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  • Mastering Live Chat Support: 7 Best Practices for Engaging with Customers in Real Time | Greechat

    Best Ways To Interact With Customers Live: Live Chat Support

    Chatting with a customer is the fastest way to solve their problems, but if you’re not doing it right, it can be one of the slowest ways to build customer loyalty. As a result, you need to implement best practices for live chat that make sure your customers get the help they need quickly and efficiently, so they don’t have time for second thoughts about using your service or business again. 

    With this in mind, you’ll find seven ways you can use live to live chat as an asset for building customer relationships in this blog. 

    Table of Contents 

    1. Build trust by introducing yourself through live chat.

    This is your chance to get to know the customer. When they’re looking at your website, they may be trying to figure out if you offer products or services that align with their needs – but they also want more information about what you do. If you don’t immediately provide that information, they could think that you aren’t transparent and trustworthy, which can turn them away from your business.

    If someone comes onto your live chat support, introduce yourself and explain why you are there: ‘Hi! I am [your name], a representative from [company name]. How can I help?’ This lets them know that someone is ready to assist them and encourages them to continue with their questions or comments. Who knows? They might even end up filling out a form on your website after chatting with an agent!

    💡KEY TAKEAWAY: Introducing yourself through live chat helps build trust with customers by letting them know that someone is available to assist them.

    2. Start with the right greeting message.

    When a customer reaches out to your business, you have the opportunity to make a positive first impression. Starting off with a friendly greeting that welcomes them and lets them know you’re here to help can be crucial in getting them engaged in the conversation.

    A simple ‘Hello, how may I help?’ will do just fine for most situations, but some companies take their greetings even further by adding personalisation to them. For example: ‘Hello Steve! How can I help today?’ or ‘Hi there, Amy! What’s on your mind?’ These personal touches not only help reinforce your brand’s identity as being friendly and approachable. They also give customers an extra boost of confidence that they’ve reached the right place when they contact you by name!

    💡KEY TAKEAWAY: Starting with a friendly and personalised greeting message in live chat can make a positive first impression on the customer and help reinforce the brand’s identity as friendly and approachable.

    3. Use proactive chat responses.

    Proactive chat responses are a great way to anticipate and meet the needs of your customers. A live chat for small business can also help you reduce wait times, improve customer satisfaction, and reduce customer frustration. When you use proactive chat responses, it is important to make sure they don’t come across as intrusive. This can be accomplished by including relevant information such as:

    • your name (and title);
    • their name (and contact information); and
    • the date/time stamp for when the last message was sent/received.

    💡KEY TAKEAWAY: Proactive chat responses can help improve customer satisfaction, reduce wait times, and minimise frustration. To use them effectively, make sure they don’t appear intrusive by including your and the customer’s name, contact information, and the time stamp of the last message.

    4. Focus on fast and friendly support.

    In order to keep your customers happy and satisfied, it’s important to make sure that they are getting the best possible service. You need to:

    • Stay on top of your queue. Make sure you respond to customers in a timely manner. Remember that if you don’t respond quickly, then your customers will get frustrated with you and leave.
    • Ask for more details. Request additional information when needed so that you can give the best solution possible for the customer’s problem or query. They will appreciate this because it shows that you have listened carefully and are willing to help them out in any way possible!
    • Be friendly. Be helpful and respectful of their feelings at all times when dealing with them over chat support systems online – especially if there has been an issue that caused some negativity between both parties involved. 

    You should never talk down to people just because they might be wrong about something (even though sometimes they might be). Instead, try ‘I’m sorry, but I think there might have been some miscommunication here.’

    If someone says something mean back, then simply apologise again, saying, Im sorry about what happened earlier.’ This way, everyone gets along better instead of just letting things slide as they might typically do otherwise.

    💡KEY TAKEAWAY: Provide fast and friendly customer service by staying on top of your queue, asking for more details, and being respectful and helpful in all interactions.

    5. Suggest the next step by messaging links or pages.

    This is a great way to introduce yourself and the company you work for. It also lets your customer know that you’re still there, even though they can’t see you. This will help build trust between the two of you. When the conversation is coming to a close, tell your team that they should suggest links to relevant pages, products, or services. This can help customers navigate your platform and make a purchasing decision right away.

    💡KEY TAKEAWAY: At the end of a conversation, suggest relevant links, pages, or services to help customers navigate your platform and potentially make a purchase decision. 

    6. Use personalised responses to improve turnaround time satisfaction.

    Personalised responses are more likely to be read and remembered, which means your customers will have a better experience. They’re also likely to be shared with friends, family, and colleagues.

    This is even more impactful when you consider the trust factor: personalised chat messages from service providers like airlines and financial institutions can help build brand loyalty, and they provide opportunities for customer feedback as well as product reviews – all of which can help you improve your services in real-time!

    💡KEY TAKEAWAY: Personalised responses in live chat can improve customer satisfaction and build trust. They are more likely to be read and remembered, and can help you gather customer feedback and product reviews for continuous improvement.

    7. Send follow-up chat messages to check in.

    After your chat is over, you can send a follow-up message to check in with the customer. This is a great way to build a relationship with your customers and make sure they’re happy.

    You can use follow-up messages to ask if they need anything else or if you can help them find something on your site. Follow-up messages are also a good way of keeping the conversation going after an online chat has ended.

    💡KEY TAKEAWAY: Sending follow-up chat messages after a conversation has ended is a great way to build a relationship with your customers and ensure their satisfaction.

    Live chat is a great asset for connecting with customers and building relationships with them.

    Using a live chat for web pages gives you the opportunity to build trust with your customers, improve customer satisfaction, and increase engagement.

    Live chat is also a great asset for connecting with customers and forming relationships with them. The more you interact with your customers, the more helpful they’ll feel about using your services or products – and that will lead to more sales.

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    Our blog aims to share insights and tips on some of the best ways to improve live customer interactions. 

    Through our 24/7 live chat sales team, Greechat helps businesses discover new revenue by chasing unengaged visitors.