“Please be patient, we will be with you shortly”. We have all heard these words and we are well aware that “shortly” may end up being quite a while. The days of forcing clients to wait for “the next available operator” are coming to a welcome end. Emails and online forms have already become many people’s preferred method of communication for a while now.  Live chat support services have been establishing their worth and they contain a lot of untapped potential for growth.

As convenient as online shopping is, it has a sense of being detached, which is partly due to the fact that there is no personal interaction with sales clerks to advise you on the services or products they offer. This is where live chat support becomes very beneficial.

Live chat support brings the element of human interactivity to your website. Clients and customers can browse and ask questions without having to wait for the “next available operator”. Live chat support agents are also in the position of being more productive due to the fact that they can communicate with more than one client at a time and in the event that they don’t know the answer to a question, it is easy enough to ask someone without the client even knowing this. The agent’s competence and quick response time may also lead to a positive impact on sales, since customers receive almost immediate feedback to their queries, making the sales momentum just that much more attractive.

More positive aspects to live chat support:

1. Due to the fact that your phone costs are reduced and agents can multitask, your productivity will increase while expenses decrease.
2. The chat bar can convert into an online form when an agent is away. Visitors can fill in their queries, allowing agents to respond to them as soon as they are available.
3. All live chats are stored as files which can be reviewed and evaluated at a later stage. Which questions are asked most frequently? What is the standard of our customer care? This is all easily definable with the stored data.
4. When customers feel that they receive competent support, their trust in the company grows. Live chat support encompasses fast, efficient and proficient support which will nurture your customer’s loyalty.

There are of course some drawbacks to live chat systems and even though there are very few, it is important to keep this in mind. For instance, the feature is not great on mobile phones and since more and more people use smart phones to browse websites, this may be an issue. Also remember that some users prefer making a phone call so don’t get rid of your phone support completely, especially since we live in an era where the digital divide is such a reality.

When looking at where this technology can take your business there is no denying that the benefits outweigh the disadvantages. Installing live chat support may just bring the difference to your customer support that you’ve been looking for.

Malindi is a Digital Media Project Manager at Sound Idea Digital | malindi@soundidea.co.za