When a customer chooses live chat as their first channel for support, they expect efficiency. It quickly became one of the customers’ favorite services because instead of waiting in a queue or consulting a chatbot, they can have a real-time conversation. And besides bringing a solution for their question, the chat allows them to do something else while waiting for the reply. As you might have noticed at this point, live chat is a great tool to reduce customer service costs.
Between us, who wouldn’t love having their questions answered without having to wait a long time? It is everything a consumer dreams about.
From a business perspective, the scenario is likewise appealing. Aberdeen Group’s report showed that, on average, companies that adopted live chat spared up to 50% or more on customer service expenses compared to other methods. If your business offers live chat services, you are already in the upper hand compared to the concurrence.
We will discuss in detail in which ways live chat services can help your business with reducing operational costs.
4 Ways to Reduce Customers Service Costs with Live Chat
Affordable Investment for Implementation and Maintenance
Having a telephone line requires infrastructure. Let’s consider toll numbers as a reference. There is a per-minute charge for every call in addition to the ongoing cost to keep the number. Besides that, an agent can only handle one call at a time, which means you would need at least four agents.
Live chat is a cloud-based service, so you only need to pay the subscription fee. In other words, you have reduced fixed costs.
Moreover, implementing live chat support to a website requires little time. It may request a more extended period to define the design of your chat window, but in terms of development, it can be quickly done by easily adding a line of code to every website’s pages.
The Art of Multitasking
The number one advantage of live chat is the possibility to handle multiple conversations at once. If you wish to reduce customer service costs, consider that a single agent can respond simultaneously to three – or more! – different clients. Meanwhile, one agent can only handle one phone call at a time.
It is a recurrent problem, particularly for call centers, where people call at the same time and have to dial different numbers and wait in a line, as an agent can only handle one person at a time.
The same goes for emails. An agent can have three different messages open indeed. However, they cannot reply simultaneously and as quickly as they do with live chat.
Another advantage of live chat is keeping the history of the conversation. In this way, if there is a returning customer, the agent saves some time by checking the customer’s previous discussion.
Our goal is to make customers as happy as possible. So keep in mind that multitasking is also an advantage for them. They have the facility of using the service while doing something else, like catching up on their social media.
Agents’ Efficiency Goes to the Infinity and Beyond!
In order to help agents achieve their best performance, it is essential to provide them with structure. In the beginning, consolidating a knowledge base may feel like a huge challenge. However, it is worth the investment and effort. Because once it is ready, it can be a good reference for your FAQ.
Furthermore, it enables agents to improve their speed and save time by using quick replies. You can read and learn more about how to make the most of quick replies here. With a good solid base, your agents won’t have a hard time, solving customer issues.
Almost every live chat software comes with a tool that allows you to monitor each agent’s performance. The feature is essential to increase the quality of the service provided by your agents. You can find out who needs more training and who can help those in need of training. The evaluations can be organized internally, in a process where newcomers can learn from people who have been there longer.
Feedback is an excellent way to motivate your agents to become the best version of themselves. And they will gladly harvest the results as they will get more and more satisfied customers.
Reduce Customer Service Costs And Get Better Upselling Opportunities
Now imagine that besides reducing service costs, you also get the opportunity to upsell. The main goal of implementing live chat services is to make your customers’ experience more effortless. Needless to say, if a customer reaches for the chat to ask a question about their order, they might also feel like checking information about the size guide.
That is to reinforce the idea that a chat allows agents to engage customers during the conversation if it applies to the situation. To illustrate the case, a customer asking about trainers may appreciate it if you suggest a few options for socks.
So, in a nutshell, live chat allows businesses to enhance the quality of their customer service while reducing costs. And after all, who doesn’t enjoy the possibility to reduce expenses and earn more simultaneously?
Are you ready to reduce customer service costs with live chat? Let’s have a chat!
