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Despite Live Chat quickly becoming one of the top methods of customer service, many businesses are still hesitant to implement this tool on their websites, due to a lack of internal resources and concerns regarding message volumes. With consumers expecting to receive a response within just 6 to 15 seconds, it can be tricky for companies to keep up with their incoming enquiries while simultaneously handling the rest of their customer support requests via email and phone. This makes outsourcing Live Chat a great consideration.
The outsourced customer experience market is predicted to reach almost $82 billion before 2023, proving just how common it is for businesses to partner up with external agencies - and with 78% of companies feeling positive about their current outsourcing partners, you can rest assured that your customer care process will be in safe hands. Discover more benefits of outsourced Live Chat below!
It Saves Time for Your Team
The biggest advantage of outsourcing your Live Chat to a dedicated agency is that it saves a huge amount of time for your in-house customer service agents. We understand that your team members are already busy replying to emails and phone calls (and social media messages if you haven’t also outsourced your Community Management), so trying to keep up with the expectation of immediate responses on Live Chat at the same time can be overwhelming.
Attempting to juggle multiple tasks can result in mistakes such as spelling errors, incorrect information being given, customer mix-ups and even messages being ignored, ultimately leading to dissatisfaction and damage to your brand reputation. Handing your Live Chat process over to a separate team will relieve this pressure, allowing you to take your time with the rest of your customer support avenues and focus on one activity at once.
It’s Cost-Effective
It’s a common misconception that outsourcing is expensive - but when compared with the cost of hiring and training a whole new team to take care of your Live Chat system, it’s a much more affordable option. Did you know that the average cost of hiring just one new employee here in the UK is £3,000?
Live Chat also generates genuine ROI because it encourages consumers to make purchase decisions instantly while they’re right there on your website. This is especially true if you provide personalised recommendations and resolve their enquiries promptly, therefore removing barriers and clearing the path to checkout. In fact, shoppers who interact with a Live Chat agent are 2.8 times more likely to end up buying a product and tend to spend around 60% more than non-chatters.
It Matches Your Tone of Voice
Understandably, a major concern for many companies is that an external Live Chat team won’t be able to match their tone of voice or interaction style, causing confusion and making it obvious to the customer that they’re talking to an agent who isn’t inside the business. However, a key part of our client boarding process involves studying brands in-depth to make sure we fully recognise how they want to be represented online, as well as finding out which types of language and messaging should be used.
We assemble detailed guides containing all the necessary information to build a seamless, cohesive Live Chat procedure that stays perfectly in line with the rest of our clients’ communications. In fact, a consistent brand voice has been proven to quadruple visibility and increase revenue by up to 23%, which is why we believe it’s so important to immerse ourselves in your business before we begin sending responses on your behalf.
Out-of-Hours Support
It’s easy to experience burnout and fatigue when trying to keep up with around-the-clock messages, which is another reason why outsourcing is a good idea for your company. Here at 3sixfive, our Live Chat team is available to provide solutions to your incoming customer queries from 8am-10pm, 365 days a year - including weekends, bank holidays, Easter Sunday, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. Whether you’d like us to handle your Live Chat all the time or just during your out-of-office hours, we’re here to ease your workload and enable you to log off stress-free at the end of each day.
Approximately 57% of consumers say they would abandon their cart if they don’t receive answers to their queries, so if shoppers are trying to contact your brand via Live Chat in the evening (the peak purchase time every day lies between 8pm and 9pm!), it’s highly likely that you’re missing out on direct sales opportunities. We’ll monitor your inbox closely at all times to ensure all customers receive fast responses, which is crucial for those who have demonstrated strong buyer signals.
Detailed Reporting & Insights
Outsourcing your Live Chat process to an expert agency means you can access detailed reports and accurate insights that you might not know to extract on your own. These findings will enable you to identify any trends and commonly mentioned topics throughout your customers’ messages, helping you shape future business decisions and give your audience what they really want. We’ve specialised in helping brands big and small for many years, so we know which data matters most - and we know how to present it in a clear, informative way that’s easy to digest.
A massive 83% of businesses believe that they are missing vital pieces of the puzzle when it comes to understanding their customer journey, which is why we’re here to give you comprehensive feedback about your Live Chat experience and outcomes.
Outsourced Live Chat Case Study
Hungry Horse is a chain of over 250 pub restaurants in England, Wales and Scotland which is owned by Greene King. Having already seen success online as a result of our Community Management service, the brand asked us to implement a Live Chat facility on their website using Facebook’s Messenger plugin. Utilising the training, tone of voice and processes that we were already using across Hungry Horse’s social media pages, we installed the plugin and immediately began providing reactive, human responses to every Live Chat query.
If guests experienced issues making a table reservation using the brand’s online booking widget, they could enquire and book via Live Chat instead. If a customer wished to make a complaint, we were able to swiftly gather the required details from them and pass them over to the brand’s internal customer care team, speeding up the resolution process and boosting satisfaction.
In just four weeks, we noticed an impressive 10,000% increase in customer enquiries and sent 9,196 responses, resulting in 1,500 restaurant covers for Hungry Horse. Want to know more? Read the full case study here.
Summary
We hope we’ve managed to dispel some common myths about outsourcing and have shown you why now is the time to partner with an award-winning agency like 3sixfive. Trying to manage your website Live Chat in-house is likely to be stressful, time consuming and expensive, so our Live Chat service is here to help. Get in touch to learn more about how we can manage your brand’s incoming customer service requests and provide around-the-clock responses that incentivise purchases and turn casual browsers into loyal shoppers.
