What happens to your website & customer service quality after dark?

[Derived and updated from our previous by Petri Vilpponen]

With Halloween coming up, we have started thinking about the horror stories we face as businesses - Disappointed customers, high returns, low sales, cart abandonment...

And as we learnt from Game of Thrones, the night is dark and full of terrors, we wake up in the morning thinking things at work are as we left them, but that may not always be the case. With so much going on outside working hours, the experiences you deliver then can really make or break your brand in the eyes of your customer. Why? Because if something goes wrong, you need to be able to come to the rescue and deliver in the same way as you would during the day. 

So how can you maintain your service quality and capture leads after hours, even with Michael Myers creeping on you?

On any regular day, your customer service agents can handle up to 7 simultaneous chat conversations (don't believe it? see how Finnair agents do it), and whilst doing so, they not only have to deal with customer service, but think about collecting website leads for your Sales peeps (see how YIT does it). Sounds pretty exhausting huh? 

Web traffic doesn't usually slow down before 10pm, so unless you are prepared to offer extended service hours you are probably losing some of the leads you could be generating online. 

Making tired chat agents work extra hours, hiring people to work through the night or outsourcing your service, is often not an option for some companies, not to mention that it can be ineffective and quite costly.

Luckily, there are other ways to make yourself available after hours and help you collect those desired leads.

It's very simple, you can complement your chat service with an automated Lead Call. It offers your customer the information they most likely need while also asking for contact information, so your sales guys can reach out in the morning.

Here’s how you can use it:

1.  Set an automated Rule that makes sure contacting you is always easy - chat during the day and a Lead Call at night. 
   
   
   
   
   
2. You may be aware that some of your visitors struggle with certain parts of your site. Live chat is there to provide assistance with visitor issues during the day, so make sure you also offer help (in some capacity) with visitor issues in the evenings:
   
   
3. Or, you may be aware that some of your pages have a high exit rate or some of your longer forms don't enjoy the completion rate you'd like them to enjoy. Set the Lead Call as the second line of defence: If visitor decides not to fill your long form, make them fill a shorter one to save the lead.
   
   
4. Finally, you may just want to try and convert those visitors who have shown commitment to your site, but haven't managed to find the form page just yet. That commitment can be measured in minutes, number of visits, etc.
   
   

These simple tricks can help you welcome the night owls flocking to your site,  making them feel like they are getting the attention they deserve – whilst getting you fresh leads without having to extend customer service hours, win-win.

Struggling with customer service in general? Take a look at our guide to improving customer service efficiency.