In a fast-paced consumerist world where everyone expects quick and effective assistance when seeking customer support, businesses invest in call center support services and customer service channels that can promise accessibility, promptness, and convenience. One good example of this is live chat support. It allows customers to reach out to businesses without having to dial the phone and be put on hold while waiting for a customer service representative to be available.

Among all success metrics that you can use to measure your live chat support s effectiveness, first contact resolution (FCR) is one of the most important. It does not only indicate efficiency of your overall operation, but it also indicates customer service quality. Higher FCR rates also mean that customer expectations are met and that your chat support delivery is highly satisfactory. So, how can you maximize the functions of your live chat support and boost FCR? Here are some strategies for stepping up your game when delivering customer support through live chat.

1. Make your customer service proactive

In chat support, being proactive means not waiting for customers to approach you and ask for help before you start making things easier for them. Sometimes you need to make the first move to let customers know that a chat support agent can assist them with their needs. If they are spending too much time viewing a specific section on your website, you can send greeting prompts or chat invitations that can launch a live chat session once clicked.

2. Manage customer expectations

Although customers generally expect live chat interactions to give them fast resolution of issues, there will be instances that may take a longer waiting time. The secret here is to let the customers know how long they have to wait and that somebody is taking care of their concerns. This influences the customers patience and willingness to cooperate in situations where issues are more complicated than usual.

3. Maximize your chat support program s features

Make sure that you re making the most out of the live chat software that you purchased. Study user manuals and ask your provider how you can extract more value from your chat support program. You may set up an auto-responder feature to inform customers that their message has been received. You may also take advantage of centralized queuing system and chat archiving features for a more organized way of overseeing tickets, new incoming messages, escalations, and past conversations.

4. Train your chat support agents well

At the end of the day, it all boils down to how effective your chat support workforce is in resolving customer issues. Your agents must be equipped with the needed knowledge and expertise to handle concerns and inquiries no matter how difficult they are. Invest in training your chat support agents so that they can have a solid product knowledge. You can also provide them with regularly updated reference materials that can help them assist customers faster.

5. Consider outsourcing to a 24/7 call center

Live chat support lets customers talk to you anytime they want. This gives them the idea that someone will be there to assist them any time of the day. Since you don t want to disappoint them, you need 24/7 live chat support agents who are not only trained to be expert customer service providers, but can also give assistance to customers round-the-clock. This will help your chat support become fully equipped to answer customer concerns in a grander scale.

Live chat support is no doubt a customer service platform that can boost customer satisfaction with its unique features. But in order to make your customers appreciate your efforts in making your business easier for them to reach, you must make sure that your live chat support channel is optimized and fully-functioning.