Live chat assistance: the ideal tool for reviving your customer service

Artificial intelligence is currently in the spotlight. Although certain innovations in this field have yet to prove their worth, live chat, also known as “virtual agent”, is the ally of companies wishing to move forward in terms of customer relations in today’s world. This tool allows companies to engage in an instant conversation with their customers from their website or mobile application. This virtual assistance is made possible thanks to various forms of automation and artificial intelligence and considerably replaces contact by online form, telephone or e-mail. The popularity of live chat was particularly evident during the pandemic: According to a Zendesk report published in 2021, live chat tickets increased by 50% during this period. To meet the new needs of its consumers, integrating live chat into its customer service package is essential for a company.

How is live chat different from telephone support?

Nowadays, the most effective tools for a company’s customer service are live chat and calls. Indeed, in terms of responsiveness, these two channels are ideal. However, there are more or less important differences between them. It is essential for a company to distinguish between these two options to know how to leverage them in the best possible way.

Firstly, the timing and responsiveness are not the same. Indeed, live chat offers immediate assistance, 24 hours a day, whereas the telephone can sometimes leave a waiting time, or even result in failure to make contact if no one answers the phone. Similarly, the former is considered to be “proactive”, i.e. it initiates the conversation with the customer itself, without any pre-request on their part, which often leads to a sale. The second channel, on the other hand, is “reactive” and is linked to a more traditional form of customer service where the agent must wait for a request from a consumer before acting. The second difference between the two channels is the type of exchange. On live chat, the customer will generally exchange with a virtual agent, whereas via the telephone, he or she will have the opportunity to engage in a real human interaction. The recording of discussions varies according to the medium. On a live chat, a lot of information can be collected about the customer (his status (active or inactive), the time he has spent on the site, the number of his visits and chats, his geographical location, etc.). On the other hand, via the telephone, the data retrieved will only be those provided directly by the caller. However, it is also possible to access the recording of the agent in charge of the customer. This is very useful for a company since it can hear its employee and thus evaluate the quality of his work.

Why is live chat interesting: its benefits

Virtual assistance, like other tools, offers companies many advantages. However, to take full advantage of it, it is necessary to know when it is worth using it. As we have just seen, it differs from its counterpart, the telephone. Taking into consideration the business side of things, live chat can remarkably reduce the cost of customer relations (up to 30% less than calls, for example). This is made possible by the fact that the tool is multitasking: it can handle several requests at the same time (up to seven conversations simultaneously), which drastically reduces labour costs. Also, this mode of communication does not require space for a company: no need to invest in infrastructure.

On the customer side, live chat is equally attractive. According to a study by FurstPerson, 77% of customers do not buy from sites that do not offer live chat. 63% of respondents to the survey said they were more likely to return to a website with live chat. 44% of customers believe that the support of a live chat has reinforced their decision to buy. It is evident that integrating live chat into your business is another step towards customer satisfaction. According to a Zendesk study, live chat is the customer relations tool with the highest satisfaction rate (92%).

However, all these figures should be taken with a grain of salt. Indeed, if customers are more or less satisfied with live chat, this mainly concerns questions and requests that are often futile. Indeed, complete digital assistance has its limits. For more complex requests, the telephone is preferred by 62% of customers, particularly because it is easier to get in touch and explain the details of the problem(s) encountered. This lack of live chat can nevertheless be mitigated by ensuring that the live chat is hosted by real agents. However, this can be expensive for a company. In this case, outsourcing this task can be considered. Communication experts can then take over the chat and provide the human warmth that is missing in this digital tool.

Contact us!

At ProContact, we work closely with you to include this solution in your business strategy. We can offer you an unprecedented adaptation of your way of working thanks to the arrival of resources located elsewhere, without losing time, money or quality.

ProContact is more than a contact centre. Thanks to trained, qualified, hand-picked and multilingual agents, we enable the companies that choose us to gain credibility and above all to satisfy their customers, regardless of the situation and in complete transparency.

Outsourcing has become a tangible and concrete business strategy for the development of the company. To find out more about our services and for a quality partnership, click on our contact form, send us an e-mail or call us on (+33) 1 84 76 24 03.