In today’s digital world, consumers visit a business’s website or app when looking for support or kickstarting a commerce journey.
Instead of moving to another channel when they have a query, many would prefer a native service or sales experience. Live chat gives them that.
Moreover, it removes the need to wait in long call queues, increases the chances of a sales conversation, and meets the preference of many to engage via chat-based tools.
As customers demand a more diverse range of communication tools, its growth has continued, with estimates suggesting the global live chat market will be worth $1.7BN by 2030. That represents an 8.8 percent annual growth rate.
Yet, despite all the benefits and these lofty estimates, live chat is still widely misunderstood.
Indeed, several myths still swirl around live chat, preventing organizations from adopting the channel as they might like. It’s time to debunk them!
Myth 1: Agents Can Handle Five Chats at a Time
When live chat entered the contact center, many vendors suggested that agents could handle five conversations simultaneously.
However, in many cases, those estimates missed the mark. Soon businesses realized that when customers suspect an agent is talking to multiple people simultaneously, their experience often falls by the wayside.
Wary of this, some businesses avoid asking agents to handle more than two or three contacts at once, let alone five.
Of course, there are other reasons too. Consider an organization that deals with lots of vulnerable customers, which is many in the current climate. These conversations are often tricky and demand the agent’s undivided attention.
To lessen this load, it is often best to route customers to specially trained agents who can provide tailored support, allowing their teammates to get back to the more general, nitty-gritty contacts.
Also, ensuring agents can shift channels and continue the conversation via the phone enables a faster resolution and saves a lot of back and forth.
Myth 2: Live Chat Deployments Will Cut Operational Costs
Live chat offers businesses an excellent opportunity to reach a new audience, increase engagement, and meet customer preferences.
As such, it is often the ideal channel for customer experience enhancement. However, the idea that it will cut operational costs is unlikely.
Why? Because when a contact center goes live with a new channel, contact volumes almost always increase as businesses open themselves up to a new demographic and opportunities.
Moreover, now the business is meeting their contact preferences, customers may reach out to discuss issues they previously would have ignored.
All this is excellent for service experience and, ultimately, revenues. However, operational costs will likely increase.
Be prepared for this and work with an open and honest vendor. They should also demonstrate a wealth of experience in live chat implementation.
With this experience, contact centers can guard against other potential issues, including forecasting difficulties, as the vendor will likely bring a wealth of data and expertise.
Myth 3: Dumb Chatbots Monopolize Live Chat
Over the past ten years, chatbots have often disappointed customers. Only three years ago, Forrester found that 54 percent of US online consumers believe interacting with a chatbot negatively impacts their quality of life.
Such perceptions have somewhat damaged the reputation of live chat, as the channel was the first port of call for many conversational AI projects.
However, advancements are now coming to the fore, which aim to blend the best aspects of conversational AI and human support.
“Chatbots have come a long way in the past couple of years,” adds Robert Luciani, Client Support Desk Function Owner at ComputerTalk. “They have evolved from frustrating conversations where you can’t get an answer to quickly providing accurate information and performing desired tasks.
