Today, consumers are constantly searching to establish connections to the businesses they use.
However, they are doing so while simultaneously demanding ease. A well-trained call centre is perfect to build relationships, but the experience can be overshadowed by a bad phone line, a long waiting period, a complex navigation system or office hours. One way to deliver on both ease and connection is to build a live chat functionality into your website.
“Live chat allows you to connect to people in real-time,” says Adrian Zanetti, MD of NEXT Solutions. “We’ve implemented this functionality on two of our clients’ sites and have been blown away by the results. This improvement has led to an average of 500 chats per month on GetMore (Cell C’s customer benefits programme), an average of 80 chats on Netstar Go (Netstar’s customer benefits programme) and more satisfied customers overall.”
Zanetti continues to explain that “this development is due to users now enjoying access to a communication channel that’s on their terms. The live chat functionality moves the focus from the importance of the business’s time to that of the client’s, as they can get immediate responses and don’t have to struggle through traditional ‘call back’ options”.
Customers no longer need to navigate through a complex number system, make use of different communication channels such as emails or phone calls, or wait for office hours. Moreover, they can conduct several conversations at the same time. Live chat gives users control over how and when they receive information.
“We’ve seen a significant drop in page bounce rates and an increase in sales, as we are able to assist customers while they are busy on the site without them having to use a different channel,” Zanetti says. Through this functionality, staff can ensure customer satisfaction and understanding of how the product or service work.
Training staff to search for the human connection instead of giving robotic replies is hugely beneficial to the ultimate user experience. “By connecting to customers and understanding what they need, staff members are in a better position to promote and sell different offerings,” adds Zanetti.
Live chat can also reduce the time contact centre members spend on a task as they’ll be able to assist clients quicker and complete several tasks simultaneously, hence improving the number of requests they can manage per day.
“Since implementing live chat on our websites, we’ve never looked back, and are very excited about rolling this functionality out to our other clients.”
