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Timing is everything when it comes to customer service. But how fast does your company really need to be? If statistics are anything to go by, the faster the better. Forrester Research found that 77% of adult Internet users in the United States say they believe the most important thing a company should do to provide good customer service is value their time.
In addition to faster response times, there is also a huge demand for social media customer service. According to Social Media Research, 75% of customers who contact a company via social media for support-related cases expect a response within an hour, at most. Wondering what the key takeaway from all this is? In short, keeping customers waiting can lead to customer churn, and companies that continually strive to improve their real-time customer service generate 5.7 times more revenue than those that don’t. In this blog post, we’ll discuss the principles of real-time customer support.
What does “real time” mean?
Imagine you're at an event or social gathering where you're interacting with other people. When you have to talk to someone face-to-face, you instinctively notice their body language and pay attention to their tone of voice. This information, or context, allows you to adapt your body language, choice of words, or even the conversation topics you choose to address.
In the digital world, real-time customer interactions work the same way as face-to-face conversations. You recognize a customer’s need or problem and quickly respond with a message or proceed with an action. But to do so, you need the right data and resources.
Trends in real-time customer support.
According to a report on real-time customer support, the growing popularity of tools like live chat has created a benchmark for user experience. Below, we have highlighted the top trends in real-time customer support.
1. Customer communities
If you provide a platform for your users where they can share knowledge and ask questions organically, such as a community forum, you are empowering your users and potential customers to use self-service . This way, potential customers can get answers to their questions almost immediately, without the need to contact your customer service. The great thing about these communities is that even if they receive a response from a different user (not necessarily an agent from your organization), they will maintain a positive association with your company’s customer service.
The good news is that LiveAgent allows you to create customer forums and other useful knowledge base elements, such as FAQs or how-to articles. Also, any new queries received in your forums will automatically be converted into a ticket and sent to your LiveAgent dashboard. From there, your customer support representatives can easily answer the question if it hasn’t been answered by another user yet.
2. The challenge of ubiquity
Every contact center must adapt its service to support multi-device users traversing numerous interaction points as the foundation of the real-time user experience they deliver. In short, this means omnichannel support. To learn more about omnichannel customer support, click here .
3. Innovation, technology and data.
Cloud services are becoming indispensable. Machine learning, complex analytics, and access to customer data are all necessary to provide users with real-time support.
4. The “one-on-one” conversation.
Brand strategies should aim to transform customer relationships through personalized conversations. This can be done through chat moderation , proactive chat invitations sent to users identified as potential customers, or existing customers requiring real-time support.
What exactly should you keep in mind when providing real-time customer support?
The trends mentioned above shape the way businesses should approach customer support and the strategies they should apply to meet their customers’ expectations. Below is a summary of what exactly your business needs to do to provide real-time customer support.
Speed and agility
Real-time customer support is all about speed and adaptability. When we talk about “real-time,” we’re talking about the ability to interact within context and at the right time, in a non-intrusive way that delivers value to the recipient.
This may require a response within milliseconds (for dynamic messaging and personalization), such as responding to live chat queries, incoming phone calls , or communication that triggers a series of messages over time (e.g. email sequences).
Some business cases require response times of less than 70 milliseconds, while others consider a one-hour response time to be fast enough. The required response time depends on the industry, overall business objectives, and internal key performance indicators (KPIs).
Immediate responses
Immediate responses are always the best option, even if it means preemptively responding to a customer’s request (until a more detailed answer can be provided). As a general rule, social media, text, and chat responses should be offered within 15 minutes; emails should be answered within a few hours; and voice channels should be optimized so that if an agent is unavailable, a callback option is offered .
To facilitate the management of incoming calls, companies can introduce hong kong whatsapp number data Interactive Voice Response (IVR) within call centers. This feature allows customers to direct connections themselves and decide which department they want to reach.
In short, are informed when they can’t be immediately connected to an agent. For example, make sure the customer receives a confirmation or receipt when they send an email or SMS that gives them clear information about when they’ll receive a response. Remember, though, that real-time responses are highly valued, so your brand should strive to provide them as quickly as possible.
Be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Being available 24/7 may seem difficult or impossible, but it is essential if you want to provide real-time customer service. The most influential brands are there for their customers 24/7 in some way or another, even if it is just ensuring access to FAQs or having an offline chat option.
Ideally, your business should offer real-time support through a multitude of channels such as phone calls, social media, or a 24/7 live chat service, with agents available to help your customers with whatever they need.
If this is something your company can't offer, try increasing the amount of information provided in your knowledge base and customer portals. Also, make sure your live chat and phone customer support hours are listed and easily found on your website.
Take a proactive approach
Staying one step ahead of your customers makes it easier to support them in real time. Find out which channels are most used, when they are used, and for what purpose. As you learn about your customers’ habits, you’ll be able to identify which channels require additional attention from your staff, which recurring issues need to be addressed, and which agents are trained to answer specific queries.
Additionally, using real-time analytics can incentivize agents to provide proactive support before issues arise or customers ask for help. By taking proactive steps, the company can provide better real-time support.
In addition to proactive chat invitations, your agents can make use of advanced features like the real-time typing view. It allows agents to see what customers are typing in real time, even before they click the “send message” button. This tool gives your agents more time to prepare a response and allows them to react within seconds.
