The Benefits of 24/7 Live Chat Support

NOW customers and companies love 24/7 chat support chat. Find out why it’s becoming such a popular choice for customer service.

What is 24/7 live chat support?

24/7 live chat support is when website visitors are able to have text-based conversations with customer service agents. Using a small web chat window embedded on the company’s website, visitors can send their questions at all hours to a person or a human-assisted AI bot who can quickly reply to them in the same space.

It’s a real-time, back-and-forth conversation with company experts and enables text links to useful content, images, and even emojis. It’s on all the time, dedicated 24/7 to helping shoppers, especially NOW customers, who are “always on.” It’s content-rich like an email, immediate like a phone call, and available to your company round the clock like a website. And obviously that is just the beginning of the benefits of 24/7 live chat.

Get a 24/7 chat support competitive advantage

Simplr has recently performed extensive research into the deployment of live chat by eCommerce companies. The results show that companies are not taking full advantage of this amazing tool and as a result, are losing ground to competitors who can offer improved customer service by using the technology effectively.

• 63.5% of eCommerce companies did not allow the customer to instigate a chat on their site between the hours of 5pm-midnight (peak browsing time for online consumers, according to Shopify)
• 55% had no window visible at all
• 17% of windows told the customer that chat “wasn’t available.” 
• 20% of windows told the visitors to come back during working hours

Using live chat to deflect a customer to email or tell them to come back another time is nothing short of customer neglect (which is one of the most costly problems a company can have). If a customer sees a chat bubble on your site… they’re expecting an opportunity to talk with a human. Anything short of that is a letdown and, frankly, a poor customer experience.

It is uber-convenient for website visitors

It meets your customers in the moment.

Firstly, the website chat window is right there on the same screen as the content the customer is browsing. They don’t have to go looking somewhere else, or switch to a different device. It’s in the channel the customer is in.

Secondly, it looks, feels, and behaves like a text conversation. Everyone knows how to text, especially Generation Z, so the customer doesn’t have to learn a new way of communicating. They are already comfortable with the the format and the way it does things.

Finally, it is available on any device the customer is using. PC, laptop, game console, tablet, or smartphone all support it.

It is a quality conversation

Customer experience has overtaken price and product to become the number one differentiator among brands. And the two biggest metrics affecting customer experience are:

• Speed
• Effectiveness

Quality customer service answers the customer almost immediately and resolves the issue satisfactorily in the shortest time possible. It’s that simple. Live chat delivers on both of these metrics. The latest industry reports show that live chats are answered in under 48 seconds and it’s topping the customer satisfaction charts:

• 73% of people are satisfied with live chat responses
• 61% of customers are satisfied with email responses
• 44% of consumers are satisfied with traditional phone experience

Source: eDigital Customer Service Benchmark survey

It cuts repetition

One of the biggest complaints about customer service is repetition. Consumers hate having to repeat account numbers and go over the same issue multiple times with different agents. In fact, 72% of customers expect an agent to know their details, including support history and product information, without asking for them.

Quality live chat software enables agents to read the text supplied by the customer while also reviewing other details they have access to. This may include things like an indication of which page the customer is currently viewing and notes from previous interactions with customer service. During a chat session, an agent can share a screen with the customer or easily send links and screenshots to help them better understand a set of directions, making everything crystal clear.

It is cost effective

Live chat doesn’t cost much more than an email provider and offers a larger ROI than phone.

This is mainly because these services enable your agents or team members to multitask and assist several visitors at once. On average most live chat agents can handle three or more chats simultaneously. This saves companies on personnel costs, as it allows a few live chat agents to serve the same amount of people as a larger team of phone support employees.

Since partnering with Simplr, Princess Polly has seen a significant reduction in phone volume (and costs). Read more here.

Live chat increases customer retention and revenue

It takes a lot of money and effort to win new clients. With live chat your business is available 24/7, can collect customer feedback and react to it to improve products or services to prevent client churn.  

Customers who are engaged by a brand make purchases 90% more often, and spend 60% more per transaction than those customers who aren’t engaged.

63% of customers are more likely to return to a website if they previously used live chat there. Whereas 62% of them don’t mind purchasing something on a website with live chat.

Consumers feel more confident doing business with companies that make interactions easy, hassle-free, and instantaneous. In fact, a consumer research study from Oracle found that 90% of customers said the live chat button gives them confidence that they can get help if they need it.

It creates tons of useful data

Phone calls need to be recorded, transcribed, stored, and tagged. But most live chat software can do all that automatically. These customer interactions generate enormous amounts of valuable and useful information. Knowing your most popular customer pain points helps you improve your products and alerts you to issues quickly. Understanding the customer journey helps you better target services and attract customers. Companies pay an enormous amount of money for research and insights into customer behavior. With live chat, you have direct access to every customer conversation.

Live chat offers benefits for customers and companies

It’s the proverbial win-win. With live chat customers get far better service that is immediate, useful, and doesn’t waste their precious time. The business gets a solution that can give them a real competitive advantage, cuts their costs, and enables them to concentrate on their core business. Live chat here to stay. No wonder 51% of customers prefer live chat for multitasking purposes, with another 21% preferring live chat so they can shop while they work.

Simplr support agents

Simplr’s Human Cloud Network includes highly-trained and US-based 24/7 Specialists. They are ready to answer your customers’ live chats using your company’s exact messaging and preferences. It’s enterprise-level support designed for premium brands. Simplr can be up and running in your company quicker than most call centers and deliver the highest standard of customer service…Yours. Contact us to get started today.