In today’s virtual marketplace, communications between brands and online customers can occur on a variety of media. Customers often reach out via email telephone, or even social media to connect with a brand. Yet, in order to make contact even more convenient companies are increasingly offering their online customers a new, more personable and direct form of customer service, online chat.
Today’s online chat options offer online customers a new, direct and live form of communication with another human being, something that cannot be said for email and much less complicated than connecting with a live representative via a labyrinth of corporate call-in centers.
Some of the most important advantages to incorporating online chat options into your company’s website design include:
- Increased user satisfaction: Hubspot research indicates that two-thirds of consumers find that the most frustrating aspect of getting customer service is waiting on hold or having to explain the same information to multiple representatives. As the new integral part of the communication triad of the “Contact Us” button (email, telephone, chat), chat use has been shown to increase overall user satisfaction and experience on a business website. And as we know, online users with positive user-experiences tend to become repeat consumers of a brand and its products or services.
- Immediate customer service: Chat functionality offers near immediate assistance to customers, and even in cases where there are delays in reaching a chat representative, a user will still be given the option of leaving a message in expectation of a momentary call-back. Convenience is the key to ensuring your visitors enjoy a good customer experience online and are left with a positive impression of your brand.
- Directed customer segmentation: Unlike the canned, robotic voice response systems, chat integration makes consumers feel like they are conversing with an actual human being. The chat user can cut right to the chase by typing their specific question for the brand representative to read. It’s like being first in line when there really is no line. Quick customer service tops bells ands whistles any day.
- Economically feasible: The use of online chat, often within a 24/7 timeframe, can be economically feasible for most companies given the fewer number of customer representatives needed. Often in these scenarios, a since a single representative can typically handle more than one chat session at a time. Given that nearly 50% of all online consumers like when a business is accessible 24/7, the use of chat-enabled customer service is an economically viable means to improving the user-experience on your site.
The tenets of effective business growth haven’t fundamentally changed as the public moves from shopping at brick and mortar stores to the online space. Making the user-experience a positive one is paramount for the growth of your brand. Incorporating the use of customer service chat will go a long way in ensuring that the user-experience on your website is a positive one. And it will ensure that you have a happy customer. We all know that happy customers, either in store or online, tend to be repeat customers.