Create Perfect Live Chat Customer Experience Leveraging Rest API

Omni-channel support is a must these days and Live Chat is one of the most important channels.

Adding Salesforce live chat functionality to a website or an online community allows customers to get their queries answered in real-time, seek advice and build confidence during their shopping/support experience while improving conversion rates for the business.Although live chat functionality offers numerous benefits to businesses and customers, it has its own limitations, which refrain support reps from delivering seamless customer experience.

Limitations with Salesforce live chat functionality:

• Provides Basic Visual Experience: Live chat displays a pop-up window to take basic information from customers before connecting them with support reps. It takes a lot of space on the screen, which affects the visual experience of the user.
• Chat Sessions Expire: Since Customer Communities and Web sites use tab-based interface, a chat session expires if a customer switches between websites, community or pages. Upon starting a new session, the customer would connect with a new support rep, and has to narrate the problem all over again. It gets quite annoying for the customers.
• Form Fill Sessions Expire: A customer has to fill out a pre-chat form by providing basic details, including their name, email address, and issue to help support reps address the issue faster. However, when a session breaks due to tab/page change or page refresh, the customer has to fill out the form again with the same details to initiate a new chat session. It takes a lot of time to the customers and lowers the customer satisfaction.
• No On-Going Chat Notifier: If a customer minimizes the chat pop window while discussing the case, there will be no notifications of unread messages to remind them about the chat session. The customer gets to know about those unread messages only when he/she opens the chat window. It affects the support rep’s efficiency and the customer’s satisfaction as the discussion fails to meet any conclusion and the case remains open.

Rest API can be leveraged to overcome the above-stated problems and customize the live chat solution.

Rest API – How Can It Help?

Leveraging Rest API, businesses can efficiently and effectively manage support cases and provide real-time resolutions to their customers.

Here is how:

• Rest API helps live chat functionality perform out of the tabbed environment. Hence, the chat session does not expire and remains the same even when a customer changes tab/ page. Since it is the same session, the customer would remain connected to the same support rep and does not have to repeat the story all over again. It drives a consistent, seamless user experience.
• In addition to a frictionless chat session, Rest API personalizes the chat window as per the page and displays a welcome message/CTA accordingly. It encourages customers to initiate a chat request and increases conversion rates.
• Since it stores all the information provided by the customer in the first session, it displays a personalized welcome message when the same customer initiates a new chat session. It optimizes support rep’s experience by providing all records quickly when a chat session initiates and helps them create a personalized experience for the customer.
• In order to remind the customer about the active chat session or replies from the support rep, visualizations like a color change or displaying a number of unread messages can be introduced to grab their attention.

Conclusion:

Leveraging Rest API to customize live chat is a win-win for every business. It helps businesses deliver seamless user experience and drive high customer satisfaction.

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