Don’t ever drag your phone agent to a chat agent position. If you do, make sure they are specially trained for that. Support via live chat can be challenging. Charming voice or polished appearance is to no use in this case.

Any live chat agent all has some soulless texts on the dull screen. Still, they have to engage a bunch of demanding customers, make them feel welcome and create the most friendly atmosphere in a restrained text-based manner.

Are you struggling with hiring the right live chat agent? Here are 6 qualities you should look for in an outstanding applicant.

1. An live chat agent = A real human being

You are definitely not hiring a robot. If you do, you are not reading this article. Everyone knows a chat agent must be a human being. So, am I stating the obvious here?

Actually no. A human being, flesh and blood, can sound like a robot sometimes with their overuse of canned responses. This would smash your attempt to build trust and create a friendly interaction in your customer service. A good chat agent is the one who knows how to balance between the use of canned and free-style responses to sound like a real human over the texts.

2. Speedy in reaction

This probably goes without saying. Advertised as a type of real-time service, live chat support should not fail to deliver prompt responses. It requires chat agents to be good at multitasking and speedy typing. Speedy, yet no compromise to spelling or grammar mistake is allowed.

Replies must be kept short and sweet as well. No rants or wordy greeting. A good chat agent goes straight to solve the problem and focuses on being of real help. A study by TELUS International shows that the best chat agent can respond within 30 seconds.

3. A product know-it-all

What makes a fallible chat agent? The one who transfers most of their chats to other agents, simply because they don’t have the answers. If being funny is optional, being knowledgeable is a must in live chat support.

The people behind your chat software must know your product/service inside out. This saves time and boosts efficiency. Customers don’t have stay mad in the long waiting line while your ill-informed agents wade through heaps of product manual before they can come up with a proper (or not) answer. Trust me, you wouldn’t want to deal with any angry customer for that lame reason.

4. A hidden salesperson

A good live chat agent gives correct answers but an excellent one goes beyond that. They serve as a hidden salesperson to throw out up-sell/cross-sell offers at perfect time. They know what questions to ask in order to uncover needs and provide solution before customers even think about it.

A live chat agent with basic marketing skills/knowledge is a golden one. If those applicants are hard to grab, make sure you give your new recruits some proper training before sending them out into the field.

5. An excellent communicator

Dealing with customers through chat is no easy task. Voice and gesture are deemed lost in this context and it’s hard to express oneself properly with texts only. A perfect chat agent is the one who can communicate perfectly despite those restraints.

They must know how to choose the appropriate tone and set the pleasant atmosphere during the whole chat session. A listening skill is also crucial. If you are pulling your current staff to live chat support, choose someone with previous experience in handling emails or support tickets is a good idea.

6. A stress master

If you ever try being a chat agent for one day, you’ll be surprised with the amount of work they have to handle within minutes or even seconds. It’s easy to get tired out and cranky when there is a continuous flow of on-edge customers itching to get their issues solved.

If you don’t have enough energy to cope with that, it’s easy to mess things up. Working as a chat agent is no doubt stressful. Make sure your new recruits are able to handle stress gracefully. Or else, their exhaustion would reflect on your plummeting customer satisfaction.

Customer service can make or break your business. Live chat support or not, always be careful when you choose the representatives for your brand.

Are you not happy with your current customer service? Why not give it a boost by implementing live chat solution right now?

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