How to get the most out of your live chat support tool

We all know when a customer reaches your website, they’re going to do one of two things if and when they need help – Call your number, or search vigorously for your live chat tool. Some customers get a better understanding from a phone call, but your staff cannot always be on hand to assist customers, right?

That’s where your live chat tool comes into play, and you should be paying more attention to it and testing out different ways of balancing how much time your employees devote to it, as well as how much automation you want on your chats.

We’ve scaled it down to 3 simple steps:

Analyze your live chat data history

One of the most crucial elements of a live chat tool is measuring how long the average customer is waiting for a support agent before they receive a reply. Equally so, it would be best if you calculated how many chats are missed due to customers deciding to exit the chat window.

When you know these kinds of metrics, you can add handy little features for your customers, offering things like a queue, several support channels (what their query relates to), as well as an estimated waiting time.

Create automated triggers for when no one is available to help a customer

Your team can’t be fixated on your live chat tool, so you should have pro-active message triggers that help customers with problems that can easily be rectified through acquiring their information. 

A good example is if a customer is at the checkout page and wants to pay by PayPal instead of a card, you can offer them a step-by-step guide, hopefully fixing their issue without any human support.

The key is to personalize the experience as much as possible, so don’t make your automated assistant sound like a robot. Ensure that you ask how the customer’s day is going, and if the problem is resolved, query whether they may need help with anything else – This minimizes the chance of having to step in yourself to fix a problem.

Make live chat accessible on every device, as the first port of call

Regardless of what device customers are using to access your website, you should accommodate all of them and make your live chat as accessible as possible. Your staff wants to be kept at their workstations, not pulled away onto the phones.

Redirect all queries and problems that customers face to a live chat, instead of flogging your phone number or even your email address – Trust us when we say, you don’t want to deal with hundreds of emails a day with varying queries, and no way of tracking them!

Suppose you’re in the market for a live chat tool that you can track, manage, and integrate easily with multiple websites and email accounts. Why not check out our HelpMonks live chat feature that is completely integrated into your shared inboxes and accessible to all team members at any time.