Let’s face it, businesses can’t thrive in the absence of demand for their services/products. And, demand is created by the ‘customers’ who are the lifeblood of any business or organization.
Globally recognized businesses like Apple, Microsoft, Sony and the like, wouldn’t have attained the status of ‘giants’ without the patronage of customers. Achieving business success isn’t only about offering services/products that customers want, but also about building long-lasting relationships with the customers and keeping them satisfied even after a sale has been made.
A CEI survey (as mentioned in an article published in Forbes) stated that 86% of buyers are willing to pay more for a better customer experience. The survey also claimed that just 1% of the clients feel that the vendors or businesses are consistent in meeting their expectations. It shows that there are countless businesses out there that do not understand what customers truly want – even if they have the product figured out.
So, what should businesses do to address this issue? One of the easiest ways to do it is through live chat tools. Believe it or not, live chat is incredibly effective. A business, irrespective of its domain and size, should aim to make the customers/prospects happy. A customer-focused business goes beyond handing out discounts or fixing bugs. It focuses on building relations, making the customers feel good about the company and leaving them with a positive memory.
When a flight attendant makes an effort to calm a frightened passenger during an on-flight turbulence or a cook (Yes, a cook!) helps a frequenter to his restaurant start his car in a rainstorm, you’re witnessing something which is obviously much more than ‘good’ customer service. I would say these are perfect examples of people going out of their way to make a customer feel cared for and that’s an integral part of customer service that should never be forgotten.
Live Chat: Customer experience at its best
Acclaimed author Nelson Boswell once said, “Here is a powerful yet simple rule. Always give people more than they expect to get.”
So, it doesn’t matter what you offer or what you sell, ensure that it addresses a real customer requirement and deliver it in a way that displays to the customer how important he/she is to you.
Five stories of star companies that empowered and delighted their customers through live chat.
Company #1: HorseSaddleShop
HorseSaddleShop, an online retailer offering a selection of saddles, usually needs to quickly communicate and respond to clients who are looking for detailed information about saddle fitting. Usually, the clients would call the support team when they fail to find information online. In such a scenario, the eCommerce store decided to empower its support team with a live chat tool to communicate better.
Although not all the chat sessions necessarily end in an order, it surely proved to be a great point of contact with the customers.
The support team of HorseSaddleShop took a sigh of relief after they started using a live chat tool because it allowed them to work on multiple support requests simultaneously (means no wait times and solving more issues quickly), transfer the chat to another agent when needed and ensured lesser support tickets (means less number of frustrated clients).
Company #2: Lazy Cloud
Lazy Cloud, a romantic getaway in Lake Geneva WI, have guests who prefer to have a one-to-one conversation before they proceed for booking. While Lazy Cloud was already providing information in different ways – on the website, via phone and through email – they wanted to offer support via live chat.
In a world of instant communication (i.e. Skype, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp), Lazy Cloud wanted to serve their customers in real-time because their support team was spending a considerable portion of their work hours in resolving queries over phone and email.
The small business decided to add live chat to their website after many of its customers complained that they have to wait for approximately seven working days to get their issues resolved. Post live chat implementation, Lazy Cloud team was able to share an instant feedback with the customers, support team’s productivity improved and the satisfaction level of visitors (who are confident now that the business is committed to meeting their demands) grew.
Company #3: MilitaryCruiseDeals
MilitaryCruiseDeals.com, specializing in selling cruise deals to military personnel and their families, was looking for a solution which would help them engage with customers and prospects. A majority of MilitaryCruiseDeals’ support requests come in after 6 pm (when customers are usually back home from work) which made them realize that they need additional support resources because it can’t take customer happiness for granted. While the company invests significantly in its customer service team, still it opted for a live chat tool.
Apart from resolving customer issues quickly, there was another trickier challenge to handle which live chat could handle for MilitaryCruiseDeals. The agents needed to understand what the buyers preferred so that personalized deals could be offered. Anyone who has tried to shop online for deals surely knows this is not an easy task.
Live chat proved to be the ‘knight in shining armor’ for MilitaryCruiseDeals as agents were able to monitor visitors (helped them share enticing offers), answer questions with canned responses, explain refunds and booking policies, save chat transcripts for future reference, address pressing support requests and much more.
Company #4: Widerøe Airline
Norwegia-based Widerøe Airline, the largest regional airline in Scandinavia, was keen to make a deep personal connection with the travelers via personalized and contextual information. In other words, the support reps wanted to know the customers better so that they could offer better and quicker services.
After the Airline firm started using a live chat tool, it received fewer calls and customer wait time came down drastically.
Let me share an example. When a Widerøe customer gets in touch with the client servicing team to book a last minute flight, the call center agent already has a lot of useful information about the caller at his fingertips – such as what their exact location is, where they travel most often, the flights the caller has already checked out etc. This information comes in handy for the Widerøe to make intelligent recommendations, offer personalized customer experience and achieve a competitive edge against the competitors.
Companies like Widerøe have turned to live chat as a communication channel on their website because it is fast, easy to use, offers instant engagement and also their clientele prefers it.
Company #5: Dokmee
Dokmee, a document management solutions from Houston-based Office Gemini, integrated live chat to its website with the aim to answer queries related to software sales and offer instant troubleshooting.
After undertaking an in-depth market research and in-house deliberation, Dokmee chose an enterprise-grade live chat tool that allowed them to assist their customers while on the move. Since the tech vendor received a higher number of troubleshooting related queries, offering support from a location of their choice (as the engineers spend a lot of time in the field) was of utmost importance.
The engineers at Dokmee were under constant pressure to address a plethora of queries as quickly as possible for which they were forced to work after office hours, impacting their productivity.
But things changed for better with the implementation of live chat. The engineers were less burdened (as they could offer support even when not in the office) and customers were satisfied because their concerns were addressed immediately.
Live chat is a ‘win-win situation’ for everyone
Businesses, like Apple and Starbucks, no longer focus on selling products, they aim to sell ‘experiences’ with a product. I would say for a business the default focus should be on building relationships with customers.
Your turn: Got any great live chat delight stories? Do share with us in the comments section below.
About the Author: Robin Singh is a Technical Support Executive. He is an expert in knowledge management and various Knowledge base tools. Currently, he is a resident knowledge management expert at ProProfs. In his free time, Robin enjoys reading and traveling.