{"id":441,"date":"2018-11-16T16:02:44","date_gmt":"2018-11-16T13:02:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chatra.io\/blog\/?p=441"},"modified":"2020-01-15T21:22:52","modified_gmt":"2020-01-15T18:22:52","slug":"resolving-customer-complaints-via-live-chat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chatra.com\/blog\/resolving-customer-complaints-via-live-chat\/","title":{"rendered":"Resolving Customer Complaints via Live Chat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Note from Yakov<\/strong>: This is a guest post\u00a0from James Daily.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Customer complaints are a big issue in this digital age. When a customer is unhappy with you for any reason, they can spread the word all over the Internet and do significant damage to your reputation. For this reason, customer relationships have become a prime concern for companies that want to avoid \u201cbad press\u201d and preserve their reputations.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are a number of things that businesses can do to monitor when their names are mentioned anywhere online. These <\/span>monitoring tools<\/span><\/a> are important, for you will be able to check on what is being said and respond quickly. This way, nothing negative sits \u201cout there\u201d without your chance to resolve any issues.<\/span><\/p>\n

But often, customers will contact you directly when they have a complaint. And one principal method of doing this is through a live chat feature on our website. If you do not have such a feature, get one. This is a great way to keep complaints private and to resolve them to your customer\u2019s satisfaction before they reach the \u201cpublic\u201d arena.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Value of Live Chat<\/b><\/h2>\n

Other than phone conversations, live chat is the next best method of working with customers on a very personal level. Anytime a customer can talk with a real person, the relationship between the company and that customer can be improved. And especially if problems can be resolved through that conversation, the customer goes away happy and satisfied. Future business from that customer has been salvaged.<\/span><\/p>\n

And live chat is actually becoming more popular with customers than any other means of contact. In fact, they are coming to expect it. According to a <\/span>survey by Forrester Research<\/span><\/a>, customer use of live chat for support and service has grown about 10% every year since 2009.<\/span><\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, according to a <\/span>survey conducted by eDigital<\/span><\/a>, the highest rate of customer satisfaction (73%) occurs from live chat as opposed to other forms of support.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dan Oates, Customer Support Manager with <\/span>Resumescentre<\/span><\/a>, has this to say about their live chat feature: \u201cWe added live chat to our customer support efforts a few years ago, using software provided by <\/span>Chatra.<\/span><\/a> Over time, our visitors and customers have come to use our chat feature over all other contact options. They love the instant response feature. And we are able to handle far more questions and issues much faster.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The other benefit of live chat is that it is budget-friendly. One agent can handle more than one customer at a time, not like a telephone call center.<\/span><\/p>\n

Doing it Right<\/b><\/h2>\n

You cannot expect chat support agents to intuitively know how to work with unhappy customers. They must show empathy, engage in active listening, and understand exactly what they are able to offer customers in terms of resolutions.<\/span><\/p>\n

These things require training.<\/span><\/p>\n

And they require the development of scripts, if company policies and practices are to be consistent across all agent-customer interactions. <\/span><\/p>\n

Below are the typical contact points from customers and sample responses that will help maintain your relationships with them.<\/span><\/p>\n

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