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Live Chat Support Services
Improve customer satisfaction and retention by hiring virtual assistants who provide live chat support services.Live Chat Support Services
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For online businesses, providing great service is one of the most crucial parts of client retention. Since customers expect businesses to cater to their needs and respond to their questions as soon as possible, using a live chat app or adding a chat widget on your website is a must to increase customer satisfaction.
What is a Live Chat Support Service?
Live chat support is a web-based customer service channel that enables businesses to communicate with their customers in real-time. Through a live chat app or live chat software, businesses can provide a self-service method of communication and offer instant support to their customers, which can help improve customer satisfaction and customer experience.
Businesses can use live chat support services for different purposes. Some use live chat to do quick market research, while others might utilize it to provide customer service after the sale.
How Does Live Chat Support Work?
A user on your website who needs help will initiate a chat by opening the website’s live chat window and filling out the required fields. Once the chat is initiated, the user will be connected to one of the customer service agents from your support team.
So, what exactly do you need to go live? In order to start offering live chat support, all you need is the following:
- A visitor who needs help
- A live chat widget or a live chat app
- A live agent who can respond to customer queries
The customer service representative will then help the customer by answering their questions and resolving their issues. The representative can also transfer the chat to another chat team member or someone from one of your support teams if they cannot resolve the issue.
Benefits of using a Live Chat Service and Support Service
There are plenty of advantages to using a live chat support customer service. Customer service agents and live chat software can help you:
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- Improve the customer experience by providing a real-time communication channel through your live chat software;
- Reduce the number of phone calls to your company, which will save time and reduce labor costs;
- Provide quick responses to common questions that customers might have about your products or services;
- Use live chat software automation tools and provide self-service options to increase agent productivity and reduce chat volume;
- Gather customer data that you can later use for nurturing purposes;
- Improve your sales process and the customer experience through the chat analytics feature on most live chat apps;
Make it easier for your website visitors to interact with you by providing additional messaging channels.
When it comes to providing customer service, live chat support services are the next best thing to having a live person on the phone. By using a live chat app, businesses can improve their customer service experience by providing real-time chat support.
What are Live Chat Support Agents?
Live chat support agents are customer service reps who provide help and support to customers by utilizing a live chat app or chat widget on your website. They can also use email and phone contacts to assist customers with online transactions and give them a better service.
While there are several live chat software and live chat apps that provide artificial intelligence and automation as live chat features, customers love talking to live customer services reps still. To ensure that your customers can have proactive conversations and not be annoyed by constant canned messages, you need to build a chat support team to answer chat requests using your live chat software.
What is a Live Chat Services Virtual Assistant?
A virtual assistant (VA) is a professional who provides administrative, creative, or technical support to clients by performing online tasks. If you are an entrepreneur, small business owner, or an independent worker who needs extra help on various tasks, hiring a live chat services virtual assistant can be very beneficial for your work.
Many people hire virtual assistants because they are cost-effective. Unlike with local employees, you don’t have to worry about paying taxes or the social security contributions of your virtual assistants. Your VA takes care of these things themselves.
A live chat service virtual assistant, in particular, can help you with tasks such as customer service, telemarketing, lead generation, feedback management, and any other task that comes with adding a live chat app to your site.
Why Outsource Live Chat Support Services to a Virtual Assistant?
There are several reasons why you should outsource live chat support services to a VA. For one, adding a VA to your support team to man your live chat app allows your in-house customer service reps to focus on inbound or outbound calls.
Also, since VAs generally have lower rates compared to local employees, you can hire more people — especially if all your agents are offshore VAs. Having more chat agents on your team means being able to handle more incoming messages from your customers which means a shorter wait time and increased customer satisfaction.
Another advantage of hiring VAs is that you can have multiple chat support service teams focusing on different live chat apps. For instance, if you’re using various live chat tools such as Facebook Messenger, LiveChat, Zendesk, Intercom, etc., you can have a dedicated VA for each live chat app or live chat software you’re using.
What Tasks Can a Live Chat Support VA Do?
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A live chat support VA can help you with a variety of tasks, including:
Answering Customer Inquiries
Your live chat VA’s main role is to have a chat conversation with potential or existing customers. They will help answer any questions customers may have about your product or service and offer support where necessary.
Providing Customer Service
A live chat support VA can also provide customer service to your website visitors. This includes handling complaints, providing refunds, and assisting with online transactions.
Lead Generation
Your live chat VA can also help you with lead generation. They can send pre-chat surveys to gather information about potential customers, such as their name, email address, and phone number. The VA can then pass this information along to you so that you can follow up with them later.
Feedback Management
A live chat support VA can also help you collect customer feedback. This includes asking for feedback after a customer’s purchase, during a chat conversation, and after a website visitor dropped off without buying anything.
Social Media Support
A live chat support VA can also help you on social media. You can ask them to monitor your business’ Facebook page comments, Twitter feed, and other social media channels for any mentions of your company name or brand. They can then immediately respond to all customer inquiries on social media.
Updating Your CRM or Database
Your live chat VA can also help you keep your customer database updated. They can add new customers to your CRM after a chat conversation, update customer information, update their record with the conversation history, and even delete old or inactive customer records.
Upselling
Your VA can proactively reach out to potential customers through live chat apps with just a few clicks. They can then provide product recommendations and cross-sell products to attract more customers and increase your profits.
Manage Advanced Chat Support Tools
Chat apps and chat software can be expensive, so you definitely want to make the most out of them. Aside from using basic chat functionality, your VA can also explore more advanced live chat features such as live chat translation, video chat, ticket management, SMS messaging app integrations, integrations with your CRM or other collaboration tools, and so on.
Create Live Chat Reports
Your VA can review chat transcripts and track performance by monitoring live chats and noting down metrics, keywords, history, and so on.
What Skills Should a Live Chat VA Have?
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A live chat support VA should have excellent customer service skills and be able to communicate effectively through chat conversations. They should also be able to upsell products, generate leads, and collect customer feedback. Furthermore, they should be skilled in using various live chat software and chat apps.
Here are a few other skills you need to look for in a live chat VA.
Excellent written communication skills
Your VA must be able to understand customer inquiries and respond to them in a clear and concise manner.
Patience and good problem-solving skills
Your VA must be able to understand your customers’ issues carefully and have the patience to solve customer problems.
Good research skills
Your VA should be able to do some basic internet research to find answers to customer questions.
Familiarity with your products and services
Your VA should be familiar with your products and services so they can easily relay the necessary information to your customers.
Fast learning abilities
Your VA should be able to quickly learn new software and chat apps so they can be up and running within minutes.
If you’re looking for a live chat support VA, then contact us today. We have a team of skilled and experienced VAs who are more than capable of providing excellent customer service through live chat conversations.
How to Find a Live Chat Support VA
There are several ways to find a virtual assistant to provide live chat support to your customers. One of the most common ways is to find VAs on freelancing websites. Sites like Upwork, Freelancer, and Guru have hundreds or even thousands of live chat support candidates that you can choose from. The downside with going this route is that you have to do all the screening and vetting yourself, and that is definitely stressful and time-consuming.
If you want a hassle-free way of finding a live chat VA, work with a trusted virtual staffing agency like 20four7VA. At 20four7VA, we do all the vetting for you, so you know that the candidates we send your way are already pre-screened. If you hire from us, you also get access to our accounting, HR, IT support, and training services without additional cost.
Ready to find a live chat support VA? Simply book a free Business Growth Call with one of our specialists, and we’ll give you a free quote!