TIPS & RESOURCES

Asking the question of “what is live chat support?” Read on to discover how live chat support can benefit those looking for around-the-clock customer support.

What Is Live Chat Support?

For many businesses these days, offering stable, consistent, around-the-clock support to their customers is crucial to their success.

Live chat support is one of the easiest ways to provide your customers with the availability they expect in the age of 24/7 connectivity—in a way that is convenient and easy to access.

But what is online chat support?

With regard to technology, live chat support is software that appears on a business website that allows customers to interact with representatives for customer support, technical support, or any other customer inquiries and concerns they may have. It can improve customer service, boost productivity, and even help businesses grow their customer base.

How Does Live Chat Support Work?

A customer support chat service is software that’s fully integrated into your business’s website. In most cases, it will appear as a widget—an application embedded into the web page but has its own interface and capabilities. It’s usually a pop-up window that operates in one of two ways:

Passive – Passive chat support options require the customer to initiate the communication. When a customer visits your website, they’ll have to find the chat support option and click on it themselves.
Proactive – Proactive chat support begins automatically. As soon as the customer visits the web page, the chat window pops up with a greeting message from a company representative.

Often, live chat support services can be integrated with broad software-as-a-service programs, allowing for additional ease of use for businesses and consistency in record-keeping.

Why It’s Good for Customers

Live chat support provides your customers with instant, real-time support, without the hassle of phone calls and long wait times.

According to recent studies, live chat support is the preferred mode of communicating with businesses by 73% of consumers. And it probably comes as no surprise that younger consumers who represent the future of your business are even more likely to use a live chat service over more traditional options, like phone calls.

There are many reasons for this. One reason is that live chat support gives consumers a communication option that is recognizable and easy for them to use. Chat windows and text-based messages have become extremely popular methods of communication, so consumers are comfortable using them.

‍
Compared to phone services, they also allow customers more options for relaying information to business representatives. In many chat support windows, customers can:

Attach files invoices and other documents
Send pictures or videos to help representatives better understand the issue

And because they don’t require the user to download or install any additional software, the live chat option puts customers at ease.

‍

Should I Implement a Live Chat Support System?

Any business that wishes to increase their productivity and improve the quality of service that they’re able to give their customers will benefit from implementing some form of live chat customer support service into their website.

Live chat support presents businesses with a range of benefits for maximizing profits and streamlining business flow, including:

Customer convenience – With a live chat tool, your customers can get all of their questions answered whenever they need.
Increase sales – Not only are live chat options popular among consumers but they’ve also been shown to boost sales. Studies suggest that consumers are almost three times more likely to make purchases if they’ve used a business’s live chat support.
Analytical benefits – Live chat support makes it possible to retain valuable information about your customers and the live chat agent or virtual receptionist they interact with, which can be instrumental in the success of future marketing campaigns and improve customer service.
Audience expansion – Having a live chat option on your website means that customers who are not local and are unfamiliar with your business can communicate with a live person when placing orders or asking questions—just like they would in-store.
Increase productivity – When you implement live chat support, you can outsource the work of servicing customers to a support team of qualified agents. This frees up time for you and your employees to work on other projects and focus on other concerns.

Do you want to learn more about customer service support options? Check out our collection of helpful guides to discover answers to common questions including, “what is an answering service?”, “what is the difference between answering service vs call center?”, and “what is an inbound call center?”

Be There For Your Customers with Nexa

No matter the size or function of your business, if you’re interacting with customers, you can benefit from implementing a live chat service option. Customers prefer it and it helps businesses improve customer service and increase their bottom line.

But it’s understandable if the idea of using a live chat solution for your business seems complicated. There’s a lot of technology out there, and figuring out how to use all of it can be a large undertaking.

That’s where Nexa comes in. Our quality answering service can solve all your communication problems—including live chat support. We offer 24/7 live chat support that’s managed by a highly trained staff of virtual receptionists who are ready to help your customers thrive.

Are you ready to transform your website visitors into loyal customers? Get started with Nexa today.