The productivity of a customer service chat is a question that every company using a chat should consider at regular intervals. The use of customer service chats on websites and services is increasing constantly, which is a good thing in principle. Customers can get faster service online and businesses can increase sales. But is it that simple?
The productivity of a customer service chat cannot be taken for granted
Although practice often shows that customer service chat delivers great results for a company, both in terms of increased online sales or leads and in terms of improved customer service, this cannot be taken for granted. This is why measuring the impact of online customer service, as with online business in general, is extremely important.
Let's think about this through practical examples. A company launches a customer service chat, and within the first few months they notice that the number of monthly chat conversations increases. Generally speaking, you might think that this is a good thing: the company is better able to serve its customers. But is it known what the contents of the chats are, what action the chatslead to, or if they will end in nothing at all.
When it comes to customer service chat, quality often trumps quantity
Chat conversations can be divided into two main categories: proactive and reactive.
Proactive conversations are conversations opened by the company with website visitors. Essentially, the chat system monitors the visitor's behaviour on the website and the chat window is activated when certain behavioural conditions are met.
Reactive chats are chats initiated by the website visitor. In this case, the visitor initiates the conversation with a customer service representative.
A common misconception is that the more chat conversations, the better. However, it is more important that the chat conversations are of high quality.
How do you measure the productivity of customer service chat?
There are various metrics to measure the performance of customer service chat. These include:
Response time: how fast is the response to the conversation opened by the visitor?
Average duration of chat conversations: how long are chat conversations on average?
Number of chat conversations that lead to a sale or lead: from a sales perspective, it is important to know how many chat conversations lead to a sale or direct sale.
Number of transferred or abandoned chat conversations: How many of these conversations are transferred to another customer service agent or how many customers abandon a chat session?
As there are already differences in emphasis in these metrics, it is important in measuring customer service chat to determine what its primary objectives are within the company.