Providing Web Chat Services Is Now a Must-Have Offering

Don’t Overlook Web Chat as an Important Customer Service Communication Tool

Most website visitors look for a web chat service option if they want quick answers. They may even think of web chat before they look at an FAQ section or seek self-help options. But if they’ve unsuccessfully tried FAQs and self-help, they’ll definitely look for a web chat option. This is even more so if your website is hard to navigate.

If they seek web chat service and can’t find it, they’re quick to leave. However, when you offer web chat to visitors and customers, you’ll lower your bounce rate and increase engagement. Even more importantly, you will improve customer service and drive sales. And who doesn’t want that?

To realize success with web chat service here are some critical considerations.

Web Chat Setup

At a basic level, web chat service is not difficult to set up for one user on one computer. Add the appropriate software to your website and to a computer in your office. Where things get tricky is if you want multiple people, using different computers to share the workload. For this to happen efficiently, without delays or cumbersome workarounds, you need software that will distribute the web chat sessions to the available staff.

Web Chat Staffing

Many people make the mistake of assuming customer service or phone staff are automatically qualified to handle web chat. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Providing web chat service requires a different skill set than phone calls. Web chat agents must be able to read quickly and comprehend just as fast. They must have excellent typing skills with high accuracy. In addition, they need to excel at multitasking, since most web chat agents juggle multiple simultaneous sessions. Not everyone can do this.

Web Chat Training

Once you’ve identified the appropriate staff to handle web chat communications, you must train them. This includes instructing them on the technology, the web chat mindset, and your products and services. Your web chat employees may come to you able to handle one or even two of these three areas, but regardless they’ll need training on the other items. Don’t skip this step when it comes to web chat service.

Web Chat Scheduling

Too many companies make the mistake of limiting the hours of operation when they staff their web chat service. In most instances, this is a serious mistake. A customer or prospect who wants to use chat services outside of your posted hours, will be more irritated than had you not offered web chat in the first place. They’ll be quick to bounce from your site and land on your competitor’s. For success, you must offer web chat 24/7 and make sure you always staff it.

Application

The good news is you don’t have to do web chat service in-house. Instead, outsource web chat to a professional contact center, which does more than process phone calls. They have advanced web chat capability built into their system. In addition, their trained staff is ready to interact with your website visitors. You can quickly add web chat to your arsenal of customer communication tools by outsourcing it to a BPO contact center. They offer professional results at affordable prices.

Direct Call Centers provides call center and contact center services to clients across the United States and around the world. Specializing in business process outsourcing (BPO), Direct Call Centers is your single source for essential contact center work and critical BPO support services, with a focus on four primary horizontal market niches: customer service, tech support, lead processing, and chargeback support. Get a free quote today to explore if Direct Call Centers is the right match for your company’s BPO needs. Peter Lyle DeHaan is a freelance writer for the call center industry.