Live customer support - Knowing what to do and when

This article is based upon the perception of the person behind the live customer support. When should he used a smiley while being engaged with a person through live customer support! The person needs to be equipped with the techniques of judging the person behavior or mood behind the computer whose he chatting with.

Although it seems like such a simple decision to make in live customer support, i.e. whether to use a smiley or not, when it comes to chatting live with potential customers this simple decision becomes a tricky one.

Consider the following situations for the many little technicalities involved in live customer support:

Live Customer support On a law website:

Live Greeter: Welcome to Law Firm. How may I help you today?
Web Visitor: my son got arrested last night for a traffic violation. What can I do? Live Greeter: live Chat smily we are here to help.

In the above situation, Live Greeter’s decision to use a smiley was inappropriate for the situation. If the Greeter wanted to show understanding and support, there were many other ways to do it with words rather than using a smiley. For example:

Live Greeter: Welcome to Law Firm. How may I help you today?
Web Visitor: my son got arrested last night for a traffic violation. What can I do? Live Greeter: I’m really sorry to hear that, but don’t worry - we are here to help.

In many cases, it is not the actual business model of live customer support that matters as much as each particular situation. Also, the tone of the web visitor can give many clues to the mood of the conversation. In a live chat, a Greeter must be careful towards these little indications to understand overall mood of the conversation. Consider, for example, the situation below for the same business model but a different type of visitor, situation and overall mood of the conversation:

Live Greeter: Welcome to Law Firm. How may I help you today?
Web Visitor: Hello there! Something hilarious happened yesterday and I got a traffic ticket! I want to fight my ticket … what should I do?
Live Greeter: livechat smily I can totally identify with that, and you’ve come to the right place. Live Greeter: We are here to help you fight your traffic tickets.

In the end, as our experience in training Live Greeters has taught us, there is-not hard and fast rule that can be set for using a smiley or not using one. It all comes down to basic common sense.

Beauty consultants can advise consumers about products according to their skin type and tone, hair type, skin sensitivity etcetera.

Just as the Online Beauty Industry is growing at an unprecedented rate, so will the use of Live Chat in this industry - because personal connection with your online consumers is the way for future growth and success.
Why wait to create that personal connection with your web visitors?

April 14, 2008 | Filed Under Articles

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