Live support chat, or web chat is an essential tool of the modern business. By providing immediate assistance to qualified leads or to customers wanting assistance, a business offers much to attract new and repeat custom. There are some rules to web chat though, and it behooves the new business to learn them if they are to offer a quality service to their customers.
Around 90 percent of human communication is non-verbal. That includes body language, inflection in our voice, tone, eye contact and even scent. All those important elements are removed in a web chat session, meaning you have to make extra efforts to understand and be understood.
Friendliness
Even in a formal business environment, friendliness goes a long way, especially in a one-dimensional medium such as web chat. Asking for and using the customer’s name is an important step in building rapport and getting the customer on side. Repeating the name at intervals also provides a friendly backdrop, whatever the content of the conversation, just be careful to not overuse it.
It’s important when dealing impersonally to make extra efforts to build a connection. Rather than just saying “I don’t know” to something a customer asks, it would be much better to say something like, “good question, let me find out the answer and get right back to you.” Offering positive feedback goes a long way to reaching out over distance.
Careful Canning
Canned responses are excellent time-savers, but you have to be careful with them. Use personality, light humor and real language if you’re going to use canned ones. If customers are expecting web chat, that’s what they should get. Boilerplate responses look and feel like boilerplate responses, so don’t use them.
If you want to use canned responses, make them good ones.
Professionalism
Offering value-add services such as web chat is all very well as long as you can pull it off. If written English isn’t your strongest subject, or your spelling is a little hit and miss, it may be better to either get someone else to do it or not offer it at all. Web chat can go a long way to building a professional persona, but only if you do it properly.
Poorly worded responses, poor grammar or spelling mistakes can come across the wrong way and devalue the service you’re offering. Web chat is exactly the same as when meeting a potential client in person. You need to create a good impression and convince them of your worth. You would speak properly and take care over your diction in a face to face, so you should in a web chat.
There is no doubt that offering web chat to clients is good for business. Anything that makes them feel more valued and fully supported is going to aid the buying decision. However, it’s more important to do it right than do it at all. If you’re not able to give a good account of yourself over a web chat, you’re better off not doing it.
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