The Live Chat Agent's Toolkit: Top 10 Skills You Need to Thrive

The quality of customer service has a snowball effect on the business. If the customer service is good, people will talk about their good experience, which can bring in more customers. But, if the customer service is bad, people talk about their bad experience, which will drive away customers. 

In this context, live chat agents are crucial in driving customer experience. Being a live chat agent is not easy. It may involve dealing with various types of customers, and a lot of them are not willing to deal with an issue the same way. Thus, it is important for training to be given to live chat agents to prepare them for dealing with numerous customers. 

In this blog, we shall look at the skills required for a live chat agent to provide quality customer service.  

10 Skills Required for a Live Chat Agent 

 

Live chat agents require more than just competencies. Agents with skills that do more than answer customer questions can help provide a great experience for the customer. Here are some skills that will help a live chat agent improve their customers’ experience. 

1. Ability to Type Quickly to Reduce Response time 

Customers expect a response time of 15 seconds or less when using a live chat. Thus, agents must prioritise the response time and train themselves to type quickly. The delay in response might be the difference between converting a customer and losing a customer. 

The longer the customer is kept waiting, the harder it becomes to provide quality customer service. In addition to typing quickly, keep the responses short. This will help keep the customer engaged, and you will not have to draft a long message. Grammatical errors must be avoided while typing quickly. 

In case there is going to be a delay, inform the customer that there will be a delay in the response and give them a tentative response time. This will help prevent the customer from feeling neglected.  

Having templates for standard queries will go a long way in having a low response time. Furthermore, you could employ chatbots to respond to standard queries when they ask specific questions. 

2. Multitasking Skills 

Dealing with multiple chats at the same time can be challenging. There could be various issues that have to be investigated. It could be helpful to be smart while choosing the queries you would like to reply to. For example, if you have a complex query that is going to take time, you could multitask by taking on a less complex query along with that to counter the intensity of the other. 

An agent must be able to understand which query is considered complex and vice versa. Additionally, an agent must be able to manage time between the chats. As we stated above, the response time and letting the customer know about a delay is important in providing quality customer service. Thus, the agent must manage their time across queries and learn to collaborate with other agents. 

Collaborating with other agents might include assigning them a query that you think will take time to handle so the agent must be wary of the agents available. 

3. Good Language and Communication Skills 

Communication is key to providing quality customer service while interacting with a customer. Since communication is a 2-way street, it is important that the agent understands the customer and responds appropriately. 

Based on the tone and the language of the customer, the agent has to mould each of his conversations to suit the customer’s capability of understanding. There must be no grammatical errors while speaking to the customer as well as it might not considered professional to do so. 

Adapting the communication to each customer is paramount, but a level of professionalism must be maintained to ensure that the company image is kept. 

Use simple words, small phrases, and language that is easy to understand. Have a tone of professionalism and empathy to connect better with the customers. 

4. Use of Positive Language 

Customers might not always remember what a live chat agent said, but they will remember how an agent made them feel. Thus, using positive language goes a long way in enhancing the customer’s experience. 

In case the agent is unable to fulfil a customer’s request, instead of just telling them that they wouldn’t be able to do it, the agent could also provide a solution to make the customer feel valued. 

For example, if a customer asks for a product and it is not available. Instead of replying with “I cannot fulfil your request as the product is out of stock”, you could reply with “The product will be available within 2 weeks. If you would like, I could place an advanced order now to ensure they are dispatched to you as soon as they arrive.” 

5. Be Adept with the features of your Product 

A live chat agent must understand and know the inside-out of a product they sell. This helps in reducing response time and ensures speedy resolution of any queries.

Additionally, the more an agent knows about the product and is able to communicate about it, the more trust builds between a customer and a product. It bodes well for the image of the company and helps convert customers. 

6. Ability to Connect with Customer 

Putting yourself in the shoes of the customer will help you connect better with your customer. The show of cognitive, emotional and compassionate empathy will help you connect with your customer on a human level.  

It also helps you come up with solutions that cater better to the customer as you understand their motivations for getting the product. A personalised experience can be tailored for the customer when you understand where they’re coming from. 

Thus, the ability of the live chat agent to connect with the customer can provide an improved quality customer service experience.  

7. Be the Voice of the Brand 

As a representative of the brand or business, a live chat agent must understand the company’s values and act accordingly. One must never let their individual personality show in conversations with the customer. The individual personality must also be put aside while making decisions that will affect the customer. 

Be the brand when speaking to a customer and make decisions that the brand would take.  

8. Ask for Feedback 

Feedback collected from the customers after an interaction can help the live chat agent understand their strengths and weaknesses. Customer feedback will also help in understanding the areas where the business is lacking. 

The best way to gather feedback is usually through post-chat surveys. Thus, an efficient and well-functioning system must be built to gather this feedback and interpret it for the business. 

9. Be Open to New Ideas 

Customers may have different perspectives on the functioning of the business. So, when a customer expresses an idea, it is the live chat agent’s responsibility to hear them out, collect data and be open to their suggestions.  

Live chat is a great way for the customer to reach out to the business through the live chat agents. The live chat agent must encourage the customers to share their knowledge and ideas to serve them better. 

10. Become An Expert 

Wondering what could be worse than delaying your reply to a customer? It is giving them the wrong information. Customers would rather wait than be given any wrong information.  

A live chat agent must know the ins and outs of the product they sell. They must be able to grasp what a customer experiences when they use the product. Attention to each and every detail of the product is key to providing quality customer service. 

The live chat agent must be wary of updates, discounts and changes made to the product and regularly unlearn and learn about the product. They should also anticipate issues that a customer might face and be ready with responses. 

The business could provide training sessions to enhance the live chat agent skills and prepare exams to ensure that they are sound with their knowledge. Additionally, the business could also provide a knowledge base of the product for the agent to refer to during interactions. 

Conclusion 

A live chat agent has a huge responsibility of being the first responder to a query from a customer. As a representative of the business, there is very little margin for error. Thus, inculcating the above live chat agent skills could prove very useful to the success of the company. 

Companies invest in enhancing customer experience as 86% of customers are willing to pay for a better customer experience. As an important aspect of retaining and finding new customers, live chat agents must upskill through training and research on their product and constantly be on the lookout for new information regarding their product or competitor product.  

There are a lot of live chat agent skills that will keep coming up. The above skills are to give you a head start.  

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