Customer service tools are meaningful to all ecommerce businesses that care about their customers. But these technologies are not without their risks and downsides.
Every contact point has its pains. Social media has no privacy; prolonged waits on the phone to speak to a rep could annoy customers, and emails may not be too interactive.
The same applies to live chat apps or software. But businesses that take the time to understand their customers can control these risks of live chat support reap and its benefits.
Poorly Implemented Customer Service Tech Can Ruin Your Relationship with Customers
It can be very disappointing to invest in tech and not make the most of its full potential.
Poorly implemented customer service technology can ruin your relationship with customers. That’s why you must understand the risks of whichever digital approach you take and mitigate them right.
Businesses that fail to discover the potential risks of using live chat software never unlock its real power. They hear people say live chat can boost conversion and foster customer rapports, but they haven’t witnessed these.
That said; discover the dangers of using live chat support and how to control them.
Live Chat Customer Experience: The Dangers of Live Chat and How to manage them
Not delivering the ‘live’ experience
A live chat feature on your website means customers should get assistance in real-time every time they reach out, and shoppers expect nothing less.
You miss the perfect chance to convert a visitor or build trust if your live chat services do not match the customer’s expectations
Here are two reasons why your live chat could be a mess. (1) Poor control of the live chat queue, and (2) leaving your live chat on when the live chat support crew is not around.
Control Measures
Businesses can manage this risk by leveraging tools that allow for offline messaging. Otherwise, you have no business announcing you offer live chat help if you don’t have the staff to chat with your customers.
You can also use Canned Responses to ensure instant answers when agents are away. Or, implement live-chat routing to give customers a direct connection to the right assistant with the solution to their issue.
Ignoring the Human Interaction
Because chat is all about to and fro text messages, it lacks the verbal and visual aspects that make communication more interactive.
It is easy to lose empathy because you can’t express yourself and get the right message home through speech and gestures. A plain comment or text from an agent may appear rude to a customer and ruin the support experience.
Over-depending on automated responses or chat robots could cost you this important human touch.
Control Measures
Incorporate Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software to ensure a personalized live chat customer experience.
Data from these tools can help you offer personalized engagement. Nothing makes a customer happier than recognition. If you can refer to them by name, and trace their last order or ticket as the chat progresses, then they’ll happily come back.
Your choice of words can also make or break your customer service experience. Be empathetic; say sorry when you are supposed to, train your agents to use words carefully no matter how rough the customer gets.
Inadequate Customer data Security and Confidentiality
Some Live chat tools leave loopholes for cybercriminals to peep into chats that could include confidential client data.
It is risky to put your customer info in such danger because your business could suffer the costly consequences in the unfortunate event of a breach.
Is you live chat feature safe enough to protect private client data?
With cybercriminals looking for weak spots to exploit, you cannot risk being careless with your customer data. Don’t let your move to add a live chat tool destroy everything you’ve built.
Control Measures
If you have an internally managed live chat service, then you upgrade your site and tools to match up to the standard security practices.
Scrutinize the security measures and policies of the live chat service provider before you enter a deal.
Final Words
Watch out for the above pitfalls if you choose to include live chat support in your customer service efforts and take the necessary control measures.
