Web Chat is Finally Being Positioned the Right Way in Call Centers

 Several years ago, Web-based chat was getting a lot of hype, and many companies starting offering a “click-to-talk” button on their Web site.   Like email, chat was viewed as a more efficient option than telephone calls, and a nice alternative for customers.   However, something seemed to happen along the way — many companies quickly discovered that they’d adopted an access channel that hadn’t quite matured with customers and, in some cases, wasn’t used at all.    In fact, several companies stopped offering this access channel altogether, or began to limit its offering to  certain groups or market segments.    

 

After its initial hype, many of our traditional “call center” clients all but removed chat from their radar screen. But lately we’ve seen it evolve into a near necessity for companies that provide online retailing, technical support and Web-based services.    While there are a lot of opinions on the true cost savings associated with chat, we are seeing companies focusing more attention on the overall customer experience and worrying less about agent efficiencies.  Many have found that forcing agents to conduct too many chat sessions simultaneously can lead to lower quality, reduced response times and, in the end, customer frustration and defection.   Every indication is that chat is now evolving into a more respected access channel, and many companies are implementing and reporting quality and performance metrics for chat alongside their traditional telephone objectives.

 

One thing that seems to be driving  acceptance of chat is the recent increase in the use of Instant Messaging (IM) in the work place.  There have been several articles in mainstream publications touting the IM explosion.  In addition,  some of our call center clients have started using IM as a way for agents to ask questions, share real-time findings, and receive supervisor updates.   As more people become comfortable communicating via IM, it’s very likely to spill over into their expectations of all companies.   Yes, it does look like the users are finally catching up to the technology, and will soon expect the chat channel to be available, regardless of the industry.

 

The good thing for those of us running call centers  is that the dynamics we’ve struggled to master are easily transferred to supporting the chat-enabled world.   It comes down to setting an objective (service level/response time), understanding your workload (volume/handle time), and ensuring people are in the right place (adherence).   What is different about supporting chat is the out-of-the-box functionality that is typically available – skills-based routing, priority queuing, suggested responses/templates, etc.    Many of the tools that are typically on our call center “wish list” are immediately available when you implement a chat solution.

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