than they ever could before.
Conclusion
Therefore, if you are looking for a way to make your business more competitive, more productive, yet cost efficient, using live chat software is the perfect choice. Take advantage of the flexibility that live chat software brings to the table, and you will easily witness a great increase in productivity with your company, enabling your team to do much more.
Author Bio:
Jason Grills is a technical writer currently associated with ProProfs Chat. He enjoys writing about emerging customer support products, trends in customer support industry and the financial impacts of using such tools. He lives in Los Angeles, California. In his spare time, Jason enjoys long walks, listening to blues and loves to do things that involves creativity.