The Pros and Cons of Using Live Chat for Online Customer Service

Cons of Live Chat Software

• Useability

  Depending on your talent market, not everyone may be tech savvy. Some may find it hard to get acquainted with new technology, making their learning curve a bit longer or diminishing your investment, given they may ignore it.

• Online Trolls

  From telephones and now to the Internet, there are people who have nothing better to do than to mess with you and your company. From time to time, there may be trolls who visit your site and pull a prank on customer service agents by pretending to buy something and then suddenly leaving with rude remarks. One way of prevent this is to require online users to submit an email address or register before accessing live chat.

• Impersonal relationships

  Live chat users dwell on communicating with very limited number of words per entry. Hence, it then may not be applicable to complex queries that require a lot of details to gain a resolution. Interactions with customers are always perfect opportunities to establish relationships; which could be lessened with reliance solely on live chat software. Also, the short and straightforward nature of live chat may be perceived as blunt and devoid of human touch, unlike when interacting via phone or email.

Establishing communication with customers is paramount in today’s marketplace. Steady communication bears many perks. Not only can you gather free market research, live chat has the potential to boost customer experience. With customers flocking to the web to do business and start conversations, live chat may very well be the future of customer service, if done right.

Gabby Roxas is a business writer and content manager for Customonit.com. She also has a background in entrepreneurship, marketing, design and loves to create things related to interior designing.