Put yourself in your customer’s shoes, and imagine you are browsing your company’s website in search of a live chat option—but it’s nowhere to be found. Chances are likely you’ll ask, “Why aren’t they offering this basic customer service feature? I don’t want to wait on the phone to talk to a representative!”
Indeed, live chat—now used by 58 percent of customers—has become one of the most widely-used self service features. It’s also become a basic expectation for contact centers.
There’s more to live chat, however, than the amazing customer service that it affords. It’s also important to factor in its cost saving abilities. And in today’s tight economy, where the majority of contact centers are pinching pennies and watching closely how every dollar is spent, it’s very important to clamp down and avoid wasting dollars.
Here’s how using live chat can save you money:
First and foremost, implementing a reliable live chat feature into your website will reduce total call volumes as customers will have a faster and easier way to resolve their issues. Since more customers will be inclined to use this offering, it will cut down on incoming calls meaning your business can spend less money on expensive toll-free calls.
What’s more, the average agent can only assist a single caller at a time when providing phone support. But when chatting over the Web, that agent can assist three, four or possibly even five customers at a single time. By outfitting agents with the technology to chat with customers over the Web, he or she can do the job of multiple people. This means you can hire less people without impacting your department’s workflow. In fact, interactions should speed up as chat interactions tend to be resolved much faster; agents can easily send and receive documents, or link to Web pages that can solve customers’ problems.
Learn how to save your business money with Bright Pattern’s approach to live chat.
Check out also our Zendesk live chat functionality.