Solving Technical Issues With Live Chat

There are many advantages for choosing live chat over phone as your technical support channel. Before I get on to explaining the benefits of solving technical issues with live chat, I’ll explain what most people are looking for when they contact customer support with their technical issues.

First off, consumers want fast problem resolution. If they’ve just paid to use your service, they expect to be able to use it. Even if it’s a free service they’ll be pretty annoyed if you’ve enticed them in only for them to be stop dead in their tracks at the final hurdle. At the ‘Register’ or ‘Pay’ button.

Secondly, consumers want their technical support to be online. For online services in particular it just makes sense that they can get their problem solved where they have experienced it. Did you know that 90% of consumers will always check a website before emailing or calling a company?

Thirdly, consumers want to engage with a real person. Being passed from automated robot to automated robot on the phone just won’t do. This isn’t just the case for technical issues but it is of a slightly higher importance for them. How can a robot be expected to reword some steps of a solution when the customer doesn’t understand? 67% of customers hang up on the phone due to not being able to talk to a real person.

The fourth and final criteria that a customer is looking for from technical support is, of course, a solution to their problem. 88% of consumers are less likely to buy from companies who leave complaints unanswered.

So that’s what customers want, but why is live chat an ideal solution for solving technical issues? To better explain this I’ll use one of our clients, the British Film Institute, as an example. If you’re interested in reading the full case study on the work we’ve done with the British Film Institute, click here.

For the BFI, we provide technical support on their new video on-demand service, the BFI Player, via live chat and email. We solve all manner of technical issues, from customers having trouble logging in to a film not playing for them; we get some great feedback from both the BFI management and their customers.

So here’s why live chat works so well for the BFI Player and all manner of technical support:

Firstly, live chat can provide fast problem resolution. Live chat is there on site to provide support where customers need it, with help a click away and no need to be put on hold. For all of our chats, our UK based live chat agents aim to reply to messages within 20 seconds so that problem resolution is fast for the customer. If for some reason we can’t solve a problem from within the chat, we solve it after the chat and get back to the customer with a solution via email within a couple of hours.

Secondly, it’s where the BFI Player users need it, online. The service is solely online and all issues are related to the website, their log in details, payment errors or their computer/tablet/phone. As I’ve already said, solving technical issues with live chat means solving them when and where they happen.

Thirdly, our live chat agents are human, of course. Customers want to interact with a human and they get that through the BFI Player live chat. All of our agents are based in the UK and are trained to keep the conversation friendly and…well…human. They of course get the occasional “Are you a robot?” but after a few trivia questions and some empathetic assistance they soon prove they are human and provide the quality service that the customer wants.

Fourth and final, customers get a solution to their problem. Our target for the British Film Institute’s Player service is a 90% problem resolution. We continuously achieve above that, and as I stated before, if a solution isn’t provided within a live chat conversation then it is provided shortly after via email. We also have an on-going learning process where all agents are updated on any new problem and its solution.

Providing an excellent technical support service is crucial in today’s world of high customer experience expectations. After all, it takes 12 positive experiences to make up for one unresolved negative experience, and loyal customers are worth 10 times as much as their first purchase. Customers need to be kept happy and retained through the fast and reliable technical support which they desire. For all the reasons I’ve listed and more, live chat is perfect for solving technical issues and leaving your customers satisfied.