No matter what industry or niche a business operates in, its reputation is only as good as the customer service it provides. Answering questions and providing after-sales service to buyers helps them be more confident when doing business with you, creating more trust in the long run.
Unfortunately, many businesses still have no idea that their customer service lacks accessibility, keeping possible buyers away. Over 23 million people in the U.S. with disabilities are employed. They have purchasing power and are willing to buy from brands that cater to their unique needs.
It’s about time companies start integrating accessibility in their business operations, so make sure your customer service considers digital accessibility when developing digital strategies.
If Customer Care Matters, So Should Accessibility
The need for online accessibility has become more critical than ever. If you have an online business, e-commerce solutions can help boost your sales and offer a satisfactory customer experience.
But you also need to evaluate how accessible your business is to customers with disabilities and people who would have difficulty navigating your website or using phone support.
Let’s talk about live chat. Have you enabled that feature for your customers? Fortunately, it can be an easy solution to your accessibility concerns. In addition, you can integrate this feature into your website and app to enhance your digital presence and customer support.
Let’s explore ways a live chat channel can offer accessible customer service, opening doors to your audience, irrespective of their disability, nationality, or location.
It Can Offer Translations
Your services and products are potentially available to a global audience. So, you need to provide a means of communication to every customer who lands on your website, even if they speak a foreign language.
But your issue is that hiring multi-lingual agents is very difficult, and hiring customer representatives for every language will be way too expensive.
This is where live chat software can help. Some software offers real-time chat translation, allowing you to talk to anyone worldwide, no matter their language.
Providing this accessibility to your customers can help your business go global, improve sales, and increase profits.
But, most importantly, this service increases the accessibility of customer help and ensures that you offer the same service to everyone without discrimination.
Helps Serve Clients with Speech & Hearing Impairments
While the language barrier can be a significant hindrance to the accessibility of your customer service, having a feature for physically disabled individuals can be even more critical.
For example, individuals with speech or hearing impairments may find it challenging to engage in verbal communication, making the delivery of a commencement speech unfeasible for them.
Therefore, you need to provide an alternative option to help these individuals communicate with your business in real-time.
Providing them with an option of live chat on your website or live social media chatbots can help increase the accessibility of your customer support. They won’t need physical speech, but they can converse over messages. It will help customers with disabilities feel included and valued.
In addition, it will grow their trust and customer loyalty to your company, which will lead to a positive image of your brand.
Caters to Anxious Customers
Your possible clientele may feel anxious about talking to a stranger and unable to maintain a conversation over the phone.
Anxiety disorders and other mental health conditions can be as critical as physical issues for some people.
So, companies need to be more considerate towards these individuals and set up a communication channel in writing.
Live chat will allow these customers to get in touch with you without making a voice call or verbally speaking to a representative, giving them access to the same customer service as everyone else.
Facilitates Younger Visitors
Live chat on your website is one of the simplest ways to get great sales results. It also earns you points as a business, as people love brands that don’t compel them to call or email. Live chat is instant and usually gets customers the answers they need in a matter of minutes.
This attracts younger customers to your brand because they are more comfortable with chat apps and text messages than calls. If you want to capture the attention of Gen Z (who feels safer behind a screen and doesn’t like to have verbal conversations), you need to catch up with their needs.
Makes You Available All the Time
These days, people prefer multitasking instead of being dedicated to one task at a time. So even when they’re out, stuck in traffic, shopping, hanging out with friends, or attending a seminar, they’re doing business over their phones or interacting with other companies.
So, to make your customer support more accessible, you need to have a live chat that your customers can access over their smartphones. It will help them do more in less time.
This also makes it easier for your customer service agents to be available when they are needed the most by customers. Live chat and other cloud-based contact center solutions allow your agents to work from the convenience of their homes as if they were in an outsourced contact center.
Your customers will appreciate your agents' availability, and support representatives will understand the convenience and flexibility of a cloud-based platform.
Goes Beyond Email
Emails can be time-consuming, and people don’t have the patience to communicate through them anymore. Instead, they prefer instant replies through fast connections.
Hence, to help your customers, you must provide them with speedy responses and quick service. This will make your customers feel you value their time and want to resolve their concerns as quickly as possible.
While it might take days and weeks to respond to emails, live chat software can answer their queries within minutes.
Moreover, you can help resolve questions promptly as they come up. When the customers’ concerns are settled, they are more likely to remain loyal to your brand.
On the other hand, delayed, drawn-out responses make customers feel like the company doesn’t value their concerns enough.
Another reason to prefer live chats over email is that they help the customer chat with the representative while browsing your site. They can be asking questions from the representative and switching tabs simultaneously, potentially leading to more sales.
Wrapping Up
Today’s customers are driven towards businesses that provide them accessibility – the ones that understand their troubles and address their issues with the help of modern technology. So, if you want to build a positive and lasting impact on your customers, your online business needs to be accessible.
Live chat enhances accessibility and helps your customers feel valued. It can help overcome language barriers and physical and mental health disabilities and increase your customer base.
