Here’s a (sarcastically) bold statement: People love to communicate.
Here’s another one: People need to communicate with businesses.
Those statements shouldn’t be surprising. So, why do so many businesses make communication difficult and time-consuming?
It’s almost as if these businesses don’t want consumers to reach out to them.
By 2016, more people were using messaging apps than social media. Every year, fewer and fewer consumers are using a phone to contact a business’s customer service and are instead opting for digital customer service avenues. Companies not following this powerful digital shift are getting left behind.
If you build it, they will come
Consumers want customer service to be convenient, instantaneous and always available. They have questions, complaints or feedback that they feel is important and urgent to share. Plain and simple: It’s extremely critical for businesses to offer online customer service options because that’s how most people want to contact a company. In fact, 67 percent of consumers expect a website to offer a messaging or live chat feature.
An increasing number of businesses are using customer service and support software, such as chat and messaging software, to increase customer retention, generate more high-quality leads, save resources and, of course, provide better customer service. Additionally, it’s important to keep in mind that chat and messenger apps can extend beyond customer service and can be used by consumers to make purchases, make payments and read content.
Benefits of utilizing online and automated customer service for your business:
- Makes customers happier
- Uses AI (Artificial Intelligence) for tier 1 customer support to free up resources
- Streamlines customer requests
- Provides automated responses and reminders
- Easily reroutes customer requests to the appropriate department
- Measures the customer service efforts for improvements
- Differentiates your company from its competitors
- Generates more high-quality leads• Increases customer retention
- Incredible savings in costs and other resources
This type of software can be connected to a CRM and/or ticket support system to provide the most efficient customer service. When connected to a CRM, all information about one customer is kept in the same place. A ticket support system keeps customer questions and feedback organized and ensures a department or employee responds to the customer.
If your business doesn’t have messaging, chat or support software, you’re most likely losing out on potential customers. Instead, those consumers are going to your competitors with online communication abilities, because they can get their questions answered quickly and their concerns resolved effortlessly.
Don’t let poor customer service hinder your business’s ability to generate leads and repeat customers. Here are our favorite types of software that will take your customer service to the next level:
Agile CRM’s Live Chat Software
Yes, Agile CRM is a CRM system, but the company has a wide range of other awesome marketing and support tools, including a seamless chat system that creates support tickets, allows for multiple chats per agent and reporting features.
This marketing and support software uses chatbots to help qualify, route and convert leads, as well as an integrated help desk that allows your employees to collaborate and provide quick solutions for your customers.
A very popular customer service platform, Zendesk offers products that help businesses chat, talk and message with consumers. This software also works right out of the box, allows for scalability and has customizable reporting features.
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Looking for customer service software with a simplistic layout and easy-to-use functionality? Are you just looking for chat software and don’t need all the bells and whistles? Then perhaps LiveChat is for your business.
Particularly popular with small businesses, LiveAgent supplies live chat, ticketing, self-help, social media and phone support. It also has a nice interface that lists and organizes consumer communication from different support channels.
Zoho Desk offers support tickets, automation functionalities, reporting abilities and can be integrated with other apps. It allows your business to provide customer service through a range of channels (live chat, email, phone, social media, etc.) and has tools for both customer service agents and managers.
This customer support and ticketing software help businesses streamline all customer interactions in one location, provide deadlines for ticket responses, automate multiple actions with one click and create pre-formatted replies.
Crisp Chat
A relatively newcomer to the chat industry, Crips offers a great set of features and add-ons to it’s chatting platform. They include automated triggers, auto-replies, integrations with multiple chat systems (Including Facebook Messenger, Telegram, and many others), and more.
