TapTalk.io: Create Better Omnichannel Customer Service Through Live Chat

Teknologi.id - Technology is highly related to the decision making of customers in purchasing goods and services. Business leaders recognize the competitive advantage of superior customer experience, which focuses on values related to the product/service provided and also how the products/services are presented to customers. Thus, live chat may be the key to increase customer experience by bridging communication between customer needs and your company.

What is CX ?

Customer experience is known as CX, defined as a holistic perception of their experience with your business or brand based on website navigations, engagements with customer service, and receiving purchased products/services. The aforementioned definition of CX implies that everything you do affects customer perception and customer retention. Thus, quality customer experience is the key to customer customer retention.

In the past, there are only three ways for customers to communicate with companies. They can either visit the place of business in person, write a letter or contact customer support. In contacting customer support, letters developed into fax, then e-mail. Now there are more ways for customers to connect. The most recent method, live chat, even creates instant connections using mainstream chat applications such as Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and others. When customers initiate connection, they expect you to understand their need and serve it promptly, regardless of the channel they use.

Why is CX Important?

Most companies define the perception of customer experience very early on, or at least, have a set vision of it. Clearly, mastering the skills in optimizing customer experience presents an exciting opportunity for business development. Why is CX such an essential aspect of fundamental business experience? Customers nowadays are both fast to punish companies for negative experiences and to reward for positive ones. Attention to the customer experience is indicated by a more customized service, resulting in positive reviews. Gladly’s ‘Customer Expectations 2019′ reports consistency as the key to quality CX, with 62% of consumers stating the importance of not repeating previous interactions. In fact, this point is valued higher than the ability to use their preferred channel. Supporting it, Hotjar published a study in November 2018 showing the result of 19 specific questions on the state and success of their companies' CX strategies from a panel of 2,000 CX professionals from the US, UK, Australia, Canada, and the EU.

Nowadays, live chat is an integral part of a successful Omnichannel Customer Service toolkit, providing a platform to communicate with customers in real-time and generating satisfaction levels of 73%, compared to just 61% for email and 44% for phone. Live Chat is cost efficient because It increases the average order value, since customers get real time advice and answers to any questions they might have. by using live chat, overall help desk center personnel needs decreases, while also lowering the waiting queue time when compared to a call center.

Read more: Reach Customer Loyalty and Brand Commitment with Omnichannel Customer Service

Quality Omnichannel Customer Service

Now we know the importance of Omnichannel Customer Service, but how do you develop a quality Omnichannel Customer Service? In a nutshell, there is no single universal checklist to follow. Although, a study from 2000 CX professionals across many sector has resulted in a common pattern. The result can be checked here, and here is several points that we need to take note of:

1. Listening to customers is a must and is top priority,
2. Leverage on customer feedback in essential in understanding your customers,
3. Create a system where you can collect feedback, analyze it and respond/act on it regularly,
4. Avoid friction as much as possible and be more specific in solving problems from customers.

Quality customer service is not easy, but you can start by asking customers questions, listening to their issues and develop actions based on their feedback.

What Indicates a Bad CX?

Aside from understanding the points in creating a quality CX, we also need to understand points we need to avoid? There are several points that we have to avoid, such as: 

1. A lengthy waiting time in providing response, 
2. CS not understanding customer needs,
3. CS unable to solve customers problem, 
4. A lack of human touch, caused by too much template response,
5. An incompetent and rude CS lacking in empathetic communication.

Unfortunately, what really counts as a bad customer experiences for each and every customer will be unique. Which is why opening a feedback channel to listen to your customer is of utmost importance. Using a live chat to assist your CS is may be the necessary step in optimizing Omnichannel Customer Service.

In conclusion, customers retention may be achieved with a good Omnichannel Customer Service and the right tools to support it. Many surveys has shown Omnichannel Customer Service as an integral part of customer retention and customer engagement. Live chat provides businesses in creating quality Omnichannel Customer Service, by providing an active interaction between customers and CS. Most of the problem related to low quality CS interaction can be solved with the use of live chat feature for our customer service.