Both customers and customer service reps have embraced the chat channel for its great ease of use.
Titus is Europe’s leading retailer in everything skateboard related. Pius Knebel, Ecommerce and Online Marketing Manager, shares his experience in rolling out live chat as an additional communication channel.
Before getting started with live chat, Titus' online shop relied on the communication channels telephone, email, Skype, mail, and even fax. "We’re trying to meet our customers' preferences on as many levels as possible", explains Pius.
Titus' service department had already been used to offering chat support through their experience with Skype, which they used both for chatting and phone calls. But Skype support has some downsides. "A big obstacle is that the other side needs to have the program installed. Although Skype’s pretty famous, not exactly everyone has it either. That’s an unwelcome barrier for those customers that would prefer to contact us via chat anyway."
Titus’ decision to add live chat support was in line with the goal of meeting their customers' preferences. "We wanted to engage customers. We wanted to reach out and give answers proactively".
After pre-selecting chat providers that looked good from an Ecommerce perspective, they passed these on to the service department for testing. "They tested to see which worked best or – to be honest – which worked at all. We chose Userlike for the great value-for-money ratio and its easy implementation."
Pius shares Titus' experiences of more than three years offering live chat support: "Both our customers and customer service reps are positive about the high pace in which issues can be solved. They’ve embraced the chat channel for its ease of use."
The power of live chat is that it allows us to resolve simple queries faster.
"All of the classic channels mean at least one extra click compared to chat", Pius explains. "Whether it’s looking for the phone number or switching to your email program, you have to leave the product page. With live chat, our customers stay right where they are."
Titus uses live chat primarily to solve smaller requests, like where to find something. "The power of live chat is that it allows us to resolve simple queries faster."