I’m not trying to say that all businesses should go for 24/7 live support service. The fact is, although being always available to your customers is a really good thing, it is not for and not necessary for everyone.
Today, let’s talk about the benefits of 24/7 support service and which type of business should be at it as well as how you can utilize it to have the unrivaled support service.
What are the benefits of 24/7 live support?
Since providing around the clock support is not easy, it in return brings many huge benefits to your business.
Firstly it reduces the downtime that your customers might have to be suffered from when waiting for your next working hours. Downtime can wreck customer’s nerve when they are encountering serious problems that need prompt support. By being always available, you’ll have more satisfied customers, covert more and get rid of the lost sales opportunities.
Secondly, 24/7 support brings your business an effective communication with customers that comfort your customers at the right time. Your customers will be satisfied with on-demand assistance. They’ll leave your website with the total peace of mind after receiving a real time response in a matter of minutes.
In short, 24/7 support gains you a top-position in customer’s mind to stay on par with the competitors. You’ll be remembered even after customers buy from you. If they haven’t, 24/7 support adds much value in your brand to make customers put their purchase decision in your business.
Which type of business should offer 24/7 support?
You might need to be operated in support 24/7 when you sell online globally. Selling globally means you have different customers from different time zones and they’ll online and buy from different times. So, if there are major sales from diverse regions with great gap in time zones, you should consider 24/7 support on your website – especially live chat (which is more convenient and efficient than phone support).
Some other industries which are much more beneficial when providing 24/7 support because their market is “never-sleeping” are the foreign exchange market, online hosting, worldwide trading or travel and booking, etc.
So are you running an online selling website? Yes? Before getting panic searching for a solution for 24/7 support, the next step is asking yourself these questions to see if you really need it:
- What are your customer’s needs? Do they want their problems get resolved in minutes? Which types of questions often need real-time support?
- Do your market and competitors have orientation towards time-limit problem solving? If being quick in support is really a huge winning point over your competitors, you can go for it.
- What hours do most of your sales/transactions/visitors get done via your site? If they do not differentiate much, you can rest assured that full-time support is not necessary.
- What is the cost of sales in comparison with cost of 24/7 support? Do you have more value when applying full-time support?
How to deliver a perfect 24/7 support?
Prepare an emergency contact number if you’re providing 24/7 phone support. This emergency number should always be active and you can assign it to an agent who can answer phone calls to this number even they are away from the help desk after work.
Install live chat support on your website and turn it on all the time. Live chat is very good in solving pre-sales questions. Plus, an agent can answer many chat inquiries at the same time so you will not lose your customers to your competitors when they want to ask about your product and service before buying.
Hire remote agents for after-working-hour support. These agents can take charge of your support queries without having to come to your office. Plus, your working-at-office agents can take a break from their work without loading too much stress for dealing all day with your customers.
Always be fast in replying and resolving customer’s problems. 24/7 live support won’t mean a thing if it’s slow. I mean, reading your sign “Were online. Ask us anything” and then have to wait for minutes even hours for support doesn’t make me feel good and trust in your business. It’s worse when you’ve been chatting or talking for hours but the solution is nowhere to reach.
If you want to offer full-time support, make sure your agents can promptly reply customers and providing them a solution quickly.
Wrapping up
Til now I hope that you know if 24/7 live support service is appropriate for your business. If you don’t need it, you don’t have to stretching your team for it. An alternative for 24/7 support is providing pro-active support where you take lead in solving your customer’s problems before they need it.
After all, what your customers want from your service is the confidence and having satisfaction when buying from you.
However, if 24/7 is suitable for you, don’t miss it out to set yourself apart from your competitors!
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