Companies exert tremendous efforts to guarantee customer satisfaction. However, despite these efforts, customer issues are inevitable. This is due to the differences among preferences and needs. Because different types of customers provide different feedback, complex problems must be handled and resolved efficiently. To create the best customer experiences, a support team serves as the backbone of an organization’s CX system.
It’s normal and acceptable that customers expect real-time solutions to their inquiries. So, having a dedicated support channel allows the company to minimize wait time and provide an impressive experience. More and more companies are using live chat for customer support, while others use phone support. If you want to build a stable customer support system to resolve complex customer issues and answer questions as quickly as possible, these two channels are highly recommended.
In this article, we will provide you with the definition and importance of customer support in businesses. We will also walk you through the pros and cons of live chat services and phone support. The main purpose of this article is to help you choose the type of customer support that’s best for your business. Are you excited to know whether live chat or phone support is suitable for your organization? Keep reading.
What is customer support, and why is it important?
Customer support is defined as a team of people who are responsible for providing help when issues about products or services arise. The duties of a customer support team include responding to customer requests, answering questions, processing order follow-ups, resolving customer problems and complaints, and basically giving every customer an awesome experience.
Having reliable customer support enhances the customer experience and encourages customers to repeat purchases or services. It also helps a company identify common problems raised by customers, and at the same time, meet varying customer expectations.
What is live chat support?
Live chat is a type of customer support that businesses use to deliver real-time responses and assistance to their customers. Live chat support allows businesses to interact and help customers without having to call them. It is considered one of the most in-demand customer service channels because of its simplicity, efficiency, and user-friendly interface.
According to recent live chat statistics, this support channel has become increasingly popular among businesses and consumers alike. Live chat support can be accessed by customers through a website or mobile app, providing quick and convenient solutions to their queries and concerns.
What is phone support?
As the name suggests, phone support offers customers assistance through phone calls. Phone support typically involves receiving and making calls to answer customer questions, discuss complaints, resolve problems, and provide assistance with new product features and services. It is one of the more traditional forms of customer support where customers need to dial an active phone number to reach a specific company.
Pros and Cons of Live Chat and Phone Support to Help You Pick What’s Best for Your Business
Just like every customer support channel, both phone support and live chat have advantages and disadvantages that may influence their efficiency and effectiveness. While both provide customer support solutions that are reliable for businesses, knowing which type of customer support is best for you can give you long-term benefits.
Live Chat Support – Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| 1. 24/7 availability and coverage. 2. Proactive support 3. Higher cost-efficiency levels; Can assist many customers at a time. 4. Easier to scale 5. Chat transcripts are easier to analyze. | 1. Complex issues are more difficult to resolve / vague customer inquiries are harder to answer. 2. Less personal – customer feels like he / she is talking to a computer or robot. 3. Chat abandonment is a lot more common. |
During the pandemic, a significant increase in individuals who prefer chat to resolving customer issues has been recorded.
44% of CX leaders claim that live chat and messaging were two of the most critical channels that they needed to maintain good levels of service during the pandemic. This is in addition to the 20% increase in support tickets received by customer service departments.
Phone Support – Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| 1. Offers a more genuine personal connection with customers. 2. Customers have the potential to raise increasingly complex issues. 3. The resolution time is faster than average. 4. Recorded phone calls offer more context for an in-depth analysis. | 1. Lower efficiency levels as voice support agents can only handle one call at a time. 2. Some call centers may not offer 24/7 phone support services. 3. Customers may have to wait a bit longer to reach a voice customer service agent. 4. Scalability is more challenging. |
Despite the modernization of support channels, phone support is still preferred by over 76% of customers when resolving product or service issues.
A 2019 study found that 76% of customers still choose the traditional way of calling a phone number as a means of reaching out to CS representatives. Email support comes close with 21% of customers using it in hopes of faster response times.
While others might see that handling one customer at a time is an ineffective process, this feature of phone support may offer customers personalized service.
The Key Differences Between Live Chat Support vs Phone Support:
Here’s a quick rundown of the key differences between live chat vs phone support. We provided a brief explanation under each category to guide you better.
Proactive vs Reactive Support
Live chat and voice support both aim to deliver quick responses and assistance to customers. But in terms of proactivity, live chat has the bigger advantage. As we all know, phone or voice support is generally a reactive type of support. With phone support, customers initiate the conversation to ask a question or relay a complaint.
Live chat allows businesses to start casual yet potentially valuable conversations with customers. For ecommerce sites, live agents may also prompt a message to encourage or remind a customer to finish his / her purchase.
Real people in real-time?
Perhaps, one of the most obvious reasons why customers prefer phone to chat is the presence of a real person giving real-time assistance. Sure, there are companies who hire actual chat agents too, but we could all agree that a personal touch in every business process could do so much.
While live chat gives customers quick answers, phone support offers detailed, accurate, and more personalized ones. It is also a lot easier to handle complex issues, tackle policies, and escalate or de-escalate complaints via phone support. With a dependable call center agent on the line, this type of support allows customers to share details of their inquiries and requests.
Waiting times and volume issues
Many companies offer live chat support to help reduce customer waiting time. And you know what’s good? Live chat does help companies offer quick and efficient solutions to their customers. With the availability of live chat tools that can be integrated into a company’s website, chat agents can handle multiple customers at a time. Unlike phone support, live chat may be accessed within seconds, and the waiting times are typically shorter.
The only downside of live chat is when VIP or long-time clients require the attention and intervention of human agents. In this case, it’s more practical to consider providing multichannel support to customers. A typical multichannel support features an integrated help desk, a call center, and an advanced ticketing system.
Record-keeping
Recording is another crucial feature that differentiates live chat from phone support. Sure, both can store and record details of customer questions and issues that can be reviewed when needed. But live chat’s search text feature enables chat agents and support specialists to quickly trace conversations and find important keywords and help them deliver the needs of each customer.
On the other hand, phone support’s call recording feature allows CX agents and leaders to capture the tone of both the agents and the customers. Such factors are extremely helpful in the assessment and evaluation of agent performance, and in identifying the common causes of customer complaints.
Meeting customer expectations
At the end of the day, it will all depend on the needs and expectations of your customers. It’s natural for customers to expect responses that are on-time and accurate. And when it comes to speed, live chat has the upper hand. Live chat also delivers a unique and advanced way of reviewing past conversations to be used as helpful factors in evaluating company and staff performance.
However, it’s also important to note that just like live chat, more call centers are adopting advanced solutions to assist customers with speed, accuracy, and a personalized touch that mirrors a brand’s vision. Both support channels can improve overall customer experiences, but isn’t it more amazing to let your customers choose which one they prefer?
Take customer experience to the next level. Offer omnichannel support to your customers.
There are customers who prefer live chat less than phone support, others prefer sending emails. More customers are into social media, and some choose live chats for a quick “how-to” or a follow-up. If phone support or live chat isn’t enough, why not give them every option possible? Omnichannel support is one of the fastest growing support solutions that companies adapt to guarantee smooth customer support and technical support processes.
Omnichannel support includes various channels like chat, phone, email, text messaging, and social media. Extend better support to different customers with different needs and demands by integrating these into your business.
Bottomline
Phone and live chat are two of the most in-demand support channels that could help you build a fantastic relationship with your customers. We already shared with you their pros and cons, so now is the perfect time for you to pick what’s best for you and your customers. But if you want to gain better business leverage and an incredible brand of superb service, outsourcing your support team can do wonders.
Start your outsourcing journey with us here at Digital Minds BPO. We offer a wide range of outsourcing solutions such as customer support, data entry, call center, content moderation and more. You can also have access to seasoned industry professionals to help you provide an elevated level of customer experience, at an affordable price. Contact us today and let’s start building your dreams!