One can easily notice the growing trend of the use of live chat with social media for rendering customer support services. There is no doubt that this progression has helped businesses to streamline their customer support operations. However, it doesn’t suggest in any way that conventional helpdesk and live chat services are not useful anymore.
In fact, there are many reasons why helpdesk and live chat services are still a more viable option to render customer support as compared to social media. Let’s have a look at some of the features of any good helpdesk and live chat that gives them an edge over social media communications.
Shortcomings of Live Chat With Social Media.
Direct Communication Is Still Possible Through Helpdesks Only
Consumers can get answers to their simple queries on Facebook and Twitter. However, for more detailed and satisfactory answers, they have to resort to the helpdesk where they can directly converse with the customer support representative regarding their complaints or queries. This feature of direct communication is still not available in any noteworthy social media platform.
Not Everyone is on Social Media
This might seem implausible to many, but it is a fact that not all of your customers are active social media users. With ongoing data leaks and privacy issues, many users have deleted their social profiles. So, if you’re providing your customer support services only through social media accounts, then there are strong chances that a significant number of your consumers will be unable to reach out to you. Therefore, make it certain that your website remains integrated with effective features of helpdesk and live chat.
Customers Want Privacy
It should be kept in mind that not every customer is comfortable in engaging with customer support teams on public platforms. That’s one of the drawbacks of integrating live chat and social media. They simply don’t want to ask questions and put forward their complaints in front of a virtual crowd. Those consumers resort to live chat, where they can privately converse with customer support representatives without compromising on their comfort zone.
Easy Analytics
No analytical tools exist as of now to comprehensively provide a dispassionate picture of customer services on social media. On the other hand, helpdesk and live chat software applications provide the pertinent data (chat history, customer service rating, time spent by the consumer on the website, etc) that can be used to further enhance the user experience. The performance evaluation of every facet of business is essential to move in the right direction and there is no exception for customer support services.
Integration Is Possible
You can also integrate live chat features with your social media accounts. There are service providers that offer a seamless integration of live chat with social media accounts in order to ensure optimal consumer engagement.
Last but not least, it’s not mutually exclusive to use live chat with social media platforms to offer customer support. However, it is also evident that the importance of helpdesk and live chat features is intact amid the incursion of social media.
