Live chat agents are responsible for communicating with customers and clients through live chat or other direct communication channels to answer queries, troubleshoot issues and solve problems. They help businesses improve their overall customer service ratings by providing fast and efficient responses to queries and maintain an organization’s customer experience reputation. Live chat agents are also known as chat support. 

The importance of a great customer experience is paramount to business success. Live chat agents can add value here by addressing customer concerns and improving their overall satisfaction levels. In fact, 51% of customers state they will never do business with a company again if they have had just one negative experience and 93% of consumers say they are more likely to be repeat customers with companies with remarkable service1. From a financial perspective, a totally satisfied customer contributes 2.6 times as much revenue as a somewhat satisfied customer and 14 times as much revenue as a somewhat dissatisfied customer2.

A large number of chat agent or chat support tasks are completed online, which makes them well-suited to being performed in an offshore environment. As long as your business is offshore ready, outsourcing live chat agents to the Philippines is simple and cost-effective.

What are the benefits of outsourcing live chat agent tasks?

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Want a live chat agent – or a team of live chat agents – in the Philippines?

  • Cost savings: By hiring an offshore live chat agent to support your local team with repetitive and time-consuming tasks for a fraction of the price, due to the lower living costs in the Philippines, you can save up to 70% when compared to hiring locally. 

  • Increase in output efficiency and quality levels: Sending routine chat support tasks to an offshore team in the Philippines means your onshore team will have more time to take on higher value, strategic work. Your business will notice a drastic increase in productivity levels within your customer support department. 

  • Business growth and scaling opportunities: When you send your time-consuming tasks to an offshore live chat agent in the Philippines, your local team will have more time to focus on increasing profits and business growth and development opportunities. The additional capacity that your onshore team gets from your offshore team's support means you can grow your business sustainably.

  • Access to 24/7 client support: Hiring outsourced live chat agents means you can have access to 24/7 support for your clients. Outsourcing makes it possible to employ live chat agents who can answer customer queries and issues outside of normal business hours rather than waiting till the next business day - increasing your customer experience.

What qualifications, skills and experience make a successful live chat agent?

Live chat agents are constantly relaying information to customers. They need to be kept up-to-date with changes to company policies and product information as customers expect quick and accurate details when chatting live. The whole point of live chat is to get your answers quickly and efficiently. A live chat agent needs to be knowledgeable and familiar with the identity of the company, along with the products and services that it offers. Experience using customer relationship management (CRM) software is important so that live chat agents can keep track of consumer data and understand how to refer to and pull up relevant information to help elevate their customer experience.

Good communication skills are crucial to their success. Being able to communicate clearly and answer questions eloquently and professionally is an important trait of successful live chat agents. 

In terms of qualifications and education, a degree or certificate in business administration may be helpful but not necessary. Becoming a successful live chat agent is more around having the ability to connect to and understand others rather than previous studies or qualifications. In saying that, there are some courses, such as soft skills workshops, that focus on the development of said people skills.

Live chat agent roles can be categorized by years of working experience:

  • Entry-level - intermediate – up to 3 years of live chat agent experience, either supervised or unsupervised. Tasks completed could include responding to customer queries through live chat software, documenting issues and resolutions for future reference, and keeping abreast of any changes to company information or product offerings.
  • Senior – 3+ years of experience in live chat support roles. Tasks completed could include managing live chat teams, creating live chat training manuals, developing customer service solutions and the overall preparation of reports for senior stakeholders.

What tools and systems do live chat agents need to be successful in their roles?

Most organizations require live chat agents to be familiar with the live chat software they have implemented. These systems can be business-specific and live chat agents can only become familiar with them once they are employees. Here are a few examples of commonly used live chat software:

3dsmax
Autodesk Autocad
revit
vray
Adobe Illustrator
sketchup
blender
3dsmax
Autodesk Autocad
revit
vray
Adobe Illustrator
sketchup
blender

Save up to 70% on labor and occupancy costs

Because living costs are so low in the Philippines, labor and occupancy costs are too. We can employ and accommodate fully qualified, very experienced 3D designers for your team in the Philippines for up to 70% less than you’d pay in your local employment market. Outsourcing your 3D modeling and animation just makes good business sense.

Contact us for salary information

Tips for employing Filipino live chat agents

  • Your live chat agents must know your business's systems and software to provide the best level of support to your customers.
  • Ensure that you let your talent acquisition team in the Philippines know the size of projects your ideal offshore live chat agents will be working on so they can source the best suited candidates.
  • You can recruit as many live chat agents as required from project to project and can even hire senior live chat agents in the Philippines to manage your offshore teams. If/when you grow your offshore team to several staff, having one team lead can ensure streamlined communication and project updates are effectively delivered to your onshore team.

Reference:
1 Global Computer-Aided Design (CAD) Market - Analysis and Forecast (2017-2023)
2 INFO QUEST: B2B CUSTOMER SATISFACTION SURVEYS FOR ONLINE CASINO OPERATORS

Interested in recruiting team(s) in the Philippines?

Since our inception in 2006, MicroSourcing has become one of the biggest providers of offshoring solutions in the Philippines. We can help you build a dedicated team in the Philippines, regardless of the roles and level of specialization you require. MicroSourcing is backed by our parent company, Probe CX, one of Australia’s fastest-growing offshoring solution and customer engagement firms. So, it’s safe to say we’re experts in outsourcing to the Philippines.

Call +1 888-731-0023 today or send us an email to discuss your company’s offshoring needs.

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