Management
Using Live Chat, Email, Voicemail To Improve Customer Service
With more customers moving their purchases online, their expectations are the sites will be available to answer their queries. Of course, unless your business needs humans available for customer support every hour of the day, you’ll be using Chat apps, email, or voicemail.
Live Chat
Live chat is not always ‘live’ for the humans in your business to communicate with customers. During your business’s offline hours, the live chat will just use its FAQs to answer the most common questions and a note saying the staff are offline and will answer your query when they follow online.
Some live chat apps use AI, and they have more intelligence to understand questions and answer them before escalation to a real person is needed. There’s no doubt that live chat apps help close sales. The more intelligent the app, the higher the conversion rate. However, with more AI and NLP in live chat apps, the cost can be too much for startups and small businesses. There are different options of live chat apps some are free – see this article.
Reverting to technology that works like voicemail and email is still an option. Neither solution is as archaic as it may appear, and if your customers are Generation X or Boomers, they will use your voicemail and email. Hence, live chat is not the preferred channel in some industries – it’s email or voicemail.
Valid Email Address
Accepting site inquiries via a web form makes sure you have a valid email address.
Mailbox Access
Make sure more than one worker with access to the mailbox. You’ll be surprised just how many site visitors will contact you and expect a reply within 24 hours. Who will reach your customers if just one worker has access to the mailbox and is on sick leave or vacation?
CAPTCHA
Use CAPTCHA to stop spam bots from spamming your web form. The CAPTCHA will test and confirm a user is a natural person before allowing them to send the form to your inbox.
reCAPTCHA is a free service from Google. Plus it can present an audio challenge or visual challenge.
Voicemail
If your business is keen on using a voicemail recording service, here are some practical benefits to encourage you to do it.
1. Prepares your staff before they respond to queries
Prospects and customers will happily leave messages on the voicemail even in this day and age as it’s second nature to do so.
Having a recording of the inquiry assists your workers’ preparation in answering customers’ inquiries. It also gives the caller time to consider their requirement before receiving a response from your business. This improves the communication between your business and the customers since the employees will provide all the required information and other details to meet the customer’s needs.
Preparation is critical when your business offers something new, a new product or service. Your staff needs to skill up on its offering and how to respond professionally and in a way that exudes confidence.
2. Prevents on hold calls
Nothing irritates us more than being kept on hold for a long time. The professional recording is welcomed, and it’s used during business hours and out of office hours.
Most of us are not so good at listening to our own voice on a recording, so choose a reputable professional voicemail recording company to provide a reliable business-like response to which your prospects and customers will respond favorably.
3. Keep records and monitor customer care progress
If you want to closely monitor how your customer care representatives handle your customers, then a voicemail recording can help you do so.
The voicemails record all the conversions that happen between the staff and the customers. If a misunderstanding arises between them, you will be able to handle it and know who was in the wrong without being biased.
Summary
Being available twenty-four hours a day is not realistic for startups and smaller businesses, and many helpdesk or call center options are too expensive.
Email and voicemails will suffice until you can budget for a live chat app.
Your customers can call at any time of the day and leave a message regarding their queries and your role is to make sure your business responds in a timely manner, usually within 24 hours.
There’s no need to replace all old-school solutions with newer technologies. Even the younger generations know how to send emails and leave voice messages. 🙂
