Chat is an important part of web support, especially if you are asking customers to shell out money while on your site. Customers who can get immediate answers from a live person without leaving the site or picking up a phone are often more likely to make a purchase. In fact, a Forrester Research study noted that 44 percent of individuals say live chat support is "one of the most important features a website can offer." Here are five ways you can provide effective chat support for your Zendesk Help Center.
1. Ensure Chat Operators Have the Right Communication Skills
Customers will never hear chat operator voices, but that doesn't mean language skills aren't important. Your chat operators should be able to communicate effectively in the written languages for the customers they are servicing. While grammar doesn't have to be perfect in an online chat, support texts should always be professional and avoid falling into shortcuts that are common in phone and social media texting environments.
2. Personalize All Chat Communications
While chat staff often follow protocols and scripts, they should still personalize communications with customer names. When possible, chat representatives should comment and provide information in a way that is customized to the customer's responses and individual situation. Your customer reached out via live chat because they wanted to speak to a real person, so chat staff should never come across as robotic.
3. Set Procedures and Priorities for Support Staff
Create procedures for consistency among chat support tasks and ensure chat staff knows how to prioritize queries appropriately. If one chat staff member is handling three chat windows and one request seems more urgent than the others, ensure there is a procedure for handling the urgent matter without completely ignoring the other customers.
4. Create Scripts, But Give Staff Leeway
Scripts ensure all customers are greeted in a friendly manner and are provided with legal, compliance or important information. They also provide chat support staff with a starting point for each transaction. Don't tie staff down with scripts, though. Make sure they have some freedom to interact genuinely with customers.
5. Ensure All Chat Reps Understand How to Effectively Help Customers
Finally, ensure all your chat support staff knows how to handle common customer concerns. Immediate resolution of an issue is one of the best ways to create customer satisfaction, leading to conversion or good word of mouth for your brand.
