The rise of the chatbot is one that we cannot let go unnoticed. Every website will have to believe in the long run, if you don’t do yet, do so! Chabot is a welcome addition to your customer service because it has many advantages.
However, a real, live chat agent also has essential qualities that are indispensable in excellent customer service. In this article, we are going to discuss a very simple question “which approach works best: chatbots or live chat agents?”
How ChatBot (Actually) Works
Chatbots work with AI, a technology that works responsively answered with pre-imported information. Because we tell the software which questions and variations can be asked and all possible answers, AI can help the customer without the need for a real person.
The result: the customer is helped faster, and your staff does not spend (or less) time on it. This leads to two things, (hopefully) higher customer satisfaction and lower costs. Both are incredibly valuable for every company. Can the real chat agent compete for that?
The chat agent: human contact
The real chat agent offers an aspect that is invaluable for your customer retention: human contact. Although not everyone wants to talk to a real person these days, because many of us want to remain as anonymous as possible, there are always people who don’t want to be involved with new technologies. For example, older target groups are hardly catching up with it.
It is also possible that the customer has a problem that cannot be solved. Sometimes, it is very personal whether you are incredibly angry for a specific reason or disappointment. In such a case, a “real” chat agent is indispensable. Because a machine cannot sense the emotion in our voice, whether it is spoken or written. Moreover, if you cannot estimate how the person on the other hand feels, you cannot respond correctly.
So, What is the Best Option?
If “cheap” is your strategy, your goal is probably to get a few questions as possible. Perhaps you have little or no customer service staff. A chatbot is perfect: it answers all questions so that your team does not have to. It is a good idea to use a chatbot in combination with a FAQ or frequently asked questions page.
If this is your strategy, it is essential to make sure that it works well. That means, you always have to keep track of and analyze the questions that the customer enters in the search field on your website. Therefore, you know what is being asked and what you need to answer. If you do not do that, your customer will feel neglected.
If your goal is mainly to bind the customer to you, you should choose live chat agents. This is the approach that much more expensive generally. It is associated with more costs, but we will let you know how to save the money with the chat agents later in this article. So, keep reading!
Chat agent quickly gives you higher customer retention. It gives the customer a human touch, a real feeling. A numb robot cannot do this.
Responding to sensitive issues can quickly go wrong and cause frustration and irritation for the customer if it is done by a chatbot. AI cannot investigate where a particular problem has arisen, for example, if a package is missing. We, humans, can. We have an intelligence that cannot be transferred to computers.
Also, it is because we have emotion, intuition, and insight. We can, therefore, estimate a situation much better, as we mentioned earlier in this article. A chatbot is perfect for frequently asked questions and problems because it can provide a preset answer, which certainly provides a solution to the problem.
Human agents are there for the more complex issues: tracing packages that have not arrived, making analyzes and calming the client and meeting them when they are outraged. Besides, a chatbot can sometimes misspell or misunderstand spelling errors and poor grammar, which often means that a chat agent must still be involved.
It can quickly become costly to opt for only chat agents. However, what if I let you know that today, you can get a live chat agent service that works with Cost per Acquisition (CPA) Model?
That way, you only pay the agent, when the agent makes sales or when the customer does a specific action after the chat (e.g., sign up for a free trial, and more). The sales revenue are most likely to increase while you can still control the acquisition cost very well. Contact us today before your competitor does!