Ever since the online communication channels started to change, so did the preferences for customer service. Through the process of adaptation to fast technology development, live chat agents gained to prominence to improve customer experience. The era of telephone calls and emails for contacting the support service isn’t preferred anymore because everyone wants an instant solution. Now, we have live online chat sessions to guide us in real-time. In fact, this simple solution has proven its ability to improve customer satisfaction rate.

In simple words, a live chat tool is proficient in making customers happy. But choosing the right platform is also important. According to an Online Customer Service study, many struggled with personalized interaction because the chat agent didn’t share their insights and gave only generic answers. In such a scenario, collaborating with a tool that is capable of evaluating the performance of the agent’s matters.

A proper work ethic, quality of service, and productivity have to meet the company’s main goal, so a series of reports helps to assure maximum efficiency and detect issues ahead.

Assessing an Agent

A live chat agent’s work many times isn’t restricted only to the office. They can work remotely over a stable Internet connection. That being said, the volume of chats, the chat’s efficiency, and the agent’s hours online are measured as indicators of productivity.

Although the high number of chats are perceived as a positive thing, the quality of communication is what counts the most. In order to take everything into consideration, reports provide answers to these crucial questions:

  • l How many hours did the agent spend interacting with clients contrary to hours spent signed off or “away”?
  • l How many chats did the agent accept?
  • l How many chats did an agent turn down or pass off?
  • l What was his conversational commitment to solving the customer’s issues?
  • l Did an agent use specific questions instead of generic ones such as: “How can I help you”?
  • l What is the average time taken by an agent to accept and respond to chat requests?
  • l What is the percentage of mismanaged chats by an agent?
  • l What are the agent’s multi-channel attribution and multi-tasking skills?
  • l What are the agent’s customer satisfaction score and ratings?

Real-Time Response

A highly effective chat agent should be able to respond within seconds. While analyzing the average time of the agent’s first response, the reports don’t include the automatic greeting which opens up the conversation. The real statistics measure and show how much time passes from the first message a customer sends to an agent to receiving a response.

If an agent takes a long time to respond, this could mean two things. Either the agent is not good at his job or the support system resources are limited, hence slowing the agent down. With reports, one can provide an insight into the things that need to be fixed, so the set response time can be improved.

Chat Duration

What makes an agent unequipped for the live chat duty? Not knowing the answers and transferring the chats to others. The professional agent should know how to engage customers, give correct answers quickly and not prolong the conversation or go off topic.

The overall customer experience should be top class and on point because the reports measure the agent’s efforts for resolving customers’ issues as well as the total number of replies customers send from the start to the end of the conversation.

Communication

Another quality that must be evaluated is the agent’s thinking and replying process. When customers contact the support, the given service should be enough to resolve their concerns and assure they don’t have to open a new query on the same subject. On that note, the agent should think proactively and anticipate future customer questions.

Apart from the average chat duration, reports also provide a closer look into the efficiency of the service and the agent’s problem-solving skills. Likewise, a good agent must promote the company’s products, so the metrics track if there is enough initiative that led to a more positive feedback.

Multi-Tasking

Using the reports to track and measure where the customers are connected to and their frequency gives a productive solution for improving customer service. The knowledge of which channels are most commonly used and which questions often come through allows the company to focus their agent’s more effectively.

Live chat agents should be comfortable switching between channels and using diverse tools during a conversation to provide an excellent customer service. Some of these tools may include a business website, user/product manuals, knowledge base systems, product management, etc. With an additional set of reports, enterprises can investigate if the agents use the provided tactics efficiently, as well as gauge their ability to quickly switch back and forth while providing customers what they require.

Feedback & Ratings

Allowing customers to rate agents’ performance is yet another benefit in determining each agent’s engagement and quality of service. Collecting these reports or conducting a small chat survey helps improve your support service in the long run.

Monitoring and managing a live chat system, including customer feedback through reports is an easy process that accurately detects system or agent faults. Also, this way of customer support management helps decrease and fix those mistakes in real time, as it is the essential part of keeping and attracting more clients.

The Takeaway

The role of reports is to measure the agent’s productivity, performance, quality and service ratings. By collecting valuable data, corporations can identify the requirements for improving customer experience. One of the ways to do so is through obligatory employee training, which is a popular method incorporated in numerous successful companies today.

The training can be done remotely, saving costs and time, while managers have an unlimited access to productivity reports in real-time. It is a win-win situation for every party involved, as it guarantees customer satisfaction and revenue growth. So tap into the live chat potential and empower your agents with knowledge and reports.

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