Many things can change in one year, and that applies to the market and how you can interact with it. The reason for that is the fast technological development people can get to each year. However, small startups and big companies need to put an effort into adapting to those changes.
Not doing it can leave you behind your competitors, but doing it wrong is not going to bring you any profits, either. Therefore, the best you can do is adapt to all the resources that become available for you and take the most advantage you can from them.
Live chat is one of the things that has helped businesses the most in the last few years. Thanks to it, customers and prospects can communicate freely with your company without waiting too much for you to respond.
Since live chat is quickly improving and offering more features, it’s up to you to learn what the best software trends are. Here are some of them, so read on to know some live chat software trends to keep an eye on.
Live Chats Facts for 2022
You need to fully understand everything that comes with using live chat for your company before you start trying new software trends.
Learning more about live chats encourages you to improve the live chat software in your business or get one if you haven’t already. Apart from that, statistics and facts tell you what you need to focus on when taking care of something.
Here are some live chat facts for 2022:
#1 60% of Customers Want/Need a Quick Response When Reaching Out to Customer Support
If you have doubts about implementing live chat in your business, think that 60% of customers need a response at least 10 minutes after reaching out to the company’s support team. Having to wait for more than that can make them look for someone that can address their needs faster.
People want you to pay attention to them and give them a unique service, so feeling like a company doesn’t care about them as customers can make them switch to another business. Whether it’s a chat app, a chat button, or a WordPress chat plugin, these platforms help you meet your clients’ expectations in less time.
#2 85% of Businesses May Start Using Live Chat This Year
As we mentioned before, there are more technology developments each year, and those changes make live chat apps and free chatting to become more appealing to companies.
Therefore, at least 85% of businesses are expected to get live chat software in 2022, and that includes using a chat widget, a messenger plugin for their website, and any free chat on website feature they can find.
This is related to the previous fact we mentioned since the reason more companies are using live chat apps is that clients prefer getting an instant response than waiting for a support agent to answer them.
#3 Live Chat Is Ideal for Customers Between 18 and 49 Years Old
Although this may seem obvious to some people, live chat apps are more popular in companies with a target audience between 18 and 49 years old. Younger customers learned how to use different gadgets and adapt to new technologies. Thanks to that, they are more proficient with newer software trends.
Most companies aim to sell their products or services to a target audience between that age gap, so using software that makes things easier for clients of that age improves their sales in the long run. Live chat statistics show that using a WhatsApp plugin for your website is especially effective with younger leads and prospects.
Some Live Chat Software Trends in 2022
Now that you know some facts about live chats, it’s time to know some of the most important software trends regarding this matter for 2022. Prepare your company to adapt to each of them and see how it benefits you in the long run!
#1 Personalization on Customer Experiences
Regardless of the software or platform you talk about, personalization gets more important each year. People want businesses and support teams to focus on them, and making them feel you’re doing that helps you get loyal clients that stay with you for years.
However, many companies don’t know how to make customer interactions more personal or close. An effective way to do it is to study the customer’s information before addressing their concerns. That includes purchase history, account type, and any other factor regarding their account.
Some apps, such as Chaty, even have a chatbot that gives support agents all the information they need to correctly approach each client.
#2 The Rise of Digital Support Offerings
Although phone-oriented customer support was highly effective years ago, it’s not that effective these days. The reason for that is how much digital support offerings can help customers when you compare them to phone support services.
Clients are asking for more digital support offerings, and that gives you many ways to reach out to them and sell them your products. Since most customers prefer reaching out by using a free chat on a website or a chat plugin for a website, you can use that communication channel to show promotions and offer different deals.
#3 The Rise of Automation in Live Chats
One of the things that support agents complain about the most is they often have to answer the same questions every day. You can’t stop clients from having those questions since they come from a specific thing about your product or company.
However, it’s still tedious for support agents to do that, and it keeps them from addressing more complex issues. Fortunately, they don’t have to worry about that since chatbots are more common each day. Chatbots are more common in big companies than they are in startups.
Using automated live chats allows you to preset an automated response to give your customers each time they make a specific question. Thanks to that, your support agents can focus on addressing bigger problems that require logical thinking or asking another one in the company for help.
Most live chat improvements are related to how chatbots can interact with customers in a better way. Those technological developments allow the AI you use to understand more complex inquiries and offer an automated response that is helpful for the client. Some of them even collect the client’s information to make things easier for support agents.
#4 The Demand for Fast Response
Several factors have made live chats to become popular over the year, and one of them is the need for a fast response for customers. We live in a society in which people are occupied with several things at the same time and want things to come quickly to take care of everything as soon as possible.
Support agents may be enough for startups since they don’t have that many clients. However, when more leads and prospects get to your company, it’s more difficult for your agents to answer quickly.
Hiring more agents would be outrageously expensive for you in the long run. Therefore, it’s best -and more affordable- for companies to use live chat software and chatbots to address all their clients’ concerns without making them wait too long. Doing that doesn’t mean getting rid of your support agents but rather using them for more difficult things.
#5 Self-Service Options
You may think self-service is contradictory since customer support aims to help you address the matter instead of letting you solve it yourself. However, encouraging your customers to solve everything by themselves makes them feel better at the end of the day and reduces the possibility of them having a similar issue in the future.
Customer support teams can give their clients self-support options before they help them, and most customers prefer using those options before reaching out for help. You can set up your chatbot to highlight all the information you want your clients to have or to send them to a knowledge base that can help them.
Doing that is not going to 100% solve their problem, but it can help some of them to address their concerns without needing to ask you further questions. Even if it doesn’t help them, it can make it easier for the support agent to help you.
What’s Next?
If you are reading this page, you may be interested in optimizing your content, service options, or marketing strategies. One of the best ways to do that is understanding how live chat apps work and adapting to them in the best way possible.,
How to Get Started with Your Chat Widget
In a nutshell, chat widgets are little boxes in the corner of your website that allow customers or readers to quickly initiate a conversation with a support agent any time they need them. Chat widgets tend to be in the right-down corner of your website.
If you’re ready to use a chat widget, make sure you review all its options to discover if it’s a right fit for you and your company!
To try a powerful yet easy to use chat widget, check out Chaty and all its features to supercharge your website. Sign up to Chaty here!
