What is Live Chat, How Does It Work, and Why is It Important?

The business world is a different place than it was 5 years ago. Customer expectations around acceptable response times have greatly risen. No longer can companies wait a day to engage with a prospect or customer. The consumer might move on to your competition and that means a lost sale or even a weakened relationship.

However, live chat can be a game changer for B2C businesses of all sizes and types. Live chat technology makes it possible to increase speed, infuse an element of personalization, and keep customers happy. Forrester has reported that more than 40% of consumers want to engage with web-based live chat, up from 27% in 2019. The COVID-19 pandemic changed consumer habits, and companies need to pay attention to developments like chatbots. These aren’t fleeting trends but part of a strategic customer service approach.

If you haven’t made the move to adopt live chat as part of your standard operating procedures, you’re missing out. Consider this your guide to live chat implementation and how to use it to get results.

Live Chat Definition

Live chat is usually integrated into a company’s website or accessed through an app. Either way, it’s a widget that makes it possible for consumers to interact with a business in real-time. In contrast to phone calls or emails, which can have wait times or a lag in response, live chat and live chat apps offer instant gratification. This means customers can get an answer quickly. Prompt service offers improved customer support and engagement, meaning you keep customers happier and more likely to keep buying from you. In the case of prospects, live chat support may be the determining factor in choosing your business over another.

What Is Live Chat?

Live chat can help you supercharge agent productivity and customer satisfaction. This functionality instantly connects customers with businesses so representatives can handle complaints, comments, and concerns quickly and at scale. These are benefits that phone interactions lack.

Live chat features can vary, but in general, you can expect:

Real-time interaction

Synchronous chat messages can bring about immediate resolution.

Multitasking

Live chat agents can handle multiple conversations at the same time, curbing response time. This isn’t the case with a phone call.

Integration

You can use live chat alongside customer relationship management (CRM) systems so you can offer more detailed and personalized responses.

Automation

You can feed chatbots canned responses to common questions so human agents aren’t bogged down by answering the same questions over and over.

You might be wondering how live chat compares to other communication channels. Older generations might prefer the phone because of the ability to talk to a live person. However, a chatbot can help agents multitask and get back to customers faster. Email is great to go more in-depth but there’s still a delay. Web-based chat support offers more advantages over phone and email.

How Does Live Chat Work?

Having a firm grasp on all of the ins and outs of live chat can help businesses use it to the fullest extent. From the customer’s vantage point, they can click on a prompt to begin chatting. They’re often greeted with a canned welcome message. From here, they can begin the exchange and the agent will stay active until the customer or website visitor is satisfied.

On the business’s end, the live chat is seamlessly integrated into their website or an app. The company representative can manage multiple website chat conversations and access customers’ buying history and other helpful supporting documentation. You can let automation handle frequently asked questions and concerns while electing to have more sensitive matters routed to human representatives. Users can see data pertaining to livechat history, chat volume, response time, customer feedback, and more.

11 Live Chat Best Practices

Like any tool, there are ways to get the most utility out of live chat apps. Business leaders should keep the following in mind when implementing live chat:

Ensure Fast Response Times

Speed is king in the context of live chat apps. Shoot for response times of under a minute to maintain chatbot satisfaction. If there’s a delay for some reason, communicate that to manage expectations.

Be Proactive

Anticipate needs. There may be visitors on your site who need help and your chatbot can steer them in the right direction. That might be urging them to give a product a second look or presenting them with an offer that might close the deal.

Offer Offline Alternatives for Support

Customers might want to leave a message or read tutorials or guides when website chat support isn’t available. Make it easy to access these assets on their terms.

Look Out for Sales or Lead-Generation Opportunities

Train chat support agents on suggestive selling techniques to help drum up business. They should be helpful, first and foremost, and not come across as pushy.

Respond with Confidence

Set agents up for success so they can give correct information via live chat without hesitation or having to reference training materials. This is also a great opportunity to make customers aware of products’ features and anything new. Last, be sure to ask them to weigh in on how they felt about the live chat interaction. Their feedback can help you improve livechat and overall sales strategy.

Set and Track Goals

Begin with the end in mind. What are you trying to achieve by introducing chat support? Increase customer satisfaction scores? Decrease wait time? Close more deals? All of the above? Whatever the case, be sure to outline your goals and check in regularly to determine progress. Managing live chat is a dynamic pursuit.

Communicate Clearly

Live agents need to know how to explain the resolution and any next steps. They need to deliver the message without errors or any vague language. They also need to be mindful of tone.

Prioritize Data Security

Customers might provide sensitive information in chat messages that could expose them to breaches. Bad actors can harm your reputation if data gets leaked. Agents should have a clear understanding of live chat app protocols and procedures that can protect customers’ information and maintain trust. Being lax or inconsistent can really cost you, so be sure to emphasize data hygiene. You don’t want to deal with the consequences of a careless mistake that could have been avoided with livechat safeguards.

Know Your Customer

Customers want to feel like brands know them and are invested in them. This is why it’s important to customize and segment live chat templates. Loyal customers should receive messages that play to the longstanding relationship. On the other hand, you might extend an offer to a prospect to entice them in a live chat setting. The person on the other end of the chatbot should feel like they’re not just a number.

Act Human

This one might seem obvious, but it’s one that companies can overlook. Live chat agents should take care to speak with customers in a way that seems natural. Avoid overly scripted language and try to use phrases that come across as authentic in chat messages.

Commit to Quality

Over time, you’ll learn what works and what to avoid in live chat exchanges. These interactions with website visitors can help your team improve and feel more confident in their abilities. Take customer feedback into account when developing chatbot and live chat app training programs.

12 Key Benefits of Live Chat

Embracing live chat can help your business in the following areas:

Improved Omnichannel Customer Service

Live chat means you can reach people how and where they prefer to engage. That could be on your website or through an app as well as other methods like email, social media, and phone calls.

Around-the-Clock Service

Being available all the time, even if it’s via an automated response, can help your business improve customer engagement and satisfaction. When customers can get an answer any hour of the day via chatbots, they’re more likely to have a favorable impression.

Increased Upsell and Cross-Sell Opportunities

Live agents can suggest other products or services according to the customer’s situation.

Enhanced Customer Experience

It’s not rocket science—when customers feel seen and heard, they are more apt to continue buying from you.

Improved Response Time Through Automation

Chatbots and automated responses offer convenience and help the customer get answers fast. It’s a win for your company, as you don’t have to dedicate a team member to handle such interactions.

Decreased Case Volume

Time is money and live chat can lessen the burden on your team by reducing the number of calls. They can use that time to bring in more leads. This is a win-win, especially when live chat agents feel spread thin and under the gun to do more in less time.

Reduced Costs

Live chat requires fewer resources than fielding phone calls. This can help your bottom line.

Easy to Get Started

The barrier to entry is relatively low. Adding free live chat support to your website doesn’t take a lot of time, effort, or technical savvy. Most of the time you can set it up with a simple code snippet. From here, it’s a cinch to use, and there’s really not a need for continuing education. Agents of all ages can catch up without much chatbot training.

Lap Your Competition

Other companies in your industry might not be as committed to customer service. This presents an opportunity for you to court prospects who aren’t satisfied with the status quo. Offering live chat service to website visitors can give you a leg up in ways you might not have considered.

Expand Your Market

The world is smaller than ever. Customers can be located around the globe or in your backyard. This wide reach can present some challenges. Working with different time zones and language barriers can muddy the waters. As far as the first concern, live chat can help you interact with people no matter their location. You won’t have to worry about staffing shortages when you can lean on chatbots to take care of people no matter the hour.

Provide a Multi-dimensional Experience

Live chat can mean agents can share links, images, and other media with website visitors. You can’t do this over the phone. This makes it easier to resolve customer issues and cater to different learning styles. Some people are more visual, so having a video tutorial to reference at a later point can help concepts sink in.

Encourage Collaboration

Live chat can make it easier for team members to connect in real-time, compare notes, and troubleshoot. Sometimes two heads are better than one and chatbots can lead to faster resolutions.

3 Reasons Why Your Business Needs Live Chat

Live chat makes business sense because it can boost customer service, increase sales, and trim costs. These are the high-level reasons it’s worth a second look:

Competitive Edge

Fast responses communicate that you value a customer’s time, effort, and business—making your company seem like the clear choice. The best live chat apps can close the gap and give your business the upper hand.

Cost Efficiency

Reducing call volume while improving customer service is a no-brainer. Customers are pleased because they don’t have to endure a tedious phone call when they can use chatbots instead. Agents aren’t slammed with calls that overwhelm them, so they can tend to tasks that bring money in the door.

Customer Expectations

Many people are fed up with long wait times when placing a phone call. Some give up and decide to take their business elsewhere. Modern customers expect quick, convenient support. Meeting these expectations can significantly boost customer satisfaction and seal the deal in terms of loyalty. Conversational live chat app support for website visitors can be the means to that end.

Addressing Common Concerns

Some business decision-makers are more likely to invest in live chat technology, while others might be more skeptical. This can be generational or rooted in an attitude of “don’t fix what’s not broken.” As a result, business leaders might have some reservations about making this move. Making the shift to live chat is not an insignificant one, which is why we’re addressing some potential concerns related to chat support and chatbots, such as:

Cost

Companies will need to weigh live chat costs on the front end against long-term savings and likely uptick in sales.

Training

You can’t introduce automation (or any major change) without backing it up with training. Help your live chat agents learn how to use and master these tools on the job. The best agents are those who feel like their employer has their best interest at heart. Offering training, whether on-demand or otherwise, can help them better face challenges related to live chat implementation.

Staffing

It can be challenging to gauge how many people you’ll need on a customer service team. It’s best to start with a live chat pilot project and then gradually bring in automation to lessen the load.

Live Chat Made Easy with Podium

Live chat is here to stay. This guide can put you on the right track in implementing live chat app best practices. Businesses in all industries stand to gain a great deal from offering chat support. Customer support teams can breathe a sigh of relief, while customers sing your praises. We call that a win-win. Podium’s AI Employee might be the best live chat solution you need to level up in 2024 and beyond. Watch a demo to see how you can make your customer experience exceptional.