How To Set Up Live Customer Service

Set Up Live Customer Service in an Online Business (live customer support on your website)

Small businesses seeing several hundred website visitors on their site each day and receiving more than 10 or so customer inquiries a day may want to consider setting up a live customer service option on their website.  This doesn’t have to be a website visitor’s only option, however if a customer is on the verge of making a purchase and wants a question answered immediately, live customer service can reduce or eliminate shopping cart abandonment.  Here’s how to set up a live customer service option on your business website.

Step 1.  Choose a software product.  There are a large number of software options, hundreds actually, available to businesses looking to add live chat to their business website.  When evaluating products, compare price, features available, and reliability.  Purchasing a program that has too many bugs won’t help improve your customer service!  Customizable pages with your logo, colors and surveys can add to your customer’s experience. 

Step 2.  Consider ‘testing’ the software first.  It is important to make sure the program fits seamlessly into your current website software and that your money is being well spent.

Step 3.  Customize your live chat screen as much as possible.  This customization can include a photo of the customer service representative, a name, color coded responses so that the customer can separate their text from the text responses of the customer service representative.

Step 4.  Make sure that when a customer service representative is not available, the “Live customer service currently not available” icon or sign is on.  There’s nothing worse than asking for help via the live chat button and being ignored.

Step #5  Many live support products provide critical customer information.  Make sure you or your customer service representative pays attention to this information when a visitor initiates a chat. For example, it would be helpful to know that a customer is in the checkout phase of their visit. 

Adding a live chat to your business can be a huge boost in your website’s ability to close a sale and it can add to your visitor’s feeling’s as they relate to your website and your business.  We, as customers, all like to feel appreciated and it’s great to know there is someone available to answer any questions immediately.