Live chat allows customers to send and receive text messages in real time without leaving a website or application. It sits between asynchronous channels (email) and voice in terms of immediacy, and is widely used for pre-sale questions, troubleshooting, and transactional support.
For support teams, live chat introduces specific operational dynamics:
- Concurrency: Skilled agents can handle 3–5 simultaneous chats, improving efficiency versus phone.
- First response time: Customer expectations are high—typically under 60 seconds.
- Transcripts: Chats produce a searchable written record useful for QA (quality assurance) and training.
- Bot handoff: Many implementations use a chatbot to handle common questions before routing to a human.
Key metrics include first response time, average handle time (AHT), chat abandonment rate, and post-chat CSAT (customer satisfaction score). Live chat is most effective when staffed to match peak traffic windows; unmanned chat widgets that go unanswered frustrate customers more than having no chat at all.