Promoting a high level of mutual interaction and intensive communication between company and clients is certainly the main priority in every client-orientated business. This perfectly justified wish is however hampered by the fact that the webpage visitor’s identity is generally protected. So, how can a company achieve better communication with its clients? One solution to this problem could lie in the effective use of live chat functions on the company’s home page. Appropriate choice, correct application and careful operation of a live chat system can indeed provide any company with a useful tool to boost mutual trust between supplierand customer. 

In principle, the following rule applies: try to see things from the customer’s point of view! How would you like to be contacted, how many channels of communication should be available – and, would live chat be a useful addition? How have customers so far been able to contact your company or your customer service? Who are your target groups, what are the options you offer them to contact you, and where would they find them? Interactive widgets might be small, but their popularity is most certainly growing rapidly. Deciding which website would benefit from this type of extension and which one is better off without it is a matter of personal preference in most cases. It is not just about providing answers to questions put to you by visitors of your website, as they could probably find them in FAQ’s anyway. The crucial point is convincing potential customers of the quality of your company’s products, the services it offers and its customer service. After all, each direct communication with a visitor presents an opportunity that should not be wasted: it is the chance to gain a customer. Now all depends on marketing strategies, the way you come across and how promptly you are able to react.

Those looking for answers don’t want to be stuck in the waiting-loop

In contrast to communication via email a website visitor in a live chat won’t be prepared to wait for an answer for any length of time. Tolerance levels online are lower than they are in face-to-face conversation or on the phone. Therefore it is very important to keep response time to a minimum, particularly during normal business hours.

Solution A

Additional support staff could be employed to deal with live chat requests after business hours; that way there would be no unanswered chat requests.

Solution B

Live chat functions could be deactivated during the night with the option for the user to leave a message.

But there is a possible drawback as well

If chat requests are not dealt with promptly, the result is counter-productive: all the visitor is aware of is communication that does not work. In that case it is better to auto-hide the additional live chat offer when there is no support available.

Each request has to be treated with equal care and attention

Product presentation is as important on a company website as it is in traditional business; positive reviews are important too. Websites are restricted to graphics and wording, but on the other hand the advantage of a written response is the fact that due to a slight time delay the reply can be more detailed and to the point, and with particularly awkward questions more knowledgeable colleagues can be consulted without interfering too much with the correspondence. It is important to treat all requests – no matter how trivial they might be – with the same courtesy and attention, as any kind of interaction via live chat creates an impression that might make all the difference to future customer decisions. Investing time and effort into communicating with customers will be well worth your while.
Real professionals do a lot more than just answer questions: the customer might be interested in other products or alternatives or might even agree to a personal consultation. For those who are unhappy with what they got you might be able to offer tailor-made solutions – who knows?

Multi operator live chats

One of the main advantages of live chats lies in the fact that support requests can be dealt with in record time. A single operator can easily attend to two or more requests at the same time without exceeding response time limits to an unacceptable degree. It is even possible to briefly refer to the company’s data base if information is needed, without keeping the customer waiting for too long.

Live chat or no live chat?

Companies marketing complex products and services that require explanation or companies with on-line shops will find live chat extremely useful when dealing with customers, as it enables them to provide swift and competent support, for instance, or to answer questions customers might have before concluding their purchase. Constant availability, even outside business hours, is another big advantage of live chat. For blogs or portfolio pages without e-commerce function live chat tends to be less useful due to irregular availability periods of the operator. The message: “we are not available right now ...“ would be more likely to put customers off than being useful in any way. In a case like this it would make sense to resort to the configuration option – if it is included – and auto-hide live chat as long as there is no operator available.

The technical side of it – what do I need to know?

Most live chat or support systems use integration based on JavaScript which is easy to include in an existing website. In most cases all you need to do is incorporate a small snippet (ready-to-use code snippet) into the centre of thesource text on your page. The advantage with this type of JavaScript snippet lies in the fact that programming is automatically executed by your browser. Thanks to so-called “client side programming” there is no need for you to bean expert with PHP scripts, MySQL or even programming in order to start operating live chat respectively live support.

SPAM protection

One of the disadvantages of live chat is the fact that it is not only used by genuine potential customers but by spammers as well. If it comes to the point when the spam proportion of received messages gets to an unacceptable level it is necessary to review your live chat integration, or resort to anti-spam tests such as

Bottom line: what does the provider have to bear in mind?

Captcha-Code. This will not prevent spams altogether, but will help to considerably reduce their number.

Bottom line: what does the provider have to bear in mind?

Live chat or live support are not just about solving problems or answering questions the customer might have. Just like in a face-to-face chat in a shop you are provided with the chance to suggest alternatives and offer individual solutions, gain the potential customer’s trust and ultimately attain your original objective of selling a product or a service.

as of 05/2014