Web users are increasingly familiar with an annoying phenomenon afflicting all manner of sites: you’re just browsing around, minding your own business and up pops a chat window asking if there’s anything “it” can do to help (Generally these helpful pop ups aren’t manned by a live agent, but are just a programmatic chat bot). Most times, it’s irritating and the answer is, “No thanks, just passing through.” It’s unfortunate, especially since the site owner is genuinely trying to be helpful, but the overuse and misapplication of an inherently intrusive technology like web chat ends up having the same effect as an animated pop-up ad: it’s an immediate turn off. Indeed, most users are so inured to these things as to ignore them entirely. Most chat invitations are also unhelpful because they’re out of context with what the user is trying to do. Forbes recently posted an article arguing the importance of intelligence behind your live web chat. A summary of that article is below:

Coming on the heels of a November 2013 customer service benchmark report, eDigitalResearch has released a follow-up study reaffirming its core finding: Live chat is the most satisfying modality for customer engagement. Smart Customer Service posted an article on eDigitalResearch’s findings in the summary below:

The study polled 2,000 nationally representative U.K. customers about their preferences and experiences when dealing with brands over live chat, email, social media, apps, traditional mail, phone, and short message service (SMS). For those that had used live chat to contact a company in the last year (26 percent), 73 percent reported that they were "satisfied" or "very satisfied" with the experience they had. This is more or less on par with the numbers eDigitalResearch saw in November. Usage, however, is up slightly, from around 24 percent to 26 percent.

It's undeniable; retail customer service is facing an era of dramatic change. According to analysis from global consultancy, Deloitte, consumers increasingly digital lifestyles are altering traditional customer service models more than ever. Tech Radar recently posted an article about handling customer service in multi channel businesses. A summary of that article is below:

Advancements in technology are constantly changing the way call centers operate. Once upon a time, all customer interactions took place over the phone. Now we connect with customers over web chat, email, social media and more. Kunnect recently wrote an article on the top 5 call center trends for 2014. A summary of that article is below:

Most of you have probably used a chat option on a business website. Maybe you've even considered using chat on your own site. ConnectFirst recently posted an article on why you NEED to have live chat. A summary of that article is below:

Live chat is an efficient, personalized way to help customers and strengthen your product’s reputation.

ICMI.com posted an article regarding the up and coming need for live chat in the call center industry and for your business. A summary of that article is below:

It's not either or: chat's place in both sales and service environment.

An article from ICMI.com discusses the need for chat in every type of business, whether your focus is primarily sales or service. Below is a summarization of that article:

October 14, 2013 - Minneapolis, Minnesota