Representatives for several federal websites (cancer.gov, studentaid.gov and usa.gov among them) offered useful insight on web chat at a recent Government Contact Center Council meeting including some practical tips for this popular and effective customer service channel.
According to a post on DigitalGov.gov, web chat is a key service channel (it scores better than email but lower than phone support) and has particular appeal for younger audiences and customers interested in completing a task on a website, such as filling out an electronic form.
Education and GSA start their agents on phones, and when they are more experienced, move them to chat where they can use prepared statements to common questions and augment that with other information sources, including the agency’s website.
Best practices include capturing the topic to identify trends, drop down menus to categorize conversations, moving agents between email and chat, reinforcing agency branding at the end of the chat with a standard closing, and offering customers a transcript of the session.
Link: www.digitalgov.gov
