Money Advice Scotland Delivers Debt Advice via Live Chat

Money Advice Scotland is a registered charity and the national umbrella organisation which promotes the development of free, independent, impartial and confidential debt advice and financial inclusion.

They approached Click4Assistance earlier in 2019 looking for the best live chat provider for them, with the aim to eventually add chat to their member’s websites. Initially, they wanted to implement a web chat service to their own website.

They have clearly advertised the service on their homepage, explaining that their “advisers provide signposting to free confidential and independent advice on how to deal with debt problems” along with a link to helpful contact details.

The Web Chat Journey

Their chat channel is also very noticeable regardless of whether the online visitor is browsing the Home or Get Advice pages. The button has been enlarged from the default size and is completely tailored to the service they provide. This grabs the visitor’s attention and informs them what the chat is for.

Money Advice Scotland is sensitive to the fact that the enquirer may be worried about discussing their situation. Therefore, when the chat button is clicked a pre-chat form is displayed. This window reassures the visitor in several ways as MAS:

• explain they are here to help
• declare their chats are non-judgmental and confidential
• ask for the visitor’s name or nickname, giving them a choice to remain anonymous

The charity has opted for pop-up style windows as the visitor will remain in chat if they continue to browse the website at the same time. The dialogue window has been customised to MAS’ colour scheme and includes their logo, providing further reassurance that the visitor is speaking with the company directly.

The visitor is able to clearly see the transcript of the conversation which distinguishes between the system, agent and visitor’s messages, helping the exchange to flow easily as any of the best live chat provider should. They have a separate area to compose their message where additional functionality has been included within a toolbar, this contains:

• print the chat
• email transcript
• mute sound
• file transfer
• in-chat rating

Post-Chat Information

In-chat rating is not the only place the enquirer can leave feedback. Once the chat has ended a post-chat survey is presented to collect the visitor’s opinions about Money Advice Scotland’s service.  They have completed tailored the questions to the individual’s situation, these include:

• Is this the first time you’ve contacted someone for help with debt or money concerns?
• After chatting with us, do you feel better prepared to deal with your concerns?
• Have you found it easier to talk about your concerns via live chat compared to calling or speaking with someone face-to-face?
• If live chat wasn’t available, what would you have done instead to deal with your concerns?
• Overall rating for the service

The answers to these questions really allows Money Advice Scotland to analyse the impact of the live chat service and make improvements where needed. This can help them identify if advisers need any further training and/or whether the live chat channel needs to be operational for longer hours etc.

After the survey MAS gives the visitor a chance to be involved in their work by presenting an email sign up form. This allows them to naturally build up their mailing list whilst completely complying with GDPR as the permission request is recorded along with the chat conversation.

When MAS is Offline

When there are no advisors available, an offline form is displayed when the chat button is clicked. The form gathers the visitor’s contact details and provides them with their operational times should the individual prefer to try the chat service at another time. This is followed by another window simply confirming that their enquiry has been received and an advisor will be in contact shortly.

Click4Assistance has been working with the finance industry for over 15 years making us one of the best live chat provider for the financial sector, helping organisations to increase their online engagement by providing an instant service. For more information regarding how we can help your company, contact our team on 01268 524628.