Customer expectations are high.

Real-time customer support is a dream come true for millions of consumers all around the world. Live chat enables shoppers to file a complaint or find out product features within seconds, thus helping companies to engage clients, increase conversions, and resolve conflicts.

More than 30% of today’s customers expect live chat support on your website, while the figures are expected to grow by as much as 87% in the next 12 to 18 months. In such circumstances, you must embrace this channel of communication and teach your staff how to approach customers delicately.

This post will show you top 5 psychological tips your live chat support needs to know.

Don’t let them wait

This psychological tip is everything but counterintuitive. Nobody likes waiting – a study proved that 42% of consumers say that they prefer live chat functions because they don’t have to wait on hold. It’s an instant messaging service, so you should treat it as such.

Of course, there will be occasions when your customer service reps won’t be able to answer user inquiries straight away. In this case, they need to keep clients informed and estimate when to come back for an answer. An average consumer won’t make a big deal out of it as long as you request a reasonable period of time to solve the problem.

Be proactive

Not letting your customers wait is great, but making the first move is even better. You should be proactive and address website visitors 30 to 60 seconds upon opening your page. It’s a golden rule of human interaction – people don’t act first but react to your behavior.

Therefore, you should politely reach out to potential customers and offer help. What’s the worst thing that can happen in this case? Your message might end up without reply. But if a client replies, you’ve definitely made a good impression.

For instance, LiveChatInc takes the first step towards a conversation by inviting customers to chat. Using this service, clients automatically send greetings to customers to let them know they are available and ready to help. This should be your goal as well, so be ready to step up your game.

Keep it personal

As an entrepreneur, you might ask a reasonable question: Why wouldn’t I use chatbots instead of live chat? After all, chatbots are cheaper and available 24/7. Well, the reason to keep live chat support is personalization.

According to psychology specialists at Aussie Writings, customers want to feel appreciated as individuals. They build relations with brands based on values and experiences, so you need to call them by names and tailor communication so as to fit a specific client. Contemporary customer service tools keep the entire history of communication with the consumer and you should use it to learn more about them.

For instance, a client has been complaining about high shipping costs several times. You can seize this opportunity and offer a one-time free shipping deal for the next purchase. That way, you do two things:

• Give a tangible benefit to the customer.
• Make his relationship with the brand much more personal.
• Withdrawal: If you are facing an angry customer who has the right to complain, you should keep quiet for a while and let him do the talking. Such clients need someone to hear about their problems and the best thing to do is withdraw until they calm down. After that, you should try to solve the problem.
• Rationalize: When you are dealing with average clients, you should keep the conversation informalbut rational and informative. Explain everything there is to know about your products or services and prove professionalism.
• Fight back: We don’t recommend you fight back too often, but some clients need a wakeup call to realize they are wrong.

Mind the reaction

Being a customer service agent is not easy. It requires a great deal of empathy and delicacy in communication, so you must know the basic emotional reactions:

End chat with an upbeat tone

Once you answer all user questions, you should end the conversation by asking how they liked your explanations. The goal is to end the chat with an upbeat tone and leave a good impression. This will make consumers satisfied, which is important because almost a third of clients have told friends or colleagues about a positive live chat experience.

Conclusion

Live chat is the best way to improve customer support and distinguish your business from the crowd of competitors. Besides technical knowledge, your team of live chat operators must also learn a few communication tricks.

In this post, we showed you top 5 psychological tips your live chat support needs to know. What do you think is the most important tactic here? Do you have other interesting ideas to share with our readers? Let us know about your opinion in comments and we’ll be glad to discuss it!

About the author: Olivia is a passionate blogger who writes on topics of digital marketing, career, and self-development. She constantly tries to learn something new and share this experience on various websites. Connect with her on Facebook and LinkedIn.

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