These days, almost all customer support systems are automated. Still, nothing beats the real thing live customer support that is both warm and friendly. Live customer support can do so much more for a company than business owners and managers realize. It creates a favorable impression on people customer, partners and prospective clients who come in contact with your company.

Developing live customer support

There are generally two ways of providing customer support via the Internet or the telephone.

While email is an acceptable and effective method of communication, it is still stagnant and expensive in the long run. A customer, when unsatisfied with the reply, will tend to email again and take up yet another significant part of your customer representatives time. This will never happen if you have live customer support. Your clients will get all the answers they need at once, and your customer service representatives can move on to the next client and get more work done.

How do you make your live, online support stand out? It takes more than just putting a live support button on your site. You can try showing the names and images of your customer support staff on your websites customer support page, so that customers know that they are talking to a real person, not an automated program. Your customers can then easily click on a specific customer support representative they have talked to before, if they have follow up questions or need more assistance. These touches may seem simple enough, but they can greatly help make the interaction between your company and your customers more intimate and effective.

Live customer support on the telephone. Telephone support should be provided free of charge to all customers regardless of their location. Be sure to have enough operators standing by to attend to calls. There is nothing more frustrating for a customer than waiting in vain only to be answered by a machine. All calls should be answered within five minutes.