While live chat is a relatively recent development in the business world, it is a tool that has become more and more popular among customers. Therefore, if your company currently does not have a live chat strategy, now is the time to put one in place. Otherwise, you can easily end up falling behind your nearest rivals in this all-important area. There are several different aspects of the live chat function to discuss, but your overall attitude to it can make such a big difference to start off with.

Take it Seriously

Many businesses fall down at the first hurdle as they simply do not treat it as seriously as other forms of customer service. Straight away, this can put you at a disadvantage. Customers are getting in touch as they want their conflicts and issues to be resolved in the most effective way possible. Therefore, you need to treat this as an integral part of your customer service strategy. You should aim to treat your customers in the same way as if they contacted via another media. Sure, there are bound to be some differences in communication style, but it is important that you take it seriously as a first port of call.

Choose a Provider

If you have not yet chosen a live chat provider, it is certainly going to be worth comparing and contrasting the different options that are readily available to you. One of these is JivoChat, and it is certainly worth checking out the different features before you actually go for it. This way, you are going to be able to use it in the most effective manner straight away rather than floundering and struggling.

Customize the Chat Window

Your brand needs to run consistently throughout everything that you are doing, and this even includes the chat window of your live chat function! Rather than just leaving it as the same old boring template, you can put in an agent avatar, company logo, and your color scheme. This way, you can reinforce your brand image to customers and make sure that they know exactly who they are talking to. At the same time, you need to ensure that their queries are dealt with effectively. Otherwise, it is a negative impression of your business that they are going to be left with.

Prioritize Efficiency

Unlike other customer service methods such as phone calls and emails, which can go on over a period of days, people tend to use the live chat function as they want their problems to be dealt with in the most efficient possible way. This means making the most of canned messages wherever they are appropriate, as well as potentially switching between a few different chat screens all at once. Obviously, this is a balancing act that can be highly challenging to get right. You do not want customers waiting in a queue for too long. At the same time, queries still need to be dealt with effectively. Otherwise, this is simply going to lead to a backup of issues that ends up getting passed onto the other members of your customer service team. If you keep helping customers on a first-time basis, your brand’s reputation for efficiency is going to go through the roof.

Make Use of Positive Language

Often, how you say something can be more important than what it is that you say. As you are not able to convey a tone of voice on the live chat function, it makes sense that your use of language is positive and leaves people with the right impression of your business and everything that it is that you stand for. This does not mean that you should simply apologize for anything. If a customer is asking for something that simply cannot be done, they need to be let down gently and an alternative should be offered. Ultimately, as your company owner, it makes sense that you produce a guide that covers company language as it should be used.

Ensure Detailed Knowledge of the Product

Everybody who is dealing with the live chat function needs to ensure that they have full knowledge of the product that you are offering, as well as being able to talk about it in detail and answer the most complicated of questions. The problem with live chat is that many businesses think it is an area that can be simply outsourced and forgotten about. You need to treat it as the integral arm of your business that it is. While there is nothing wrong with outsourcing per se, you need to ensure that your entire team are fully versed on the product and are able to respond to all questions along the way.

Practice Good Spelling and Grammar

While we have already talked about the important of speed and efficiency, this does not mean that it should be placed ahead of accuracy. If a customer gets in contact with an agent that uses poor spelling and grammar, this can immediately leave them with a bad impression of what your company is all about. While it may only seem like a small detail, all of the little things can add up to form the overall impression of your business, and you may as well get everything right.

Collect Relevant Info and Stay on Topic

Again, this can come under the efficiency umbrella term, but you need to ensure that any information that you are collecting is relevant and on topic. This way, queries can be dealt with effectively. Unlike speaking over the phone which allows for a bit of room to have a brief chat, this is not the case with the live chat function, and it is important to know the difference.

There we have just a few of the top ways that can help you to use live chat in the most effective way possible in your business. So, make sure that you take them into account when you are using this function.