How Live Chat Benefits Businesses

With its real-time aspect and ability to be used over a number of different media, Live Chat has emerged as a powerful communications tool. Social media and the popular and growing breed of encrypted messaging platforms exploit this capability to promote contact between private individuals and larger institutions.

In the business realm, there are several ways in which Live Chat applications can benefit an enterprise – both internally, and in facilitating interactions with customers and suppliers.

The Need For Rapid Response

Businesses now have to deal with a buying public that’s more aware and empowered than ever before. Consumers routinely go online to search and “do” diligence on products and brands, before venturing to contact a particular company, or make a purchase. Armed with their knowledge, they expect the businesses they contact to be speedy and courteous in attending to their needs, and addressing any problems they may have in the follow up.

In this kind of environment, established methods of business communication often can’t cut it. For example, with email response times to customer service requests typically taking longer than 12 hours, and an expected response via social media coming in at around ten hours, these channels may actively lose a company good will and paying customers.

With the trend now towards 24/7/365 availability, always-on access, and instant response, businesses require technology that’s up to meeting this demand.

Live Chat For A Demanding World

Live Chat applications enable businesses to have real-time conversations with their contacts (be they customers or supply chain partners) on their websites, eCommerce portals, dedicated mobile apps, and other connected media.

The Live Chat phenomenon first gained large-scale popularity on social media, where little on-screen chat boxes enabled subscribers to have long distance conversations with their friends and followers. It’s become an expected part of the online experience for many users. So much so in fact, that recent studies suggest that 33% of consumers now expect to see some form of Live Chat offered on every website.

The Business Benefits Of Live Chat

Offering a Live Chat facility on the various touch points of a business has a number of benefits. These include:

• Increasing sales and conversions: With Live Chat, it’s easy to directly answer queries from potential consumers, and provide additional information or incentives.
• Improving customer service: Direct responses from someone they can readily identify and keep a conversation going with ultimately lead to quicker and more complete resolutions of ongoing issues.
• Maintaining contact with your customers: Contact and other information requested from Live Chat participants or gleaned from conversations with them can provide useful material for further communications and support.
• Cutting costs: A Live Chat facility helps eliminate the need to staff and manage a call center / help line, and allows multiple live chats to be carried on simultaneously by the same small group of responders.

Instant Communications, Everywhere

A 2018 Global Consumer Trends study by ATG discovered that 90% of customers feel a “Live Chat” button inspires confidence that they can get the help they need, whenever they need it. So a wise business should tap into the software and underlying technology that makes it possible to offer Live Chat facilities across as wide a field as possible.

Web Real-Time Communications or WebRTC is one of the technologies powering the new net2phone. The WebRTC standard enables the cross platform development of applications, web resources, and user interfaces that support instantaneous peer-to-peer (P2P) contact. This allows for real time contacts via audio, video, Live Chat, and various text messaging formats.

On net2phone’s platform, email support, Live Chat, voicemail, text, and instant messages may be brought together over multiple devices and multiple channels – all of which can be easily administered from a single dashboard.

If you’d like to know more about how Live Chat can benefit your business, ask for a free demo!