Live chat support has become an essential element in the process of achieving customer satisfaction. Allowing businesses to overcome the disadvantages of call centers and email support, live chat has increased customer retention.
According to eMarketer research, 63% of customers were willing to return to a website with live chat customer support. Moreover, it is confirmed that 51% of customers expect businesses to stay available 24/7.
But when exactly did customer support live chat become a necessity? And what are the features that make it so beneficial for long-term relationships with clients? How do they impact the business profits and how they could benefit your own business, no matter whether you’re running a small startup or an international company?
That’s what we’re covering in this article.
Read on and find out the most important facts that make live chat support the best kind of support.
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Fast-forward support
Do you remember those times when all we could do was try to reach a call center operator to get our problems solved? Then you probably also remember waiting for half an hour, or even more, to get to hear a human voice.
And just when we started to think that things could become different with the introduction of email support, our hopes fell apart. Sometimes, it took them more than a week to reply. Sometimes, they never really sent it.
As you probably know it yourself, things haven’t changed much regarding these types of support. And that’s the reason why 41% of customers opt for the immediate reaction of a live chat operator. Compared to 32% who choose call centers and 26% who rely on emails and social media, live chat support seems to become more and more popular – for a reason.
Cost-efficient Tool
Not only has customer support live chat become a great option for clients but it has also changed the way companies think about customer support. This business aspect, that once used to drain the business resources, has become the one that apart from reducing costs also brings value to both parties.
Companies no longer have to establish physical call centers, introduce multiple phone lines, or hire an extensive number of agents who still might not keep up with all the requests. Moreover, the only costs of the implementation of a live chat support system are the costs of:
- hiring several operators
- buying decent chat support software.
In the first place, not only can the chat agents share the working area with other departments, which can save you both existing space and money for office rental, but they can also work from home provided that they’d been trained before. On the other hand, if you’re investing in a high-quality live chat support tool that comes with a diversity of features, you will definitely see your investment paying off sooner than you can imagine.
More human interaction
Just remember how many times you reached out to a company’s call center and all you got was an annoying robotized voice automatically repeating instructions. With live chat support, not only are you spared from this frustrating experience but you may also get an awesome agent. (Some of them even use emojis!)
So, imagine a friendly person on the other side transforming those terrifying robotized instructions into friendly hints and suggestions. This precisely may be one of the crucial reasons why 92% of clients feel satisfied while using customer support live chat. The truth is, people, want your business to take care of them. And not only does it make them feel good but it also keeps them coming back.
Live chat can increase sales
According to Acquire.io, this is precisely what happened to Post Affiliate Pro after introducing live support to their website. Providing their customers with the possibility of live chat sessions when needed, they increased the sales rate for about 23%.
By helping your customers instantly solve a current issue, not only are you reducing their frustration but you’re letting them move on with the exploration of the products and services that you offer, which is the key to increased sales.
However, it’s important to emphasize that the sales increase is not just owed to the speed of the reply but, more importantly, to its content. This means that you should make sure to have your operators well-trained and motivated to provide great results. Having in mind what’s in the game, you definitely don’t want customers considering your customer service lame and unsatisfactory.
On the one hand, great customer support will make 86% of visitors want to pay 25% higher prices. On the other hand, 89% of customers won’t even bother dealing with companies that don’t have a reliable live support system. And these are definitely the stats that should motivate you to start looking for genuinely motivated and knowledgeable staff, and flexible and reliable software.
Convenient support tool
The reasons for the popularity of live chat support when it comes to achieving customer satisfaction are numerous. As you can see, it’s a support system that suits both clients and business owed to its numerous efficiencies.
On the one hand, it saves the agents time, letting them manage multiple requests at a time or delegate the easiest ones to the chatbots. On the other hand, it also saves the customers time, eliminating the time gap between asking a question and getting a reply.
Financially speaking, live chat support reduces unnecessary costs, as the only major investments are agent training and the software price. At the same time, it gives you great value – with this tool, you get to store the information from each chat session, so you can analyze the data and use it to make your brand more appealing to the relevant audience.
Finally, what also made live chat become (and remain!) the favorite way of providing and getting support is its mobile-friendly interface and adaptability. Both agents and clients can use it whenever they need, on their mobile devices. And this allows the prospects to get a reply even out of the company’s official working hours, speeding up the process of making a stronger bond with customers.
