Live-Chat Support: Tips for Successful Real-Time Customer Service
The following guide explains the key advantages and provides tips for implementation
- What does live chat support mean?
- Where is the chat integrated?
- What are the advantages of chat support?
- Customer Service Chat
- technical implementation
- Customer service via chat
- The benefits of Customer Service Chat ensure that customer service
- Chat software & tools
- and are then answered at a later point directly in the messenger. For customers, it is learned that an answer does not have to be immediate, but can be delayed.
- Software with omnichannel features, chatbots and self-service options
While our buying behavior continues to move into the world of online commerce, customer service seems to be standing still in many places. Still, phone and email are among the most frequently offered contact channels, even though our way of communicating has long since changed.
Therefore, the chat as a digital customer service channel is examined more closely here. What needs does it cover, what advantages does it bring, what tools are there and what should one bear in mind when implementing it? The following guide explains the key advantages and gives tips for implementation, let's start at the very beginning:
What does live chat support mean?
Live chat support refers to the provision of a chat-based customer service channel. This usually covers all service topics of a company and serves as a first point of contact for all types of customer inquiries (First-Level -Support). Further questions can also be answered in the process (2nd-Level to Last-Level).
Where is the chat integrated?
The chat is usually offered on the website or the contact page of a company. It can also be integrated into online shops, directly at the products or in apps. This way, it can assist at all points of the customer journey.
Another possibility is the integration in messenger like WhatsApp. The functionality is comparable. The biggest difference here is the synchronicity of the conversation, which will be discussed later in the article. For a start: Chats via messenger enable asynchronous communication. The answer can be delayed as this is learned in messenger.
What are the advantages of chat support?
The customer service chat has numerous advantages compared to the analog contact center.
From the customer perspective:
Chats are a preferred communication channel
Chats are learned and lived communication channels for many people. They make few phone calls or even fear them. The Telephobia or the “fear of making phone calls” is particularly pronounced from the millennials (Generation Y, birth after 1980) onwards. Text-based communication has created a digital comfort zone from which we are reluctant to leave. And what applies to private conversations, applies even more so to contact with foreign instances like companies. Therefore, telephone contact with customer service today represents a real hurdle for many people.This can also be used for the service.
Chats offer direct problem solving without media disruption
Due to the constant availability of the smartphone, live chat customer service is accessible everywhere up to 24/7. Without changing the channel and time delay such as with emails, concerns can be finally clarified directly.
Chats are personal and not too close
Customers appreciate personal contact, but often shun the direct proximity of a phone call. Chats have a healthy distance with simultaneous empathy- and it is often easier to text than to explain the concern verbally.For companiesChats achieve the highest customer satisfaction
In comparison with other service channels, chat support regularly shows the
highest customer satisfaction
, measured with the CSI (Customer Satisfaction Index) of approximately 4.7 out of 5 stars.Chats realize the highest first solution rate Especially by avoiding an
email ping-pong
from customer inquiries and time-delayed counter-questions, chats achieve the highest first solution rate of digital channels. By directly connecting to internal knowledge databases and customer data, problems can be solved directly. Chats are efficient and cost-effectiveDue to the specific communication in chats, an agent can handle
multiple chats at the same time
. The concurrency is between 2 and 4. In order to fully realize the potentials, it depends not only on the tools used but also on a trained team. Even if the chats sometimes take longer than a phone call, they are the cheapest personal service channel due to the concurrency. Experienced agents use the wave-like play of questions and answers so skillfully that they can look after several people at the same time without causing losses in service quality. This not only leads to significant cost reduction, but also makes peak handling easier. While each request on the hotline must be handled by a service agent, resulting in the staffing requirement increasing in parallel with the service volume, a fixed number of chat agents can react flexibly to volume fluctuations.Chats bring salesThrough the integration of customer-oriented sales approaches,
up and/or cross-sales
can be realized.Chats are a competitive advantage and shape the brandLive chat customer service shows that personal contact is important and that the company is modern and future-oriented. What is not all being done to get interested parties on the website or into the online shop. The important last step is the
offer of personal contact
, when the customers want it.Why should companies integrate chat support?The key benefits of
Customer Service Chat
can be directly transferred to almost any company. Customer service as USPIn times of increasingly
interchangeable products
and constant price warfare there are only a few opportunities to develop a unique selling proposition. Customer service can be one of them. Satisfied customers are the best marketing tool and a modern company whose customer service center speaks the language of its target group and uses the channels of its target group will realize a competitive advantage.Cost reductionFrom the explained
One-To-Many
communication results in a reduction in expenses in the Customer Care Center. The same number of service agents in chat can handle a higher number of service cases in the same time compared to the hotline.In combination with chatbots and other automation systems, chat is thus the cost and personnel efficient form
of modern digital customer communication.Integration into other systems, AI and chatbotsAnother key aspect of chats is the ability to connect a variety of systems. From
translation programs
and text correction systems to artificial intelligence which supports service agents in intention recognition and answer finding. For example, the contents of knowledge databases can also be directly integrated, not only reducing the processing time of service cases, but also significantly increasing the solution rate. Chatbots can be placed before a personal chat and answer simple, recurring questions directly. They can also be included in the course of a chat to relieve the agents - e.g. in data acquisition.What are the challenges with chat support?The
technical implementation
of support chat is easier than setting up a telecommunications system. Here's an article that explains the steps to set up
a chat channel: How to integrate a chat function on your websiteChallenges arise in the selection of the chat tool
and the team training.There is a number of suitable tools
, which have different strengths. The right choice is based on the project-specific requirements, such as the size and integration into further channels- good combination is mail support. A selection of chat tools can be found at the end of this article.While hotline and contact form
look back on a long period of application, chat still counts as one of the “new technologies” for many companies even today. The communication in the chat is shorter and more direct. The simultaneity of several chat supports is to be trained in order to fully realize the potential. The agents should be trained for this channel and speak the customers' language. The implementation of a company-specific chat guideline gives orientation.There are also companies that fully rely on digital customer communication via chat. For example, fraenk
, a subsidiary brand of Telekom Deutschland GmbH, as the first mobile phone provider in Germany chose a pure “chat only” approach. No contact form. No hotline. The entire customer support is handled only via chat. Which companies is chat support suitable for?In principle,
Customer service via chat
is suitable for all industries and companies. The only obstacle would be the demography of the target group. Companies that target older target groups (over 60) with their products and services are advised to rely on traditional contact channels and personal support on site.Its true potential is the customer service chat unfolds in companies with a high service volume
. This includes for example the e-commerce sector, well-known brands with their online shop, telecommunications providers, insurance companies, banks, energy providers, car-sharing providers, streaming services and others. Through the high agent efficiency
, high contact volume can be processed with low resource usage through chat support. If there are a lot of simple and repetitive inquiries, the combination of chat bot and live chat is also suitable. Basically, all companies should consider live chat support that want to win customers with modern customer service
, struggle with high customer service expenses or record too high bounce rates on their website.Tips for successful real-time customer serviceCustomer Journey
The benefits of Customer Service Chat ensure that customer service
is no longer just a cost factor
, but can be understood as a value creation factor. The chat can be integrated along the entire customer journey. Openly at the major customer contact points instead of hiding them behind “Did you know?” And “Have you already tried X” in the general contact area.An overview of the B2B Customer Journey
can be obtained at OMR Reviews.For example, the chat can be displayed on the edge of an online shop
or triggered by certain actions such as lingering on a particular page for a longer time. Offering this very simple contact option without media disruption can reduce both the bounce rate and the number of contacts via more expensive, analog service channels. The contact without media disruption speaks for the integration of a live chat.Human TouchThe support chat is a personal contact channel. This strength can be used to build
customer relationships
. Through personal approach and quick problem solving, valuable customers can result from website visitors. Since chat contacts are directly generated from websites or apps, each request can also be assigned a probable service case spectrum in advance. This allows customers to be transferred directly to specialized agents. This avoids time-consuming follow-up contacts and internal forwarding even before the question is asked. Different media and links can be used in the chat as needed. Comprehensive advice can also be given on products that require explanation. Or the customer chat is used to process orders or payment processes, visually illustrate instructions, transmit virtual shipping tracking or conduct surveys. The spectrum of personal contact is multifacetedly exciting
.AutomationThe chat support is predestined
for the connection of bots
. These chatbots can answer a large part of the simple and recurring requests automatically and around the clock. An integrated handover option to chat agents (Human Handover) forms the optimal symbiosis of team & tool, and ensures maximum service efficiency without loss of quality.For example, a chatbot can also take over necessary data queries, such as for customer legitimation. Afterwards, the human customer service team
can focus entirely on the pure case handling, without having to expend time resources for repeating tasks. In addition, chatbots can also support during and after chat support. For example, service agents can pass customers to a Sales-Bot
after successful product advice, which requests all information for order processing interactively and completes the sale. Team & Tool The combination of team and tool provides outstanding results. The
service team is the heart of every customer communication
. Therefore, the team should not only bring affinity for the industry and its products or services, but also experienced handling with the respective service channel. A service team existing in the company often shows partial readiness for new channels. These can be trained and possibly combined with external chat experts
.In addition to the basic chat tools, there are a variety of options to connect external tools
to improve the quality and efficiency of customer conversation. These primarily include programs that can support the service agents directly in the dialogue. Tools like Grammarly
or GrammarlyHemingway LanguageTooloffer live corrections of formulations, sentence positions or grammar. Also translation programs like DeepLDeepl Google Translateor translate can support the
chat customer service, by enabling a central service team to take over the international customer communication, without having to invest resources in the setup of multilingual teams.Here you can find an overview of tools around the setup of a chat service channel:
Chat software & tools
in comparison. What is the difference between support via live chat and messenger?Although chat and messenger are often assigned to the same service category, there is a significant difference between the two channels. What distinguishes the messenger from live chat, is the partial
asynchronous communication between customers and companies. While a chat can be seen as a time-limited and self-contained conversation, the communication behavior on mobile messengers like WhatsApp & Co. is partly marked by pauses. That means,
requests can also be made outside the regular service hours of a company
and are then answered at a later point directly in the messenger. For customers, it is learned that an answer does not have to be immediate, but can be delayed.
Depending on the channel, there are certain advantages and disadvantages in the application. We have summarized the most important areas in the following chart:Flixcheck
Which tools can be used for live chat support?There are a variety of tools, like Front that can be used around digital customer service. The best combination of the different systems always results on the basis of the respective company and its objectives
in customer support, the demands of its target group and the complexity of the service cases. Here you will find a large overview of all systems from the world of Customer Care: Customer service software & tools in comparison.
FreshdeskAnd here are
Userlikethree selected tools
Intercomwith which you can start your chat project immediately:
Software with omnichannel features, chatbots and self-service options
Software for chat, messaging and automationSoftware for business messaging and self-service Conclusion
Ralf ist Professor für Marketing an der FH Münster mit Schwerpunkt Käuferverhalten und digitale Transformation im Kundenservice. Er ist Gründer sowie Gesellschafter von Dr. Schengber & Friends (DSaF.de), The Digital Service Company, die sich im Kern mit Life-Chat-Support und Chatbots beschäftigen.
