In today’s world, new AI technologies are being perfected, which include chatbots. In fact, a lot of companies are starting to rely on chatbots to handle some basic customer support inquiries. However, a lot of customers still prefer live agent chat since it offers better personalization and a higher level of service.
In this article, we will compare using chatbots and live agents to meet your customer service needs and show you why nothing beats having a live customer support team to handle customer inquiries.
Chatbot vs. Live Chat: Overview
Smart chatbots use AI to understand customer comments and questions and can quickly find the needed information to resolve the problem. Live agents, on the other hand, are actual people who take the time to sympathize with the customer and understand the issue they are dealing with and provide a solution that goes way beyond simply sending over a document with instructions.
In the table below, you will be able to clearly see the difference between chatbots and live support.
Live Chat vs. Chatbots: Detailed Comparison
In the table above, we mentioned some of the comparison criteria you should be using to decide which is better: live support or chatbots. Let’s now take a look at all of these criteria in greater detail.
Personalization
When it comes to personalization, there’s simply no substitute for having a live agent. On the other hand, all of the chatbot talks are developed to answer generic questions. However, when people come to you with specific problems, this is something that chatbots cannot handle. This is why you need to have a dedicated support team available to meet all of the needs of your customers.
Accuracy
Chatbots may be good at retrieving information, but only if the customer properly types in the problem they are experiencing. For example, let’s say that you have an e-commerce store, and the customer wants to make a return. Instead of typing in something like “I want to make a return,” they will say, “I bought this item, and it doesn’t fit.” The chatbot won’t know what to do in this situation, while a live agent will be able to provide accurate information. However, a live agent will be able to delve into the nuances of the discussion and understand the problem the customer is trying to solve.
Scalability
Scaling a customer support team is fairly easy, especially if you are working with a BPO provider that has plenty of experience in this field. First of all, scaling your team does not require any effort on your part. The BPO provider will take care of everything. Also, there is a large talent pool of candidates the service provider will be able to choose from. Conversely, scaling live chatbots requires significant development time and training which is very costly and time-consuming.
Versatility
Chatbots really only have one response to a customer inquiry, which is whatever the engineer puts as the answer during the development stages. When we compare this with a live person we see that they will have access to a knowledge base and will be able to get assistance from other agents if needed. This allows them to handle a larger variety of inquiries which provides a better experience than a chatbot live.
Chatbots vs. Live Chat: Which One Do You Need
As we can see from all of the information provided, having live agents is definitely the way to go. Chatbots can be useful to answer simple inquiries, like if an item is out of stock or find information that can be quickly accessed. They can also help live agents triage an issue a customer is having.
This can be something like asking customers what they need help with and then routing the inquiry to a live agent. This allows the agent to be better prepared for the call and resolve the question in a timely manner.
The Future of Chatbots
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is turning customer service on its head. No longer are companies forced to field huge departments with the sole purpose of quick and accurate customer interactions. Chatbots have advanced so much over the last few years that they can give even the best customer service rep a run for their money.
While they may not have that special ‘human touch,’ they are an amazing opportunity for smaller companies who may not have the budget or who’d rather invest the time, money, and people back into their product or service.
More Ways to Reduce Support Tickets
One interesting way to reduce support tickets is to create a knowledge base your users can access to get answers to some basic questions. This should be a portal that is well organized, updated on a regular basis, and includes some user-friendly features like a comprehensive search.
Remember, the more you invest in this portal, the fewer inquiries you are going to get. Not everybody likes to contact support for answers to questions, so give them an opportunity to quickly find what they are looking for.
If you have a product like an app or SaaS software, consider implementing some sort of in-app or product guidance. You have to remember that when people first start using your product, they will be confused in terms of where all of the features are located and how to use them. These are basic questions that take away a lot of time from your support team, which would be better used to answer more serious questions.
This is why you should consider implementing some sort of step-by-step instructions for new users.
Why Choose Pexly for Your Customer Support Needs?
Pexly can provide you with the needed number of agents to meet your live chat support needs. This allows you to provide each customer with a more personalized experience and opens up additional ways to grow your business through upsell opportunities. This way live chat is a more efficient and profitable way to provide your customers with outstanding service.
We can help you set up dedicated offshore teams of qualified agents that will be able to cover pretty much any time zone and language. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you.
