Your customers want you to respond quickly to the question they have asked. Therefore you should find how to reduce wait time.
That’s why, you integrated a live chat software solution with your website in first place, and that’s why your customers were open to starting the conversation.
But, if your live chat agents do not respond to your customers promptly, punctuating the conversation frequently with long lag times—you are unintentionally telling them to go away.
This is something that you cannot afford, especially considering the number of alternatives available on the internet, present at the disposal of consumers.
This begs the question:
What you can do to reduce wait time during a live chat session?
We have some solutions to propose.
Manage Your Resources in a Smart and Efficient Way
One of the primary reasons customers have to face lag times, as the representative respond to their queries, is the live chat agent being bottlenecked with the incoming traffic. After all live chat agents are humans, they can multitask only to an extent. If pushed, their efficiency suffers and their productivity deteriorates.
The Solution: You need to distribute the incoming traffic in such a way, so that all your resources are efficiently managed, meanwhile without disrupting the customer’s facilitation process.
- One solution could be to use a live chat software solution that offers the integration of virtual agents so that they can help to manage the traffic effectively.
- Another possible solution could be to deploy a live chat software solution that allows you to monitor and route the incoming traffic. This too can help avoid bottlenecks and lead to reduced wait times.
Leverage the Use of Pre-Chat Survey
Pre-chat survey is an online form, which customers need to fill in before a live chat session can be activated. It asks for details like name and email address, and a brief description about what customers want to ask. This last piece of information can be very critical.
By determining in advance what the customer is looking for, the chat session could be directed to an able representative. Plus, the live chat agent can also equip itself with the necessary information.
The Solution: Designing and implementing a pre-chat survey system with a live chat software solution can lead to quick and prompt facilitation, without the conversation being exposed to the element of response lag time. s
Leverage the Use of Pre-Designed Content
Often customers are looking for detailed answer to their question, which most often concern: how a product or service functions, how you can use it, what are the features, how you can maintain it etc.
The answers to all these questions require a detailed content, which, when typed manually, leads to increased lag times between two consecutive replies. The customer may get frustrated waiting for you to furnish the information.
The Solution: Use the pre-designed content and furnish them to your customers when answering detailed questions. This would enable live chat agent to provide in-depth information about what customers are looking for, without having to laboriously type your way through and even avoid the risk of missing on an important piece of information.
By utilizing these tips and proposed solutions to reduce wait time, you can improve a customer’s live chat experience, facilitating them promptly with their queries.