If you are a small business owner, then you must be aware of how crucial it is to have good customer service. Not only does it ensure customer satisfaction, but it also helps you with customer retention.
When it comes to customer service, you have two options to choose from: chat support or phone support. While both of them have their own perks, they also come with a set of cons. To help you understand it better, I’ll explain what those pros and cons are in this article. Let’s dive in!
Chat Support and Phone Support – What’s Common Between the Two?
Before I share the distinct pros and cons of both chat support and call support, let’s see what is common between these two. Firstly, as obvious as it is, both of these are great means of providing great customer support. Both the chat and phone support are bound to allow you to give customers a great response once they reach out to you.
Another thing is that they require a reliable internet connection. They both use software to carry out chats and phone calls and the software relies entirely on an internet connection. So either way, you will need a good internet service before you proceed with either one of the two.
Many companies offer both chat and phone support to cater to their customers. Xfinity is one of the largest telecom service providers in the US, having more than 180 stores nationwide. Besides that, customers can also reach out to Xfinity customer service through chat or phone for any queries related to internet plans, upgrades, cancellations and more.
Live Chat Support
The name is pretty self-explanatory. If your company opts to provide live chat support, then there will be no vocal communication between your customer support representative and your customer. The communication will be done entirely via chat. This helps people who have social anxiety and it can also help your customer service representative communicate better with your customer.
Pros of Having Live Chat Support
- 24/7 availability and coverage: You can offer chat support round the clock. You may split your customer service representatives into shifts so that you can make it easier for reps to provide customer service 24/7.
- Gives better cost efficiency: One thing that gives chat support a greater edge is that it can cater to multiple people at once, without your customers having to wait in a virtual line. This way, you can avoid customer frustration.
- Proactive approach: Providing customer support through chat support has a proactive approach to it. It is relatively easier than having to talk to an angry customer on the phone, therefore chat support can be a lot more productive.
- Transcripts are easier to analyze: Once you are done with a chat, it is easier to analyze the transcript once you are done with the chat in case the issue still persists. You can then work on providing another solution.
- Integration of automated responses: To further speed up the process, you can also add automatic responses and chatbots to your live chat experience. Anything that the chatbot cannot handle can be done by a human representative.
Cons of Having Live Chat Support
- Issue Complexities: If your customer isn’t clear about the issue they are facing, it can be difficult for your representative to cater to them. This happens because of a lack of understanding of what the problem is.
- Less Personalized: Since there is no vocal communication, your customers may feel like they are talking to a robot or a computer. Due to this, it creates an impersonal sense of customer service. While this may not be a big issue, it could still be one for some people.
- Chat Abandonment: It is very likely that if your representative comes across a frustrated or confused customer, the customer might abandon the chat, deeming your customer service useless.
Phone Support
Phone support has been around for as long as I can remember. A customer would call the helpline and have to wait a couple of minutes in a virtual waiting line until their number came up and they could communicate their problem.
It has always been an effective way of customer service and even today, a lot of companies not only practice it but also prefer having it as their means of customer support.
Pros of Having Phone Support
- A more personal connection: Since the customer gets to talk to a representative through vocal communication, having phone support is more of a personalized experience for them. It also allows the representative to read emotions of the customer to help them better.
- Complex issues are better resolved: Talking on call makes it easier for the customer to explain their issue no matter how complex it may be. In this way, the representative can help the customer in a better way.
- Faster resolution: Since there is rapid communication, the customer service representative can help the customer faster.
- Calls can be recorded for analysis: You can record the calls to analyze them later and give better customer service next time.
Cons of Having Phone Support
- Lower efficiency levels: Considering the fact that an agent can only take one call at a time, there is less relative level as compared to the costs that you put in providing chat support.
- Some companies don’t offer 24/7 service: This forces many customers opt for chat support instead.
- There is a waiting line: No one likes to stand in a line whether it is a physical one or a virtual one. Call support usually demands a waiting line, which can be annoying for the customer.
A Bonus Pointer
If you really want to give the perfect customer experience, then you should opt for both streams. This may appear as a burden for small businesses that don’t have enough labor force to manage both. But with a little workaround, this will ensure more productivity at your end and you will have more satisfied customers! Other than satisfaction, you will also ensure customer retention.
Lexy Summer is a talented writer with a deep passion for the art of language and storytelling. With a background in editing and content creation, Lexy has honed her skills in crafting clear, engaging, and grammatically flawless writing.
