Contact centre chat projects typically have a complex mix of requirements. Tens or even hundreds of live chat operators may be handling sessions at any one time. And, naturally, such a large service effort creates a wealth of considerations.
For instance, your chat operators need access to certain features and integrations. Your managers need certain monitoring and configuration controls. Then there are factors like regulation compliance, hosting options, data sharing across the contact centre tech stack, and so on.
This complexity means that it’s a good idea to set up a live chat project task force to help with deployment. But who exactly should that task force include?
Mandatory managers
Starting with perhaps the more obvious inclusions, your live chat project task force should always comprise the managers of your customer support/contact centre teams.
After all, these are the people that will be managing and using the software every day. Plus, they’ll be supervising the use of chat by agents too.
Your contact centre team management group are the most in touch with what you need in a chat solution from a customer support perspective.
Beyond the live chat agents on the front line, this group of people will have the most interaction with the software.
So, it’s only logical that contact centre managers own (or are at least heavily involved in) the live chat project.
Include IT
As well as the customer support perspective, you also need to consider your IT infrastructure when introducing a new chat solution. Who better to add to your task force, then, than someone from the IT team?
First, your chat solution needs to meet both company and industry security requirements. This includes things like encryption, sensitive data protection, and PCI compliant chat payments – to list but a few.
An IT-skilled task force member will also be able to help with system integration considerations. They’ll help with making sure the chat channel is integrated with your CRM or other databases, for instance. They’ll know which data needs to sync into which app. They can advise on what kind of API access is needed; what kind of networking and storage requirements the solution needs to meet, and so on.
Plus, IT will likely be the team setting up the chat software and supporting its ongoing configuration. It makes sense, then, to have an IT rep included in your live chat project task force.
Marketing members
Beyond customer support and IT considerations, your live chat project also needs to cover branding. Enter the marketing team.
The marketing team spends time crafting the images and copy that the company or contact centre puts out. They’re the ones managing the design of the website. They make sure brand guidelines are met in the visuals associated with your brand.
When it comes to your chat project, having a member of the task force with connections to marketing is going to be useful.
Specifically, a marketing-oriented member will be able to assist with the web design and user experience requirements of the chat solution. They’ll be able to coordinate messaging about your new chat feature, sort out any needed graphics, and inform the look and feel of the chat window.
C-suite champions
There are two types of C-level team member that could — and should — be part of your live chat project task force.
- 1. CCO (Chief customer officer) / CXO (Chief experience officer)
The first C-level executive that should have an overview of the chat project is the one in charge of the customer experience. Depending on the organisation, this will be your CXO or CCO.
Live chat is, after all, about bringing real-time support online to customers. Your customer-focused executive will therefore have a major hand in devising the customer service strategy to accompany your chat project.
They’ll advise on how chat will integrate with other elements of customer service. For instance, whether it’ll be part of the customer portal, or include using features like omnichannel calling.
- 2. CIO (Chief information officer) /CTO (Chief technology officer)
Chat projects are also about technology — namely, the chat software you use and how. As such, it’s a good idea to add your CIO or CTO to your task force.
This person will be able to view the chat project as part of the overarching tech strategy of the business. They’ll be able to communicate the value it has to stakeholders, and look for opportunities to integrate it further into the business. In other words, they’ll make sure you get the most out of the software.
TL;DR: Your live chat project task force
For contact centres, chat is a business-critical component. Multiple requirements must be considered, spanning multiple teams.
And you simply can’t meet this diverse mix of considerations if you only include a customer support manager or two in the live chat project. Rather, to fully optimise your chat deployment, you need a dedicated task force spanning contact centre management, IT, marketing, and strategic leadership.
That is, a team with a cross-functional skill set, ready to both utilise and optimise your chat implementation and strategy.
Useful links
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