Many companies utilize live chat or messaging services to provide on-demand support and instantaneous customer service to site users and potential customers. Live chats are invaluable when it comes to answering customer or client inquiries as they happen in real-time, keeping potential customers on your website, and up to date with the latest information. As reported by Karako, “52% of customers are more likely to repurchase from a company that offers live chat support.”
With that said, it’s crucial to make sure that your live chat service is courteous, respectful, and kind. Essentially, live chats act as the voice of your company, and you’ll want to make sure that this voice is welcoming and professional. While we can work with you to keep your website and live chat up and running correctly, it’s up to you to ensure that your live chat service is beyond customer service standards.
5 professional DO’S when it comes to your live chat or messenger functions.
1. DO introduce yourself. Whether you have a bot or a real live human being behind your live chat feature, you’ll want to make sure that you present yourself with a name. Names add a warm touch to a typically cold and distant electronic feature.
2. DO have pre-planned messages/strategies for your live chat operators to use. While you’ll always get some “out of left field” inquiries, most users will have the same basic questions regarding your services or products. Your operators must have pre-planned responses for your most common pain points to answer with speed and consistency.
3. DO make sure that you have a typing indicator, letting the user know that you’re actively engaged and listening to the user’s questions, comments, or concerns. Sometimes answers take a bit to type out, and you don’t want the user to think that you’re ignoring them.
4. DO use proper grammar. Okay, so maybe we aren’t all perfect when it comes to texting or DM responses to our friends, but you’ll want to make sure that you’re double-checking your grammar when responding to potential or returning customers. Remember, your live chat responses represent your business.
5. DO ask probing questions. Your customers don’t understand the ins and outs of your service or product the way that you do. Be sure to politely ask probing questions if the user seems to be having trouble describing their inquiry.
5 DON’TS when it comes to your live chat service.
1. DON’T offer live chat during off-hours. Unless you have an outside service providing 24/7 live chat support, be sure to let users know when live chat is offline so that they aren’t waiting endlessly for a response, and that their inquiry will be answered when as soon as possible.
2. DON’T use ALL CAPS or ellipses when responding to site users. ALL CAPS CAN COME OFF AS SHOUTING and ellipses may read as cold, distant, and sarcastic …okay?
3. DON’T overuse humor. While in real-life scenarios, humor can be a great way to establish a friendly demeanor, humor and jokes can come off as sarcastic and stand-offish over text. Be as friendly as possible, but best to leave the jokes on twitter.
4. DON’T leave the user hanging. If you don’t have the answer right away, be transparent, let the user know that you’re working to find the answer as quickly as possible.
5. DON’T escalate. If chat users are seeking technical support or customer service, they may be in a state of confusion or frustration. It’s crucial to treat every customer with empathy, respect, and courtesy. It’s also important to have a strategy in place to deal with hostility.
According to Neil Patel, “live chat is the only way to provide real human interaction during an online purchase.” 47% of users report that they haven’t had positive experiences during these chat sessions, meaning that live chat is more important than ever in the digital age.
Contact us to find out more information about how we can keep your chat live and operating so that you can interact with your users daily as they need it.
Categorised in: customer support, IT Consulting Services, live chat support, support