What are the benefits of live chat support?

Wondering what live chat support is? Read along to learn about it and the benefits it offers.

Wondering what live chat support is? Read along to learn about it and the benefits it offers.

It is crucial for businesses to provide efficient customer services to build a sustainable customer base and for them to flourish. In today’s digital age, it has become essential for businesses to connect with their customers. It helps to build a strong customer base and understand customer patterns that will help businesses to thrive and grow. 

Live chat support is a great way to improve overall customer satisfaction and comes with various benefits. In fact, it has been observed that live chat generates 73 percent more customer satisfaction than emails and phone calls. Thus, live chat support is emerging as a preferable option for customers to communicate their issues.

So, what exactly is live chat support? Read along to understand better about live chat support, how it is different from chatbots and what its benefits are.

What is live chat software?

Live chat support is an embedded software service on websites that allows live interaction between the customer and the support agent to deliver fast and efficient customer services. It provides customer support with a real-time conversation with customer care executives and the ability to share links, collect information, and save a full transcript for later reference. 

Live chat software is quite different from chatbots. Chatbots are computer programs designed to mimic human conversation and speech, set with default answers to solve minor customer issues. Websites that offer live chat services usually solve customer issues with the help of an actual human instead of a chatbot. It is the ideal online service tool for a customer who needs immediate help.

Live chat software can also be used for other purposes beyond support, like enabling sales conversations to generate leads. 

Benefits of live chat services

Live chat support is easily accessible

Live chat software can be integrated easily through a consistently available button or link on your website or in your app. When customer needs assistance, they won’t have to look for a special contact page or an email address; they can directly click on the live support button to lodge their complaints. Thus, it provides customers with easy access that reduces their effort, which is essential in building customer loyalty.

Live chat support delivers useful context

Integrating live chat directly into the customer service process gives customers the best opportunity to explain their issues and their required assistance. Good live chat software will inform the customer support agent of where the customer is in the process and the process they have followed before requesting service.  It gives both parties an advantage in determining the problem and providing the relevant solution.

Live chat support is less time consuming

Customers can receive timely solutions in real-time via a live chat rather than via email or a phone call where they have to wait for the agents to revert back. Customers will be more satisfied with live chat support as it would solve their issues immediately without waiting.

Live chat support is conversational

Many people express themselves better through chat conversation rather than formal writing. Email support requires customers to explain their issues clearly and provide all relevant details, at which customers are not always experts. Live chat support allows the support agent to guide a customer through the process by asking the right questions in the right order. What could be a days-long back-and-forth via email could instead be solved in a 10-minute chat.

Benefits of having live chat support on your website

Customers can communicate with customer support agents in real-time through live chat support. Customers can send their queries on live chat and a customer agent available quickly responds to their issues using the live chat software embedded on a company’s website.

There are several reasons why businesses should use live chats on their websites to communicate with customers. Let us see some of the main advantages of having live chat support on your website: 

• Cost efficiency — Live chat is a low-cost alternative to phone support. It is typically a cloud-based service and has a low subscription fee. 
• Lead generation — Live chat can also assist businesses in generating leads. It enables agents or operators to send automatic pop-up messages to visitors to initiate chats and collect visitors’ names, emails, and other information for generating leads.
• Productivity — Operators in live chat can handle multiple customers simultaneously, which is impossible over the phone. Furthermore, many live chats allow operators to use stock answers and see what customers are typing before sending the message, which increases their productivity in providing customer services.

Therefore, live chat software can make your website become more customer friendly by making your team of customer agents more efficient. It helps improve the support channels on websites and increases customer engagement.

Conclusion

It is easy to start with live chat support, but it takes effort and proper strategies to make live chat support a sustainable and effective form of customer service strategy. Integrating live chat support requires some careful planning and intentional design so that it can work efficiently.

Temasys Communications is a leading communications technology provider whose Skylink solutions make it simple for businesses to improve customer experiences and services with live voice, video, instant messaging, and more across all digital platforms.

Skylink Cube is the most direct, simplest and easiest way to provide human communications on your websites and apps without a code. It can help you get set up quickly and easily, no matter what industry you are in. You will not require any additional developer resources to set up the software, which will help you save money and resources. Check out the free one-on-one plan to help you get started. If you require more features, the premium plans start at less than $1 per day.

Skylink Cube has no restrictions on the number of seats or the length of calls. It is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and you can install it easily on as many authorized domains as you want.
Request a demo to understand better how it works and can help improve your business’s customer services.