Clickatell Makes It Easier to Add Chat to the Customer Mix

The phrase “call center” is increasingly becoming a misnomer. While customers still pick up the phone for very complex issues, for other issues – or to initiate a contact – chat is becoming a channel of choice.

Customers like chat for many reasons: it involves no waiting on hold, it can be done while continuing other tasks (like working), and it involves the need for fewer social niceties. To help make it easier for contact centers to fully implement chat, mobile communications and chat commerce company Clickatell (News - Alert) has introduced its new Chat Desk and Chat Flow solutions.

The company has combined Chat Desk, a live-agent digital contact center solution, with Chat Flow, a chat commerce workflow builder, to provide automated chat with drag-and-drop, no-code, functionality. With this holistic solution, according to the company, consumers will connect with brands through Chat Flow automated chat, also known as unassisted chat, and then if the consumer needs additional support, they seamlessly shift to a live agent or assisted chat, through Chat Desk.

"Clickatell's Chat Commerce takes the wait, the frustration, and inconvenience out of the customer service experience for our clients," said Cerika Henning, Business Development Executive at Company Partners, a beta user of the product. "Our customers are reassured quickly and conveniently that their inquiries will be taken care of through chat. Adding the chat channel as a method to engage with our consultants has been extremely effective and a great way to build trust with our customers."

One of the major benefits of chat is that it eliminates long hold times, which are a major source of frustration for customers. Since chat is asynchronous communication, consumers can reach out from anywhere, anytime, get the company's response, and then chat back at their convenience.

"Chat Desk and Chat Flow working together or separately make it easy for brands to meet consumers where they are consistently – on chat apps – enhancing customer experience while reducing friction associated with contact center customer service," said Jeppe Dorff, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Clickatell. "A number one reason consumers leave brands and abandon payments is due to bad and frustrating customer experience. Adding chat apps as a channel in contact centers makes brands easily reachable and prevents frustration. Added to this, chat increases customer engagement, creating an opportunity to up and cross sell to customers, turning a cost center into a profit center."  

Edited by Luke Bellos