In the present age, stellar customer service can become the sole differentiator between a successful and a failed business. Every business has the intent to provide state of the art services to their customers. But here’s the fact, providing round the clock customer service is a tough call for a business. After all, most businesses do not run 24/7.
That is where answering services and live chat services come into the picture. A business can entrust a third-party provider with this services and be sure that their customers will be attended to. Every. Single. Time.
With a good help desk answering service and/or live chat answering service provider, it is possible to provide your customers with the support they need even after your business hours. The trained agents can professionally handle the after hour calls or live chat interactions on your behalf and deliver your customers the same experience they have come to expect from your business.
But when deciding on which of these two services is best for the customers, a company will have to evaluate their pros and cons into consideration before opting for one that is right for their business.
Telephone Answering Service
Telephone answering services provide ensure:
- There is always someone there to take a customer`s phone call, day or night.
- It alleviates customer dissatisfaction even when they do not get to talk to an agent right away.
- It allows businesses to filter out some of the unnecessary spam calls
- Customers get to talk to a live person. This immediately makes them comfortable.
- It can help increase customer satisfaction
- It also offer a professional impression
While a help desk answering service can certainly help improve customer service by offering the customers an outlet round the clock, it may not be the right solution for every office. Even when one want an answering service outsourcing, they may have a tough time deciding, how many hours do they want to stay open or what type of answering service do they require. Fret not; here is a great answering service decision making chart to make things easier.
With a good help desk answering service provider by your side, it becomes easier to manage your customer queries at any time of the day. When you have customers from different parts of the globe, having a 24/7 answering service becomes essential as your overseas customers may try to call you beyond your usual business hours. Missing those calls may mean losing the opportunity to gain on a foreign market. You won’t want that. Right?
However, using answering services for handling your emergency calls may not be the best idea as your answering service team may not be able to provide your customers with quick resolution. And when your customers who are facing a crisis has to wait on a long call queue to get their issues resolved, it may lead to poor customer satisfaction. Therefore, having a dedicated customer support helpline is the best solution in that case.
An answering service is probably best for taking non-emergency phone calls and channeling them to the right people. This will ensure a prompt hassle-free service that will make both the customers and the business happy.
Live Chat Service
In the present age almost every customer has access to internet via desktop or smartphone. Therefore, live chat has come up as a viable alternative to answering service. In fact, live chat can prove to be crucial to the future customer service scenario. Adding live chat to the business website can give it a serious edge.
Here are some major benefits of adding live chat to your list of communication channels:
- It allows customers to communicate with a business directly from the company website.
- Live chat can cut down the cost of running customer service 24/7
- It simplifies the queries in a question and answer format and makes the whole process much more convenient.
- It allows customers a way to get answers without contacting the customer service.
- It increases sales according to a recent research by Forrester
Despite its obvious facilities, not every business has a favorable opinion about them. According to them:
- It is less personal than talking to an agent and that may affect the satisfaction level of a customer.
- Customers who prefer more attention may find live chat impassive.
- Since it is hard to decipher the tone and intent in live chat, the customers may have different understanding about how they are served.
- 24/7 chat service can be expensive.
Hiring a provider can be beneficial to most businesses. It is the communication channel with the highest rate of customer satisfaction. The cost can also be brought down significantly by allowing an agent to handle multiple chats at a single point of time, which, unlike calling, is possible with live chat. Also, many customers prefer to shop from a website with a live chat option as it allows them to receive assistance without leaving the page they are on. Therefore, having a live chat service is always a good practice that will benefit your business.
What Should a Business Choose?
Both live chat and telephone answering services have their high points and can prove to be excellent customer service tools. Both of them allow businesses to connect their customers with a live agent round the clock. So, it can be hard decision to choose between the two. A business may opt for any one of these services depending on the nature of their operations and can still make their customers happy.
Therefore, it is better to thoroughly research on both the services before opting for one. You should also consider your customer base and their preferred channel of communication. For example – if your main customer base is aged above 60 years of age, they will prefer talking to a live agent than chatting. On the other hand, millennials will prefer live chat to waiting in a call queue.
However, in the ideal case scenario, a balance between the two services can be the most effective customer service weapon a company can have.
In this age of communication, it is ideal to offer both help desk answering service and live chat answering service to your customers and let them choose their preferred communication method. Doing this will result in a higher customer satisfaction and a better customer experience.
Best Answering Service Provider Globally : Fusion BPO Services
