Is It Possible To Automate Live Chat?

Within Ecommerce, Live Chat is an indispensable tool for offering support to users in Real Time and breaking down the barriers of doubt that separate them from the purchase.

Live Chat, as the word itself says, returns the image of a “live” site and confirms to the user that there are real people behind the scenes, ready to give him all the support he needs.

It is a question of bridging the gap between online and physical stores as much as possible, where customers are welcomed by qualified salespeople who are ready to patiently listen to all their paranoia.

There is a but

Those involved in customer care within a well-established eCommerce spend most of the day answering redundant questions, almost always the same, with a huge waste of time for both the operator and the user.

There would be the FAQ section for the most requested questions, which, however, tends to be snubbed by most. In fact, people prefer to stress operators with the first things that come to mind rather than concentrating for a moment and going to look for the answer.

This is why it is said that we are always in a hurry on the Web.

No one wants to waste time calling, writing an email, or loading other pages, so Live Chat plays a central role in Customer Care.

In fact, it is the tool with the highest degree of “customer satisfaction.” 

At the same time, however, Live Chat requires a constant “human” presence, even when using centralized management software such as Zendesk or GrooveHQ.

Operators are often wasted, and rather than giving 100 equal answers to 100 questions, their know-how could be used for decidedly more human tasks like closing a sale.

At this point in the reasoning, the idea arises: why not automate the Live Chat?

Delegate answers to frequently asked questions to a “virtual assistant” available 24 hours a day, allowing customer service operators to devote themselves to questions where the human side is indispensable.

I write this article because a few days ago, we had the pleasure of meeting the founders of Awhy, a FAQ automation platform, via live Chat.

It is a SaaS solution capable of providing automated assistance to users along their purchase journey, immediately providing all the information they need.

The idea is to automate up to 65% of chat responses.

At first impression, I thought that the Chat is, by definition, a “human” tool, and entrusting it to a robot could turn out to be a boomerang, with users who call the toll-free number furiously because the Chat “does not understand the question.”

But Awhy is equipped with a sophisticated semantic engine, which allows you to dialogue with the user in natural language and uses the FAQ as a starting point for understanding different synonyms and grammatical constructions.

It also self-educates over time, thanks to a “pro-active engine,” which is able to recognize the user while browsing, analyze their behaviour, and intercept their needs, to actively intervene by offering advice and directing them in their purchasing choices.

For example, they might recognize a customer who had previously purchased a pair of Timberland shoes and greet them with a “Hello |*FNAME*|, take a look at the new Timberland models; they are ideal for walking in the mountains.”

Or, finding himself faced with an undecided user who navigates from one category to another without deciding what to buy, he could open up by suggesting discounted products in that category.

Proactive Chat could become an interesting resource for  Marketing Automation, to be combined with other more consolidated real-time mkt actions ).

You can also think of hybrid use, using it only at night or during breaks for the operators.

I don’t feel like giving a premature judgement. However, I believe that live chat FAQs can help solve “routine” problems, even if the human presence remains irreplaceable to make leads and convince the undecided customer to purchase.

I think Awhy is intended for large companies that want to optimise customer care (also reducing people), but even in this case, a part of the live Chat must be intended for sale.

One thing that little is done is measuring sales via live Chat, and consequently, you need to have this metric to know how much is the return on customer care investment.

Customer Care trained in sales and achieving objectives can largely support itself in the company budget, and it is better first to understand how convenient it is to automate it in terms of scalability.

The case is different for corporate or service sites, but even here, the “human lack” could be felt commercially.

The road ahead is still long and full of pitfalls, but the product is there, and we can’t wait to test it to evaluate its effectiveness.

Also Read : When Lead Nurturing Doesn’t Work