Google Talk, Yahoo Messenger, ICQ—if these sound alien to you, then you probably didn’t grow up in the 90s or haven’t gotten in touch with your “tech side”. We’re talking about Instant Messaging services. For the uninitiated, Instant Messaging (IM) is the new way of “chatting” in real time—just like your telephone, only reading and typing are the means of message exchange here.
And with its boom comes a new way of keeping in touch with your customers. Now, you can offer Live Chat for your customer support call center. This means clients can now chat with a customer care specialist when asking for help on how to run that shiny new heater they just purchased.
But why not email or the good ol’ phone, you ask?
While these two channels are great (and are likewise available), Live Chat support allows you to get past the limitations of either one. Telephone calls, for instance, have to be limited to a certain timeframe, lest you clog up the lines. Email, on the other hand, doesn’t get an instant reply—while not as long as “snail mail”, there’s still a lag. And these tend to become unacceptable to a person in dire straights.
With Live Chat, your customer care reps can stay online with the client as long as they’re needed and can answer their concerns in real time.
Got a tech-related question? Help is now an IM away. Oh sorry, that’s chat away.
