Please, please, please don’t implement web chat into your contact centre if you’re not going to do it properly.
Speaking as a user, not a marketer, this is the most frustrating experience I think I can experience.
Maybe I’m on the phone already, maybe I don’t feel like talking to anybody today or maybe it’s just quicker than holding in the queue but web chat shouldn’t just be a handy tool but a powerful weapon for businesses. So, don’t shoot yourself in the foot with it.
Web chat is great. I can navigate to your website, talk to someone in seconds and, in theory, resolve my one-off query just like that. CSAT through the roof, bills continue to be paid on time and I’ll likely come back and buy another product.
Where does it go wrong?
What happens when it’s more than just a quick fix? A complex query, if you like. I am asked to email something in for review or the selected agent isn’t the correct person to deal with my issue.
“Thanks Rosie, can you check you’ve got my email and let me know the outcome? No? What do you mean no? Come on, Rosie.”
Or the second example:
“Okay Jim, can you transfer me to them or get them to give me a call? No again? Well there was me thinking web chat was great and we were getting along fine, Jim.”
You see, adding that web chat icon to your website and getting someone to field the queries isn’t the end. Far from it.
Each channel needs to marry up.
If you called Rosie outside of a contact centre environment and she asked you to email her, you’d expect her to have access to that email. Rosie asked you, don’t forget. So, now you must wait for someone in the “email team” to pick that up and get back to you – this could take 5 days, Rosie informs you.
Worst-case scenario should be that Rosie doesn’t have access to that inbox but can Instant Message her colleague to confirm receipt and check everything is okay.
Finding the right person
You’ve got through to Jim. He’s friendly enough but he’s just not the right man to help you. You accept this and ask nicely to be put through to someone that can help. He refuses and you must ring around the houses and sit in the queue trying to find the right person, making the web chat redundant.
Jim should be able to transfer that web chat to his colleague or his supervisor or put a call back in that person’s queue. Again, worst-case scenario is that he must Instant Message the right person to get them to call me back.
Losing the human element
From the outside, it appears that agents are hiding behind poor technology and using this as an excuse to deliver poor customer experience.
If you were having a conversation with this person face to face, the behaviour simply would not be the same.
I used to work in House of Fraser in the TV department. If a customer needed help with clothes or teapots or jewellery, I didn’t say I couldn’t help them or couldn’t help them find someone. I didn’t say submit a request via the suggestions box and wait until it’s reviewed. I tried to help and if I couldn’t, I went and found the right person. It’s just what you do.
A win for UCaaS providers
Luckily, working in the UCaaS and CCaaS space, I know poor technology is no longer an excuse. I can even offer help for these companies that I am suffering poor service from.
Software platforms are available at the click of a button and will remedy this instantly. A good UC platform will connect all the users in the business, no matter where they are.
A CC platform will integrate with this and provide a true multi-channel experience. Agents will know everything they need to about that incoming customer and be able to check back on emails and interactions as and when they need to.
There’s no need to put you on hold for 20 minutes and no need for you to open a web chat then send an email to just sit in a queue and tweet in anger as you wait to get through.
Luckily, the /unified-communications/ucaas market is vast and mature. There is a multitude of vendors with great products that solve these problems day in day out.
Technology is not the excuse when it comes to web chat. Technology is the enabler. Just please do it properly.
Don’t implement web chat in your contact centre unless you’re fully committed.
Dominic Kent is the Product Marketing Manager at IP Solutions and runs whatmillennialswant.co.uk. Find Dominic on LinkedIn and on Twitter.
Image: Rosie & Jim Source & Copyright: Granada TV
