Shorten Your Response Time With Live Chat Support

According to a survey by Harris Interactive, 75% of customers feel it takes too long to get in touch with a customer service representative. Fortunately, live chat support can solve this issue.

Outsourcing your live chat support from a reliable company lessens the risk of losing 75% of your market. A live representative will instantly answer customer queries, which can ensure customer satisfaction. Meanwhile, you do not need to spend many resources hiring additional staff.

 

What is live chat support?

Live chat support is a type of customer service support channel. It provides customer support in real time via online text chat. This can be done on several platforms, such as instant messaging apps, social media, or chat windows on your business website.

Live chat support cuts the wait time for customer service while establishing an effective connection with customers. Customers can receive a faster response from your brand instead of waiting for an email response or their phone call being queued. Customer experience will improve significantly and, in turn, will increase sales.

 

What happens when you outsource live chat?

When you outsource live chat support, you hire a third-party service provider to handle your live chat services. The outsourced company will assign a dedicated team of live chat agents to communicate with customers on your behalf.

Your outsourced live chat agents will be thoroughly trained on your business, brand, products, and services. They can respond to various customer queries, such as promos, sales, and support for technical issues. Service providers use live chat software to manage the chat services across different platforms.

 

Which industries outsource their live chat?

Outsourcing live chat benefits any business. Some of the world’s biggest companies outsource their live chat services. Here are some of the industries that popularly outsource live chat support:

• Legal Firms: many have live chat support integrated into their website. Anyone browsing law-related topics on their website can easily communicate with their representatives and potentially ask for legal help.

• Retailers: any retail business will be much more accommodating to customers if they integrate live chat into their website. Contacting your brand will be much easier and help you cope with peak seasons.

• Real Estate and Property Management: when browsing properties on your webpage, a live chat option would make it easier for customers to inquire about your properties. Setting up viewings will be faster, making the sales process more efficient.

• Travel and Hospitality: whether you have a travel agency, a transportation company, or a hospitality business, live chat helps you deal with customers. This service lets you easily and quickly resolve ticketing and reservation issues.

• E-commerce: the importance of live chat on websites is most evident in e-commerce businesses. Live chat support provides an instant method to deliver customer service, all while the customer is in your online shop. Live chat is also known to increase conversion rates for online stores.

• Service providers: service providers for a wide variety of services should be easily accessible to their customers. From cable providers to utility companies, live chat support efficiently bridges the gap between brands and customers.

 

What are the benefits of live chat customer service?

Here are only some of the benefits of live chat for businesses:

• Better value for money: according to research, delivering customer service via web chat can be up to 30% cheaper than phone calls. Live chat agents can also multitask and handle multiple conversations simultaneously. This reduces operational costs and boosts your efficiency. When you outsource this service, you can save even more resources.

• Increased sales and conversions: this is especially evident in B2B companies. The American Marketing Association found that businesses offering live chat support experience a 20% increase in conversions.

• Improve customer service: there are many benefits of live chat for customer service. It makes customer service more convenient and provides faster responses and resolution. Live chat can also improve customer satisfaction and loyalty.

• Millennials prefer live chat: millennials prefer live chat as a customer service channel. You must provide live chat support if they are one of your target markets.

• Competitive advantage: only a few business websites provide live chat support. If you offer this service, you will already be ahead of your competitors.

 

What are the disadvantages of live chat customer service?

Both live chat advantages and disadvantages are essential when considering this service. As such, here are the disadvantages of live chat support outsourcing:

• Customers dislike scripted responses: live chat and greetings quickly appear scripted. This can negatively affect customer experience.

• There might be wait time: live chat does not guarantee zero queues and wait time. However, the wait time is still significantly shorter than other channels.

• Most live chat options are not mobile-friendly:  in most cases, you need to stay on the chat box to keep chatting. Otherwise, the chat will be deleted. This can be a problem for mobile users who need to use other applications.

• Unreliable service providers: when you outsource live chat support, you might risk outsourcing to an unreliable service provider. This BPO company may not train its agents well or handle your data poorly.

 

How should you select a live chat service provider?

There are plenty of BPO companies that provide live chat support. However, not all of them are the right fit for your business. When selecting a service provider, you need to consider the following factors:

• Length of experience: experienced service providers know how to handle various challenges and can pass this on to their staff.
• Quality of staff: hire a service provider that trains agents well and regularly monitors and improves performance.
• Safety guarantee: checking for a HIPAA or an ISO certification is an effective way of ensuring that your data is safe with a service provider.
• Value for money: your service provider should deliver high-quality results at any price point.

 

Magellan Solutions has all the qualities of a reliable live chat service provider. We have been in the industry for over 15 years, and we make sure that our staff reflects this experience. Our company is ISO and HIPAA certified, soan guarantee high-quality services with flexible rates.