Why Chat is an Important Part of Your CX Strategy

Let’s Chat.  

A good customer experience strategy reinforces company values, strengthens your competitive edge, retains customers, generates referrals, boosts employee retention, and much more. When developing your CX strategy, you need to take inventory of your existing service channels to ensure that you are providing your customers with the interaction points and methods that they expect.

I sat down with Denese Waiters, Omnichannel Practice Leader at J.D. Power to get her perspective on the omnichannel customer experience in general, and to explore one specific channel that can benefit your customers and your business.

Q: To kick things off, Denese, how do you define omnichannel?  

Denese: “Omnichannel can be defined as the focus on optimizing customer journeys across customer service channels to provide seamless customer-centric interactions. A good omnichannel strategy delivers better outcomes by enabling customers to connect on-demand and via many touchpoints.”

Q: What are customer expectations for an excellent omnichannel service experience?  

Denese: “Customer expectations are constantly changing, but ultimately, there are a few factors that generally remain the same. We find that the top drivers of satisfaction include Knowledge, Courtesy, Concern for customer needs, Clarity of information, Timeliness of resolution, and Promptness (in speaking with or communicating with the brand).”
 
Q: Now that we’ve teased that out, let’s dive into a specific channel that has business and customer benefits, and that channel is Chat.  What factors do customers consider when choosing to Chat instead of contacting a brand via other channels like phone?

Denese: “Overall, customers seek a personalized, low effort experience – no matter the channel. However, the drivers of the experience shift in importance based on the channel selected and what the customer wants to achieve at that point in time. When it comes to Chat, customers want convenience, real-time interaction, the ability to multitask, and a speedy response.

Live Chat is growing in popularity and Top Performers are stepping up to the plate, particularly with response times. In a recent review of operational data, we found that Top Performers responded to online Chat requests in 19 seconds or less. In comparison, these same Top Performers answered calls in queue in 57 seconds or less.”

Q: You mention that Live Chat is growing in popularity. What is the ROI for offering Live Chat?

Denese: “Chat can be a very cost-effective way to serve. It is generally less expensive than the phone channel because of the ability to support more than one customer simultaneously. Like the phone channel, it also affords the opportunity to personalize each conversation. ROI, and customer satisfaction, can be further increased with readily available technology that supports intelligent routing, co-browsing, and the ability to send screenshots, videos, and links to prepared knowledge-based content.”  

Q: Sounds like all brands that aren’t offering Live Chat should consider adding it to their omnichannel strategy. Correct?  

Denese: “Live Chat should be a consideration for all companies that want to reduce the cost to serve and increase time to resolution. Brands should solicit feedback directly from customers to understand their desire for using this channel and/or identify areas where chat might resolve shortfalls in their existing channel strategy.

As customer expectations evolve, so should your omnichannel strategy. Brands should consistently assess their omnichannel strategy to evaluate how each channel performs individually and collectively to determine whether there are gaps in the mix that could be better address customer needs.”

If you’re challenged with evaluating or improving your omnichannel strategy and becoming a Top Performer, connect with our team today to get started. 

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