The Pro’s And Con’s Of Live Chat Support For E-Commerce Sites

By | 5 August 2016
2 Minute Read

Friendly support or sale losing nuisance?

Should you include a live chat support feature on your e-commerce website? Some websites have them, while others don’t. They have some advantages, but they also have some disadvantages. What is right for your business? Let’s take a look at some of the advantages and disadvantages.

Pros

  • By having live chat support you will be offering a better service for your customers. They will be able to get answers to their questions right away when they are browsing your site.
  • Live chat is often easier for visitors to use because you don’t have to go through any cumbersome “press one if…” menus.
  • Most live chat agents are often able to help two or three people at the same time.
  • The chat window pops up pro-actively, like helpful salesperson. This might stop someone who is having trouble from clicking away from your site.
  • You can check the chat log files to quickly get a feeling for the quality of the support you are offering.
  • You can take a look at the questions that customers are asking and if one common issue keeps coming up, you can adjust your website in order to deal with it.

Cons

  • Customers who are not too computer savvy might not like it or understand how to use it. You will probably also need to offer phone support as well. Many people don’t type very well so communicating via phone is a lot easier for them.
  • It doesn’t work as well on mobile platforms and might not be supported.
  • Sometimes people find the pop up chat window annoying and it might negatively affect their experience on your page.
  • Some customers might waste your customer service rep’s time with prank chats. However, if this happens you can block the person.
  • If the chat support agent doesn’t react quickly this can be frustrating to your customer.
  • Of course, you will need to pay to implement the chat support and pay the customer service agents – so there is the cost to factor in.

These are just a few of the factors to consider if you are looking to implement live chat support on your website. Take the time to look into your options to see if this type of customer service is right for you and will benefit your website and help you customers.