Where Live Chat Support will not Work and why?

Live Chat Support on websites may be a great idea for most businesses but for some, it just is not a productive investment. Explained below are a few business types where Live Chat Support can have many usability and feasibility issues.

Live Chat will not be financially feasible for low priced products that are sold in low volumes. For example, take a Pizza business which takes orders online for home delivery. Now let’s suppose that a pizza costs $10, and the profit that the retailer makes on it is $5. If one online order for delivery of one pizza requires one chat with a Live Operator, then the cost of a conversation could very well take up little less than half of the retailer's profit. This Live Chat Support is evidently not cost effective for the pizza company.

Live Chat will also face unwarranted challenges in a scripted environment with strict language and wording regulations in place; a website which deals with intricate legalities & associated terminologies or a chemicals/health website which may have linguistic restrictions. For such businesses, the role of a Live Operator becomes limited to tasks such as appointment setting and/or contact details. However, a possible solution to this issue is to have explicitly scripted disclaimers as a prerequisite for web visitors to view before allowing them to initiate a conversation with a Live Operator or not.

Also, it can be very difficult to provide Live Chat Support on a website that sells high touch/high feel products like rare fabrics. Live Chat is best utilized on a website which caters to an Internet/Chat Savvy group of people. On the other hand, Live Chat's presence on a website which caters to a group of people who are not comfortable with it (limitations like age or other physical limitations can play a role) can create usability and feasibility issues.

If a website supports multiple languages and caters to a heterogeneous audience that speaks different languages, Live Chat may not prove to be the best Customer Support solution. Live Chat provided in different languages will result in increased setup and running costs of the service. This issue can be solved by offering Live Chat service in English only, and apologizing nicely to the rest. You may also slowly add other languages for the Live Chat Support.

Live Operators need to be looking at a screen to be able to greet all web visitors. Live Chat Support in an environment where operators are being asked to perform other tasks too, Live Chat support might not be practical. If Live Chat Operators are also involved in day-to-day office activities like meetings, phone calls and emails then Live Chat Support may be unavailable at times which can bother your web visitors. It is best if you have dedicated personnel for your Live Chat Services; it is worth mentioning that keeping a quality management system alongside your service is definitely in the best interest of business with high traffic volume being served.

For more information; chat with one of our Live Chat Operators or call 312-546-4114 to speak to a Business Development Manager.

2011-01-11T14:23:28