10 Rituals of a Successful Live Chat Session

A lot can happen in a course of a single live chat session. It can result in a new customer, or you can end up with a frustrated user. How this scenario plays out is entirely up to the performance of a customer support agent.

Since every business will benefit significantly more from the first situation, it is imperative that the customer support team knows how to handle potential clients and current customers. Here we are going to share some suggestions on how to properly interact with customers over live chat, or more precisely, list out the 10 rituals for generating positive customer experience.

Greeting ritual

It is a good idea to answer the incoming chat requests in a timely manner or to be precise, within the first 10 seconds. Of course, it mostly work conditions that will either permit or prevent your agents from doing so, but the point is that the sooner you answer, the more positive the customer’s attitude will be. You should start the conversation with a friendly greeting and address the customer by their name to establish a friendly atmosphere.

Ritual of familiarity

You can be more prepared to help out your customer if you know something more about them. Usually, people use a real-time monitoring tool in order to get an insight that could be useful for the upcoming conversation.

You can find out where the customers are located, as well as the words and phrases they use in their search queries, and you can find out what pages your clients are browsing. This simple act can actually show the client you care about them, and it helps your support team respond to the possible issues more quickly  since they have better insight on where the problem could have occurred.

Ritual of channeling a friendly attitude

If the client uses video chat, remember to smile. If they are using voice chat, assume a friendly tone. And if they are texting, add a smiley face emoji. Basically, all you need to do is assume the same attitude you would if you were helping your friend. It is important to maintain this attitude throughout the whole conversation, regardless of whether the issue is something easy or tiresome to resolve.

Ritual of Showing Genuine Interest

It is important to think before you act and to listen or read before your think. So, take some time to carefully go through the issues and detailed explanations your customer has provided. It is surprising just how many times a live chat agent can start working on the solution that does not correspond to the problem a user is experiencing. This often happens simply because they misunderstood the issue in an attempt to provide a swift service.

Sure responding and solving problems quickly is definitely a plus, but any customer will be more pleased with quality solutions over swift but ineffective solutions. So do not invest your energy in giving wrong answers, make sure you understand the question and check if the answer makes sense before you send it.

Ritual of response simplification

It will be easier for the users to understand the answers if they are divided into smaller meaningful chunks. Think about it, not every user is a native speaker, which means that you need to use a simpler and easy to understand response in order to effectively communicate. Also, customers usually do not fully comprehend all of the ins and outs of your service or product, so do not confuse them with unnecessarily complicated answers.

Ritual of staying focused

Every customer should feel respected and safe in the knowledge that the agents are giving them their undivided attention. Always stay focussed on topic and avoid unnecessary distractions & switching between different conversations. If you want to attend more than one client at once, make sure you are not in the middle of explaining something to a client.

If the client explains the situation and you see it is going to take a long time for you to resolve the problem, tell them that you are working on it and may take a few minutes. Then you can ask someone to try and fix the problem, as you talk with other clients.

Ritual of respecting the client’s time

Addressing a client’s needs and resolving their issues in a timely manner is what counts as an exceptional service. So, try not to make your customers wait longer than a minute before receiving the response. Of course, there will be times when you cannot find the solution or the answer instantly, but the point is to always work on your response time.

Ritual of exceeding expectations

It is always good to show you are willing to go the extra mile. If the situation allows it, you can always provide the user with some additional information or guides, if it fits into the conversation you are having; if not, then you can always ask them if there is anything else you can do.

Ritual of Leave-Taking

Remember to close with thanking your customer and tell them to contact anytime they have questions or experience issues. Also, let them hang up first and always remember to say goodbye at the end of the conversation.

Ritual of gratitude

When the live chat session with your client is closed, you should check emails for the chat transcript that will most likely contain that user’s feedback, as well as their rating of the conversation. You should check those results and see if there is something you can do better next time. If you are puzzled by the reviews, ask for a second opinion, talk with your colleagues and see if you can come up with some sort of solution on how to be better next time.  

Conclusion

These were some live chat rituals that can help you create a meaningful and positive session with your client. By following these tips, you can surely improve customer experience and become a much better customer support team agent.