Accessibility is always the primary concern when it comes to the needs of a client. Whether it’s support over the phone or over email, good support is integral to how a client feels about your business. Communication is key, and ESPECIALLY for websites, chatting for support has been the leading digital contact method with a 41% preference. Compared to phone’s 32% and email’s 23%.
To understand the benefits of having chat, one of the main reasons people prefer it is that it statistically has a significantly faster response rate to the other alternatives. One reason is that it has communication in real-time, unlike email. Another is that compared to phones, you can also communicate with more than one client at a time. This overall helps productivity and ensures the client always gets what they need.
So, the question is, with all the live-chat software available, which should you use? There are proprietary ones, and there are social media integrated ones such as Facebook Messenger, where they recently updated it with support for business pages. We’ll list the pros and cons of why you would need one or the other.
For Facebook Messenger:
- Pros
- Native Social Media integration. If your business heavily relies on communication with your client-base on Facebook, Messenger would be the best to use since it would keep all your clients in a centralized location.
- Multiplatform support. Meaning that multiple devices can support using Messenger, whether it’s on their mobile device, or on their Desktop.
- Your chats don’t expire for both the business and the client. The messages sent through Messenger will be there forever, so if you want to follow up with a client, you can continue the conversation right where you left off, even if you respond a few days later.
- Cons
- Inconsistent support, as Facebook support encompasses the entire site over being specialized for chat support.
- Requires a Facebook account, so if clients don’t want to share their personal information, they cannot access you otherwise.
- Lack of features, it’s difficult to keep track of any analytics or customize it for your needs. It’s very rudimentary.
For Live Chat:
- Pros
- It allows for quick communication without the need of requiring a personal account. It can either be anonymous, or insert simple information, and a client can get right to chatting.
- It’s multifaceted, there are many different Live Chat softwares that support many different situations or use cases and can exist outside of a centralized website.
- Support is specialized to the chat software, so if you need something as a business, then support can assist you exclusively for the chat itself.
- Cons
- Clients would need to restart a conversation every time they need to return for more support.
- It isn’t as easily integrated to multiple devices as Facebook Messenger.
At the end of the day, the best chat client heavily depends on the type of business you’re offering, and the mileage you can get from the strengths of each type. SurfYourName can adjust to whichever chat client you may need, and as the leading experts In not only web design, but also digital marketing, we can assure that we can integrate client support catered to what’s best for you. Contact us or give us a call today at 910-452-6345, and we look forward to working with you!
