What is Chat?
Chat is real time, text-based, digital communication between two parties. In the context of customer service, a customer can initiate a chat session from a company's website, which will connect them to a contact center agent who will attempt to resolve their issue. A transcript of the interaction can be kept on record for future reference, and shared with the customer. This is helpful if the customer contacts the company again about the same issue.
Chat is gaining in popularity as a communication channel between consumers and businesses due to its convenience and effectiveness. For example, a customer might be confused when checking the status of their order online and quickly open a chat session with an agent to get their questions answered. At a 74% first contact resolution rate, chat is a good channel choice. Additionally, NICE research shows that consumers find chat to be one of the top channels for satisfaction and ease of use.
An emerging technology that is impacting and enhancing chat interactions is chatbots. Chatbots can be powered by artificial intelligence (AI), and may be used first to engage customers, answer simple questions, and gather relevant information about the customer and their issue. If a chatbot can't resolve the issue, then the chat interaction is escalated to a contact center agent. Because it passes along the information it gathered, it improves agent productivity. Chatbots are getting more effective every day and savvy businesses are figuring out where they fit in their service models.
Live Chat, Call & Contact Center
Live chat is an online tool that enables website visitors to communicate with a contact center’s customer service agents or chatbots in real time. It’s also referred to as webchat. It allows brands to answer questions, provide technical support and nurture leads to produce sales.
Live chat is unintrusive, typically appearing as a small icon in the lower right corner of the user’s screen. It can run in the background so users can continue to browse the website or work on other tasks while continuing their support conversation.
Live chat is incredibly user-friendly for both customers and call center agents. Live chat sessions take place in a messaging window that’s part of a company’s website. The customer has instant access without needing to install any plugins or download any apps to use it. They can upload photos and other attachments, and agents can respond with rich messages like links and other media.
How NICE can help
NICE CXone is the market leading call center software in use by thousands of customers of all sizes around the world. Our solutions enable the effective routing of chat messages as well as supporting chatbot technology. CXone is a cloud native, unified suite of applications designed to help a company holistically run its call (or contact) center operations. CXone includes:
Omnichannel Routing – routing and interaction management that empowers agents to positively and productively interact with customers in digital and voice channels. These solutions include an automatic call distributor (ACD), interactive voice response (IVR), interaction channel support and proactive outbound dialer.
Automation & Artificial Intelligence (AI) – leading-edge, intuitive technology that eliminates mundane tasks and speeds resolutions of customer issues for better business outcomes. It provides self-service, agent-assisted and fully automated alerts and actions.
Open Cloud Foundation – enables rapid innovation with an extensible enterprise-grade platform that scales securely, deploys quickly and serves customers of all sizes globally. We guarantee an industry-best 99.99% availability and offer easy customization through RESTful APIs and DEVone developer program.
CXone also includes pre-defined CRM integrations and UCaaS integrations with most leading solutions on the market. These integrations provide a holistic call center software solution capable of elevating customer experiences for companies of all sizes.
