I have had people asking to put a chat function on their website. These are the questions I ask them first:
Do You Have Staff That Can Monitor This Chat Account The Whole Day?
Everyone knows it’s frustrating to call a service hotline no one answers. That would be the same situation here. It is impractical to place a person in charge of responding to this at all hours of the day. If you delegate it with someone who is already doing something else it will take up their time doing their main job and essentially give them an excuse for not doing that job properly. And if someone is deemed ‘not busy’ enough to be given this task, then that person isn’t probably suited to be talking to customers either.
Chat Should Always Be 24/7
If you are offering chat ‘only during office hours’, then you are missing the whole point of chat. The promise of chat is instantaneous communication with the organization behind a product or service oftentimes to complain or raise issue about something, and if this doesn’t happen you’ve just given the customer another reason to complain.
Besides, if you can’t give it 24/7 then why not just offer email support instead, which is about as effective as chat that isn’t 24/7.
Assuming You Can Go 24/7, Is Your Staff Up To It?
Call center agents are given a lot of training before being allowed to speak to the public for good reason. Every possible reason for a call is thought of and every possible response written down. This is then drilled into their heads over and over until they develop the confidence to face even the most irate customer, only raising the level up to higher management when the situation is not in their scope.
This takes training, experience, and in the case of offering discounts or refunds, some managerial skill. Can your staff do this? Or will they be putting customers on hold for long periods and calling their bosses all hours of the day for answers?
Do You Have To Have The Proper Mechanism?
I have encountered computer stores that offer chat support often via Yahoo Messenger or Skype. It seems a good idea at first but clearly there was a problem later on when customers literally flood these chat accounts with support requests. These are not archived properly to make sure they are being dealt with and responses to these are not automated so the service crew, who is usually doing this part time alongside his other duties, has to answer the same questions over and over again. This also all happens quickly so the manager is seldom completely aware of what’s going on. Arguments could occur between crew and customer without the manager even aware. Many questions can be highly technical and the crew often ends up asking the customer to just call support anyway making the customer wonder why they offered chat support in the first place.
On the other hand I have had the chance to use chat on hosting companies I have used and they are excellent. Most of these show the number of chats occurring at that moment and how long it might take before a support person can get to you. If your question is a common one suggestions will appear as links to their website FAQ which can help you faster than waiting for someone to talk to. And finally once you do chat a support person you are issued a support ticket which you, the support person and his manager can both reference later on.
Alternatives To Chat
So is chat a bad idea overall? Not necessarily. You will need to address the issues above or even consider hiring a professional call center agency if you really feel it urgent.
For smaller business applications it is still hard to beat plain and simple email support, but even then this needs to be prepared with efficiency and automation in mind.
For example I use an email ticketing system for my clients. Clients first email their issue to [email protected] which sends them an automated reply with their ticket number and myself. The system then starts a countdown automatically counting the number of hours until I fix the issue, which is then logged for both parties to observe.
This GREATLY helps me deal with issues and be more responsive to my customers plus I can use the data to show potential customers how quickly I provide support. It helps the customer because he knows his issue is being addressed as well.
For inquiries about setting up customer support systems please email me at [email protected] for a free assessment.
