Increasing Millennial Feedback Through Live Chat Customer Service

Live chat has proven to be an important customer service offering especially amongst younger generations. According to a survey from the Unified Communications research and recommendations firm Software Advice, 56 percent of respondents aged 18 to 34 prefer live chat to phone, compared to 27 percent of respondents aged 35 and older.

While age is perhaps the biggest factor in the preference for live chat, it is actually an extremely successful customer service tool overall. An ATG Global Consumer Trend study (PDF) found that 90 percent of customers consider live chat helpful. An emarketer.com survey found that 63 percent were more likely to return to a website that offers live chat and that 38 percent of respondents said they had made their purchase due to the chat session itself.

One of the main goals in business is to reduce barriers for your customers; you want to make it easy for them to make a purchase or to sign up for a service. Live chat provides customers a fast and easy way to connect which makes it more likely that your customers will reach out when they need something. Think of it as an easy bridge that is immediately available to help customers move forward when they are stuck. This bridge helps customers complete the final transactional steps and gives them more confidence in their purchasing decisions.

Live chat not only makes it easier for customers to contact you with questions, but it also provides an easy avenue for them to offer direct feedback. Customers will ask questions that provide insight into their doubts, concerns, and pain points and they will likely also offer insightful comments. This will allow you to continually improve your products and services as well as the way you market them to your customers.

When offering a communication channel that people are comfortable with or find easy to use, they are more likely to use it. Plain and simple: making it easy for millennials to connect with you will drive more fresh insight and feedback to you, allowing you to continually improve your business. Millennials are the rising consumer class. Their questions, comments, and feedback will be valuable in keeping your business relevant and up to date.

In comparison to other common methods of customer support communication such as email and phone, live chat has proven to be the preferred method for millennials. Millennials grew up with technology at their fingertips - literally. They are used to texting, emailing, and chatting online which is part of what makes live chat so convenient for them. Phone calls are less a part of their day-to-day communications than it was for older generations.

People are often reluctant to pick up the phone for fear of being pressured when they're not ready to make a purchase or for the call to take longer than they want. Live chat provides an easy out; it's easier to say thank you and goodbye and to end the conversation and it's also easier to start it. Plus, the convenience of chatting online eliminates the need to navigate through an extensive menu of phone options and to wait on hold until someone can help. In comparison to email, live chat provides instant gratification and helps the customer at the exact moment they need it.

More and more businesses are beginning to offer live chat to better serve their customers and themselves. For example, live chat is commonly offered as a contact center solution which allows customer service agents to help multiple customers at once. It is also commonly seen on websites in a variety of industries that sell products or services such as e-commerce, software and web hosting for example.

Live chat is generally an add-on service that can be integrated into a company's existing customer relationship management (CRM) software. Transcripts can be saved and categorized so they can be used as a data source to identify trends. The questions and feedback gathered through live chat are valuable data that will help you learn about your audience, what they are looking for and what they're concerned about. From there, your team can use this information to continually improve your products, services, marketing strategy and how you serve your customers overall.

Linda Halabi is a creative writer and photographer who currently writes content on behalf of the contact center solutions experts at KOVA Corporation.