What’s the state of Web chat as a customer support media? While a lot has been written on the topic, the answer will depend on what nation the consumer hails from. In the U.S., Web chat is second only to the telephone as a preferred method of communication with a company. In the U.K., the chat trend has been slower to launch, with only 24 percent of customers using chat as a means of communicating with a company. British customers prefer e-mail as their second choice after the telephone. Studies have found that British customers may not be using chat as much simply because a majority of U.K. companies – more than two thirds -- haven’t implemented the channel.
The rise of Web chat has gone hand-in-hand with the rise in e-commerce. Once upon a time, customer bought things three ways: in person in a brick-and-mortar store, via the telephone or by postal mail. With global ecommerce having topped $1 trillion in 2012, it’s safe to say that a majority of people in developed nations are comfortable with buying over the Internet. This has meant that customer support has also shifted to the Internet.
As a customer support media, Web chat has some advantages over e-mail. It’s instant, and consumers like this. They walk away from a transaction with a resolution, unlike e-mail, which involves sending a message and waiting and hoping someone will answer it. Web chat sessions can be used to exchange links and even photos of a defective product, for example. Companies benefit from Web chat because it’s efficient: customer support agents can carry out multiple chat sessions at the same time, unlike telephone calls, and it can eliminate the problem of foreign accents for companies using offshore customer support services.
While customer support via social media generates a lot of headlines today, these channels are dwarfed by Web chat. Research by BT found that Web chat is quickly outpacing the popularity of social media, with 27 percent of respondents choosing it, versus only 17 percent of customers who turn to social media vehicles such as Facebook (News - Alert) and Twitter.
What this means is that companies committed to offering a high-quality customer support experience need to be putting nearly as much time and effort into Web chat as the telephone. This means choosing agents who are good with chat – proper spelling and grammar are a must – and ensuring that the Web channel operates in an integrated manner with other channels such as phone, e-mail and social media. For many organizations, this has meant choosing a multichannel contact center platform that integrates the various channels.
A close cousin of Web chat in the customer support arena is co-browsing, which allows a customer and a support agent to explore a Web site together, allowing the agent to act as a salesperson as well as an agent and guide the customers to the information they require, even helping them fill out Web forms. Used together, Web chat and co-browsing could ultimately surpass the telephone as the channel of choice, at least on the e-commerce front.
Edited by Stefania Viscusi