How do you teach live chat skills?

1 Communication skills

Live chat is an immediate, interactive, and informal form of written communication that differs from emails or social media. To succeed in this medium, your agents must possess the necessary communication skills. They should use clear and concise language, avoiding jargon, slang, or abbreviations that might confuse the customer. Additionally, they should use a positive and polite tone, showing empathy while expressing gratitude and appreciation. Grammar, spelling, and punctuation should be correct and professional-looking; capitalization and emoticons should be avoided. Agents should use active voice and personal pronouns when addressing customers by name. Open-ended questions should be asked to confirm understanding while summarizing the main points of the conversation.

2 Technical skills

Live chat requires agents to have the technical skills to operate the software and tools that enable this channel. This includes being familiar with the features and functions of the live chat platform, such as initiating, transferring, or ending chats, sending canned responses or attachments, or accessing customer information. Additionally, agents should be able to troubleshoot common issues or errors that might occur during the chat, such as connectivity problems, slow response times, or browser compatibility. Moreover, agents must be able to multitask and manage multiple chats simultaneously without compromising the quality or speed of the service. Lastly, they should be knowledgeable in using other tools or resources that support the live chat service, such as knowledge bases, CRM systems, or internal communication platforms.

3 Customer service skills

Live chat is a customer service channel, so your agents need to possess customer service skills, such as actively listening and showing interest in the customer's emotions and needs, solving problems and providing solutions, handling complaints and objections, building rapport and trust, and seeking feedback and improvement. To teach live chat skills to your customer service team, you should design and deliver a training program that covers communication skills, technical skills, and customer service skills. To create and implement your live chat training program, consider the following steps:

4 Assess your current situation

Before you start your training program, it's important to assess your current situation and identify your goals and gaps. To do this, analyze your live chat data and metrics, survey your customers and agents, and compare your live chat service with competitors or industry standards. This assessment will help you define your training objectives, outcomes, and indicators, as well as your target audience, budget, and timeline.

5 Choose your training methods

Once you have your training plan in place, you should select the methods that best suit your objectives, audience, and resources. You can use a combination of online courses or modules, webinars or workshops, coaching or mentoring, role-playing or scenarios, and peer learning or collaboration. Online courses can include interactive and engaging content such as videos, quizzes, or simulations to teach live chat skills. Webinars and workshops can be live or recorded sessions to demonstrate and explain the skills and best practices. Coaching or mentoring can be one-on-one or group sessions to provide feedback and guidance. Role-playing or scenarios can be realistic and relevant situations to allow agents to practice in a safe environment. Peer learning or collaboration can be online or offline platforms for agents to share experiences, tips, or challenges.

6 Evaluate your training results

After you have delivered your training program, it's important to evaluate your training results and measure your impact. This can be done by collecting and analyzing your live chat data and metrics, surveying customers and agents about their satisfaction or difficulties with the live chat service after the training, and conducting follow-up or refresher sessions. Evaluating your training results will also help you identify the strengths and weaknesses of your program, allowing you to make any necessary adjustments or enhancements for future iterations.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?