Even though the Internet age has gone into the overdrive center, there is still fierce debate on whether online automated solutions on support staff should be adopted or not. Despite the pros and cons presented though, ultimately it must be realized that the decision really is dependent on the factors of the company themselves. If the company can afford to install the live chat and then keep it running effectively whilst incurring the costs. The costs are there of course and they can be exceptionally heavy if the company just goes headfirst blindly without knowing the pool it is about to dive into.
Overall the debate really is about the justification of the service and whether solutions attained via real time communication are even worthy enough to compensate the costs they incur. Whilst it is true that the help desk efficiency serves to create better understanding between the client and the service provider which in turn leads to better market reputation and recommendation amongst prospective clients. It’s rated as that relatively smaller operation of your company that can be the difference in the making of you into an enterprise but the reality is a bit more complicated and tricky than that.
To start off, when you’re offering a round the clock chat solution then it needs to be online round the clock which is not easy to achieve even in the developed countries. A slightest internet failure lasting up to 30 minutes can be prospective loss of around ten to fifteen clients. And that is quite a substantial waste if you’re looking from the company’s end. The other issues are the power costs needed to run a server constantly round the clock to maintain the connection which is also no light an expense.
And the final aspect is of gathering the useful information from all the logs which is a daunting task once the traffic climbs up. With static forms, the emails at least are ordered and identified. With chats, it’s the very opposite.
The kind of business that can incur these cots would be one that is established enough however the end problem still is if these costs are justified. The answer is two fold unfortunately if your communication solutions are actually brining you new clients then it is well worth keeping a utility. This can usually be gauged by the conversation metrics which your support staff should check regularly.
Ultimately if it is not achieving that then you need to focus on increasing the throughput of your other services and then have your environment set up to have a live chat installed. The utility itself is quite an asset to have but before you mix things badly with over incurring the power and internet costs it is better to amplify your own environment before installing a live chat.
