Website chat software is becoming much more popular with online stores and organisations in the UK.  Much has written about its convenience and versatility as well as the ongoing development of the software, but is it much cheaper and more cost effective to use website chat software rather than offer phone support?

Even most organisations that use website chat software have not yet decided to ditch phone support though there are signs that this may happen in the future 

When comparing overall costs it’s important to compare like with like. The best live chat software has been particularly popular to date with businesses that run a call centre – for obvious reasons.  It’s expected that its usage may even reach 50% of online businesses with a couple of years which would be a considerable progression.

One of the reasons for the uptake is its popularity with younger people

The younger generation lives connected and are online 24/7 in many cases; much of the positive feedback on website chat software has been from the younger generation.  However, its overall popularity and usage is now more widespread than 2 years ago as its convenience is now becoming more evident.

Statistically, web chat software for businesses is a third more cost effective than being purely phone driven. 

However, this may also depend on how many simultaneous chat sessions a customer service representative is able to conduct.  The 33% saving on cost relies on the agent being able to conduct 3 chats simultaneously.  One of the intangible features of web chat compared to a phone call is that, although ultimately cheaper, chat sessions can often be twice as long as users engage in many different ways and pause in between chatting.  However, this does give customer service agents the ability to multi-task with other users.

The ability to drive down costs and length of sessions for website chat software is also linked to the effectiveness of businesses to link data with CRM.  The quicker CRM data can be accessed the more concisely and speedily queries can be answered correctly.  This also serves to benefit the overall customer satisfaction with online chat software.

Click4Assistance has been providing live chat software since 2004.  Not only is our online software highly customisable but we can offer bespoke solutions and installations.  Speak to our team to see how it can benefit your business.  Contact us for further information.