Customer service is one of the crucial elements that can either lose or win customers. On-time, swift, and excellent customer service will help you gain customers, while the contrary will repel them from your organization.
However, when it comes to customer service, there are various subsets and elements to consider, such as live chat agents, social media presence, email, phone calls, chatbots, etc.
In today’s post, we’ll look at the role of live chat agents. We’ll talk about how live chat representatives may help a company improve its customer service, whereas unskilled live chat agents can harm the organization. And we will also learn why live chat is winning the customer support race.
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But first, let’s understand what live chat agents are in a nutshell.
Who Are The Live Chat Agents?
Live chat agents are the front-line agents of any customer support department. These are the professionals who interact with customers via customers via live chat software to resolve their complaints and queries.
Although most modern customer center technologies now include virtual agents and IVR, the necessity for live chat agents will always exist since many customers’ problems cannot be understood or handled by virtual agents and thus require human involvement.
However, in order to provide exceptional customer service strategies, live chat agents should have a variety of skills, including excellent written communication, speedy typing, multitasking, knowledge of live chat software, adaptability, and others. All of these qualities will help them in carrying out their functions effectively.
But what is the role of live chat agents, and how should they accomplish it? Let’s find out in the following section.
7 Roles of Live Chat Agents
1) To Provide The Best Customer Service Possible
The first and most important duty of live chat agents is to provide the best customer service possible. This is only possible if the agent has a customer-first attitude and a strong willingness to serve them. Moreover, as a live chat customer service professional, you should always be prepared to go the extra mile to serve your valued customers.
At the same time, as a responsible live chat agent, you should always maintain a polite tone and respond to customer inquiries clearly. Also, you must not make any misleading promises or provide them with any wrong information.
2) To Provide Correct Information To Customers
Another responsibility that live chat agents must undertake is providing accurate information to customers. In any case, agents should never provide incorrect information to customers about anything, including resolution time, corporate policy, or any possible charges. The misleading information may calm the customer during the conversation, but it will severely damage the company’s image when they learn the truth later.
To avoid this scenario, you should always give them accurate and updated information. Remember that, it is better to face the wrath of customers for a few minutes than to lose them forever.
3) To Quickly Identify The Root Of The Problem
The first step toward a resolution is identifying and recognizing the issue. All of the exercises would be pointless if you– as a live chat agent, failed to understand the customer’s problem properly. Since all the subsequent processes rely heavily on identifying the root of the problem, it is vital to assess the problem first.
If you didn’t understand the concern the first time the customer explained it to you, ask them again. Get all necessary information about the problem from the customer, such as how long they have been experiencing the issue or what measures they have taken so far, and so on. This will help you better understand and solve the problem quickly.
4) To Keep The Conversation Brief And To The Point
Another crucial job as live chat agents is to keep the conversation brief and to the point. When interacting with the customer, make sure you don’t deviate from the main issue. For example, if the customer has an issue with your specific product, you should only discuss that during the conversation and not start promoting alternate products.
It is OK to advertise your service or product to customers, but ONLY after customer concerns have been resolved. Moreover, try to keep the conversation as brief as possible so that you can attend to other customers who are waiting and there is a minimum customer queue. However, if you often experience high volume and long queues, use these best queue management software.
5) To Multitask Different Activities
As a live chat agent, you must be able to multitask since you will be required to do so all of the time. You should be able to navigate from one tool or software to another and extract and feed customer information to live chat support software, among other things.
Moreover, during the ongoing conversation, you may often need to speak with another representative who may have worked on that task earlier. In that case, you are expected to have multitasking skills to juggle between tasks and deliver the finest possible solution to the customers.
6) To Make Necessary Strategy Changes Based On Feedback
In addition to the overall team strategy, you will be required to build your own strategy too. For example, if you find that you are not very good at solving specific types of queries, you should focus on that part and figure out a solution. Also, if you notice that your productivity is low compared to other live chat agents, you should find out the cause and the solution.
Also, if you observe that your productivity is high, but your performance score is low, you should try to figure out what is going wrong – are you not following the process correctly, or is there another problem? In a nutshell, it is your responsibility as a live chat agent to make necessary improvements to your strategy and provide your best output.
7) To Stay Updated With New Technologies
To dream about providing the best customer service without using modern call center technologies is similar to swimming across an ocean without a boat– impossible. It is much likely that if you are working with a reputable organization, there must be good call center technologies in place. For this reason, knowing how to use them efficiently is critical if you want to reap the most benefits.
Not only should you be familiar with current technologies, but you should also have ideas and stay up to date on the latest call center technologies on the market. This practice will not only keep you ahead of your colleagues but will also make you a top-performing live chat agent. In a nutshell, if used correctly, live chat software can boost your business significantly.
Summing Up: The live chat agent role, like any other, comes with a wide range of responsibilities. The agent must have a customer-first attitude, be willing to solve the customer’s problem, be able to grasp the customer’s issue rapidly, keep the conversation brief and to the point, and be aware of the latest call center technologies, among other things. If an agent can perfectly carry out all of these responsibilities, they will be a valuable asset to the organization.
Paras Kela is a highly skilled SaaS content writer with over 7 years of experience in the IT field. His expertise lies in simplifying complex technical concepts for easy comprehension. With a portfolio of over 100 high-quality blogs covering various SaaS topics, Paras’s writing style is engaging, informative, and SEO-friendly, ensuring maximum effectiveness. He continuously updates his skills and knowledge to stay current with industry trends, making his writing relevant and reliable.
