SEO Reseller News: Live Chat Most Satisfying Customer Support Channel

The best white label SEO reseller consultants are always looking for new ways to help clients. Some are fortunate that their private label SEO provider is up to date and offers new services – and removes outdated ones from the menu – whenever necessary.  Some providers have free reports that consultants present to their client during the initial consultation. But here’s something you should look into: live chat. 

Live chat is the most satisfying customer support channel. (eDigitalResearch)

Among a number of popular customer service channels, live chat support emerged as most preferred. According to the newly released Customer ServiceBenchmark by eDigitalResearch, live chat support has a satisfaction rate of 73%. This means nearly three in every four customers who use this channel are satisfied with the response they get from the business. Wouldn’t you want your SEO reseller business to have this kind of customer support satisfaction?

Live Chat Posts Highest Satisfaction Rate

According to the Customer Service Benchmark, which surveyed 2,000 nationally representative consumers, live chat leads email (61%) and app (53%) for the channel with highest satisfaction levels. This figure is significant for SEO resellers primarily because of a few factors. First, the rate is quite high at 73% – nearly three-fourths of users like it. Second, it beats other channels by at least ten percentage points. Finally, it’s important because only 24% of consumers have used live chat in the past year.

“Live chat currently has the highest satisfaction levels. Whilst currently, there are only a smaller number of customers using this method… those that have are predominantly satisfied with their experience suggesting that use of the channel is likely to grow,” the report said.

Phone, Email: Most ‘Expected’ Channels

While only one in four consumers currently use live chat, people expect businesses to have this customer service channel. At least 30% of respondents said they expect live chat service from businesses they deal with. But compared with other channels, this percentage is only a fraction.

Email and phone are most expected support channels. (eDigitalResearch)

Most consumers (90%) expect businesses and brands to have email support. This is even if only 85% of consumers actually use email for their concerns. The second most “expected” channel is phone support with an 87% expectation rate. There’s little discrepancy between expectation and usage when it comes to phone support as 85% of consumers use this channel. 

For a white label SEO reseller, the lesson here is simple. Your business needs the most basic support channels: email and phone. However, you need to consider including live chat on your website as its popularity is expected to grow in the future and because it has such a high satisfaction rate. 

Caution on Opening Live Chat on Your Website

There are a handful of live chat tools and services available in the market today, ranging from free and simple messaging apps to expensive enterprise-class video-enabled systems. For a private label online marketing reseller, perhaps you can start with a simple messaging tool. After all, you can conduct in-depth consultation via Skype, phone, or personally. This service is primarily for prospects that are interested in scheduling a consultation with you but may have questions that require immediate answers. 

Consumers expect immediate response from live chat support. (eDigitalResearch)

Before you start live chat support though, remember these two things. First, 64% of consumers expect to wait only one minute or less to speak to an agent via live chat. Second, 12% of consumers who used this channel experienced an error. This means you need to test the tool for speed and errors if you are to permanently use one to address customer or prospect concerns. You also need to respond quickly with at least a greeting like “Hello, I’m <name>. Good morning! How can I help you today?”

Providers of Live Chat Tools and Services

Most likely you already have phone and email support so here’s a short list of resources that can help you use live chat to support your customers.

• WP Beginner has a nice guide on how to howto add a free live chat in WordPress. You want to read this too if you want to know how you can add a Skype button to your website. “You cannot integrate Skype into your website. However, you can integrate a button on your WordPress site to show your Skype contact and display your availability,” WP said.
•  Web design magazine Designrazzi compiled the 45+ BestFree WordPress Chat Plugins.
• If you want to know howto install Pure Chat on your site, read this.
• Here’s a reviewof the 7 top live chat software solutions according to The Daily Egg. Among the products reviewed here are LivePerson, Com100 live Chat, and LiveHelpNow.

Nothing Beats Great SEO Service

While having a triumvirate of customer support channels – email, phone, and live chat – will help customers reach you better and vice-versa, nothing still beats providing highquality outsourced SEO services. So before your focus on customer service channels, your main objective should be to find a provider that will be able to represent your brand and your business. If you provide quality service to clients via your trusted provider, maybe you wouldn’t even have to use so many channels for customer support. You won’t have much complaints to deal with in the first place.