Customer Service via Live Chat; Why and How to provide it?
Monday, June 23rd, 2008It has become increasingly more frequent to encounter a chat button, or various, on the websites that we browse. It seems like also every company on the web is offering customer service by means of chat. The questions that arise are why? And how to do it right?
Why? And how to do it right?
Online chat has been around for a long time and though most people associate chat with ICQ or AOL which popularized it in the mid 90’s it actually predates the Internet and has been available since the 1960’s. Nowadays, many chat software, as well as platforms are available on the market.
Customer Service Chat (CSC) can be defined as an Internet service that allows the user to communicate in real time with a customer service agent by using an instant messaging (IM) application that’s built into the company’s Web site.
In retail e-commerce, chat is often promoted as being a cost-effective way to a human touch to the online shopping experience as well as being a way to provide immediate responses to customer questions. But if it is not skillfully done, it can produce just the opposite effect.
In a study done by Greenfield Online in 2000, it was shown that at least 28% of online shoppers abandon a purchase before completing it. Two of the main reasons were:
1- Some consumers abandon purchases because they perceive it as riskier to shop online than shopping in stores or over the telephone where consumers can obtain direct and immediate information to offset the risk of the item not meeting their expectations.
2- Other consumers find the checkout process confusing, and others abandon their purchases because they cannot speak with a customer service representative.
Dorine C. Andrews, in her article “Online Customer Service Chat: Usability and Sociability Issues” came to the following conclusion:
1.) “Access to customer service chat is a primary barrier to a successful experience.” Most website that use the chat feature have a tendency to only have one or two chat buttons available and most of them put them on their “Help” page of at the end of the ordering process. The reality is that customers will most likely only scanned the main page and having a chat button there will entice them to stay on the website.
2.) “The customer service chat experience begins before the connection is made, as the user searches for the link/icon.” It has been shown that sociability-related design mistakes created suspicion, a sense of distrust and a lack of confidence in the company behind the website. Not only is it important to place the chat button correctly, choosing the appropriate design is also important. Having the chat available in the visitor’s native language will help decrease this sense of mistrust and make for a more pleasant experience.
3.) “Users expect to interact with an actual person during the chat and are disappointed with behavior that indicates “canned” or inattentive interaction.” According to New York-based research company, Jupiter Communications, more than 90% of online shoppers want some kind of human interaction while they shop. When potential consumers cannot taste, test, feel, smell, or watch a product in operation before buying it, their sense of purchase risk increases. Therefore, it is important to have a real person attending your chat, someone who can totally focus on that particular visitor, providing the most accurate information regarding the product or service. Politeness and etiquette, personalized interactions and appropriate question-response time, make the visitor feel at ease, makes him/her feel important and not like “just another chat”.
4.) “When a positive customer service chat experience occurs, intention to purchase increases.” According to the Wall Street Journal, once installed, Web shopping sites that add chat also report higher per-order sales figures. Mobile technology retailer iGo.com added live chat to its site a year ago. Since then, the Reno, Nev., company has seen its average sale shoot up more than 50% to $168 from $108. Ken Hawk, the company’s founder and chief executive officer, says the increase stems from more completed orders and add-on sales that his customer-service representatives are able to suggest to users.
Having said this, in my experience, Nveevo’s Next Generation Customer Care is one of the best, most comprehensive and reliable services on the market. Nveevo skillfully combines one of the best Chat Software available in North America, through their partnership with Website Alive, with the technical savvy of its Implementation Team. Add to this the empathy, knowledge and human tact of its operators, integrating all the key findings mentioned above, and you get an amazing and unprecedented chat experience that will surely boost your sales and keep your customers coming back.
