Recent reports show that a majority of companies are failing to meet the basic needs of good customer service, and new research from customer relationship management software firm SuperOffice supports that assertion. Among the findings, the company’s new study reveals that 21 percent of live chat support requests go unanswered.
The research suggests that customers are more satisfied with live chat than any other channel, such as email, phone or social media, due to the fact that they receive an immediate, real-time response where questions are answered directly.
The firm wanted to find out how companies are using live chat support to better serve their customers, so the staff conducted its own live chat performance analysis of 1,000 B2B and B2C websites based in the U.S. and Europe.
To conduct the study, SuperOffice sent a single question to each company through chat that related to their business. Each chat was initiated during support hours and only when chat was available and online. Once the chat had ended, the chat experience was recorded based on response time, wait time and overall chat quality.
Key findings from the study include:
- 21 percent of live chat support requests are not answered
- The average wait time for live chat support requests is 2 minutes and 40 seconds
- 55 percent of companies do not offer transcripts once a chat has ended
- 23 percent of companies do not ask for contact information upfront before a chat begins
- The average handle time for a chat request is 6 minutes and 50 seconds
- 45 percent of companies do not ask users for feedback once the chat has ended
Before the study, SuperOffice hypothesized that companies who offer live chat support provide a better customer experience. However, the latest findings show that this is not necessarily the case. Rather than the positive experience that many customers expect, live chat support is failing to meet the basic needs of good customer service.
