{"id":7765,"date":"2021-07-26T21:29:46","date_gmt":"2021-07-27T01:29:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ansafone.com\/?p=7765"},"modified":"2021-07-26T21:29:46","modified_gmt":"2021-07-27T01:29:46","slug":"is-live-chat-taking-over-as-customers-preferred-contact-method","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ansafone.com\/is-live-chat-taking-over-as-customers-preferred-contact-method\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Live Chat Taking Over as Customers\u2019 Preferred Contact Method?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Customers have begun choosing live chat as their preferred customer service contact method. Live chat has been available for decades, but in today\u2019s technological age, it is surpassing other forms of communication. In 2021, customers prefer chatting with a live customer service agent over calling, emailing, and social media.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Live chat offers customers a quick, convenient and effective way to ask questions about products, tech support, and account inquiries. While all other methods of contact are still used, live chat has overtaken them as customers\u2019 preferred contact method for their customer service needs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Live Chat Meets Customer Needs<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Statistics show that <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/techjury.net\/blog\/live-chat-statistics\/#gref\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">75 percent<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of customers prefer live chat over other customer service contact methods like phone calls, emails, and social media. All of these other contact methods are still widely used in the customer service world. However, chatting live with a customer service agent offers customers benefits that other means of contact do not.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Customers can multitask while on a live chat.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Agents are there solely to help, so the customer\u2019s issue is their only priority.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Customers who do not like talking on the phone feel at ease with live chat.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Additionally, customers prefer live chat over chatbots powered by artificial intelligence. A human agent can have a conversation and make the customer feel heard. Although there are no voices, the human component is important to customers who choose live chat.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Customers Prefer Quick Solutions<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">People in the modern world expect quick, simple interactions. Live chat offers both fast and easy customer service solutions. The average wait time for a live chat response is <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/websitebuilder.org\/blog\/live-chat-statistics\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">two minutes.<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Live chat is faster than social media, which varies in response time and is usually unreliable.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Live chat is much faster than email, which usually takes one to two business days for a response.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Live chat is faster than a phone call, which usually requires the caller to wait on hold for several minutes.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Customers also value quality along with speed. Therefore, customers are willing to be patient in exchange for high-quality customer support. Well-thought-out solutions are more important to live chat customers than instant responses. This is especially true because customers can switch between tabs online while a live agent solves their problem. Live chat sessions typically do not last more than 10 minutes.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Customers Are Satisfied with Live Chat Experiences<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Customer satisfaction is vital for any business. Customers are more satisfied on average with their live chat customer service experiences than with any other contact method. <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/winthecustomer.com\/consumers-prefer-live-chat-customer-service-methods\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Statistics show<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the customer satisfaction rates are as follows:\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">73% of customers are satisfied with live chat support experiences<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">61% of customers are satisfied with email support experiences<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">44% of customers are satisfied with phone support experiences<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A customer\u2019s experience with customer service plays a major role in their decision to do business with a company. If customers prefer to use live chat for support, they are more likely to use companies that offer live chat as an option. Furthermore, many customers today expect companies to provide live chat by default when visiting business websites.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Live Chat Is Necessary for Successful Customer Service<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Live chat improves a business\u2019s revenue outlook. Customers are more likely to purchase items online when a company has a live chat customer service option. Shoppers often have questions during the shopping or checkout process. Simply having a live chat box available to customers greatly improves a business\u2019s conversion rate.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Additionally, businesses can tailor their live chat to their needs by including specific features.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Include localization to serve customers who speak different languages.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Choose a 24\/7 live chat option to serve customers at all times.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Offer a downloadable chat transcript so customers can reference their chat later.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Surprisingly, only a small minority of businesses currently utilize live chat on their websites. Live chat is only going to grow in popularity in the coming years. Customer phone support will likely continue to decrease in favor of live chat options. Businesses should take advantage of live chat options to stay ahead of customer needs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">About Ansafone Contact Centers<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ansafone Contact Centers is an award-winning BPO provider with 50 years of world-class customer experience and brand care. We are a national call center with omnichannel services, fully equipped to help you with your business and with any special circumstances.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Please request a quote or call 800-510-0514 to learn more about our custom solutions for creating exceptional customer service experiences for your clients. We\u2019re happy to offer insight into what your customers seek from your company\u2019s language offerings and tailored customer solutions.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Customers have begun choosing live chat as their preferred customer service contact method. Live chat has been available for decades, but in today\u2019s technological age, it is surpassing other forms of communication. In 2021, customers prefer chatting with a live customer service agent over calling, emailing, and social media.\u00a0 Live chat offers customers a quick, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7766,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53,45,51],"tags":[9,161,71,37,47,72,41,160],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ansafone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7765"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ansafone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ansafone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ansafone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ansafone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ansafone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ansafone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ansafone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ansafone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ansafone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}