Being the happy, helpful face of a company is hard.
Your support agents are on the front line for customer frustrations, issues, queries and complaints – with all the admin and repetition that comes with it.
Improving employee morale in this environment is no mean feat. In the hustle of giving constant customer service, agents can all too easily get lost in the workload.
And, inevitably, any negativity in your agents will have a knock-on effect on your customers.
Fortunately, there’s an unsung hero helping empower your agents. Used correctly, live chat software can be the secret sauce in unburdening your support team and improving employee morale.
Busy as a bee
Your employees have a lot to do, and providing excellent customer service isn’t always the only task at hand.
There are CRMs to update, purchase orders to chase, paperwork to fill out, and a whole host of other time-consuming tasks demanding attention. Live chat software enables your agents to help customers while tackling all these other chores too.
Customer service reps have to take calls... ...enter data, and a host of other tasks
They can look up helpful information while conversing, and unlike phone calls, they can help more than one customer at any given time. (We usually recommend up to three customer chats per agent running concurrently.)
You might not think it, but this ability to multitask has a substantial impact on improving employee morale.
Rather than being chained to one task while a mountain of work piles up around them, your agents can whizz through customer queries and keep on top of their admin.
That means less tension, and less tedium.
Minimise frustration
Just as your customers are likely to get frustrated about having to repeat themselves, your support agents are going to get fed up with answering FAQs and constantly repeating themselves to each new customer.
Unfortunately, a grumpy representative often creates an even grumpier customer.
With a live chat channel, you’re supplying your team with software that readily provides canned responses. Instead of having to repeatedly type the same answers, your agents can choose from a list of pre-written responses.
Effortlessly dealing with FAQs in this way means feeling less fatigued when dealing with more intricate customer issues.
Canned responses inside WhosOn 
Suggested response inside the agent's typing window
Liberation from manual retyping has obvious benefits in improving employee morale. But it doesn’t end there: live chat software can also read your agent’s minds. (Well, sort of.)
Just as you would expect of predictive text on your mobile phone, live chat software can retain commonly typed or recent messages. From there, it can suggest the responses that your representatives might want.
Those kinds of small, nifty features help your agents no end. And, obviously, better-helped agents are likely to be happier agents.
Support and monitoring
Live chat software isn’t just there to support your customers: it’s there to support your agents too.
For example, supervisors can monitor chats in real-time and offer help where needed.
Or, if your agent needs to ask for help from a colleague, they can tag that teammate within their chat session and receive inline advice that’s only visible to them.
For the most part, your agents won’t feel the need to request help with live chat software. Smart chat routing rules mean that each agent should only ever receive queries that are relevant to their skill set.
But it’s no bother if the agent does end up feeling stuck – they can simply transfer the chat to the best-placed colleague and move on to the next customer.
Plus, operators can use live chat software for their internal chats. This creates an easy way for team members to communicate issues, questions, or just converse informally. You’ll have a more united team and a quieter office to boot.
This collaborative environment isn’t only great for improving employee morale.
With agents who feel more confident in their ability to help your customers, a strong, positive customer experience can be provided session after session.
Confidence
Live chat software can also boost confidence within your employees by empowering them to give personalised service.
With an inbound telephone call, there’s often legwork involved in taking caller details, pulling up the customer’s information and accessing their account. This is time-consuming and tedious for both parties.
Not so with live chat software. Through a helpful CRM integration, any data stored about each chatting customer can be retrieved into the chat session. This means your agents can treat customers companionably, with no need for lengthy introductions or repetitive account questions.
Plus, the pre-chat surveys that come with live chat software ensure that all chats can start on a friendly first-name basis. They’ll also be routed directly to the team the customer needs.
Pre-chat survey forms help agents start off on the right foot 
A look at CRM integration inside WhosOn
So, a sales representative will never be asked to deal with a technical support issue and vice versa.
This smooth start to chat sessions is a boon in improving employee morale. Not only does it increase efficiency – a key office mood influencer – it also reduces confusion and stress in your customer service team.
Empowered agents
When it comes to improving employee morale, live chat software typically isn’t recognised as a force for good. But its impact on your agents is manifest.
Live chat helps your customer service team make quick work of a demanding (and often draining) job.
To empower your agents with smarter technology, start your free trial of WhosOn today.
Useful links
- - The agent experience inside the contact centre
- - Every contact centre chat deployment needs skills-based routing
- - Agent empowerment: what is it, and why is it so important?
- - The dos and don'ts of canned responses
- - Agents, customer service bad days, and the power of live chat software
- - A best practice guide to managing concurrent chat sessions