Is instant support important to a merchant?
Technology is growing at a very fast pace, and this means that potential issues also arise quickly. Being able to quickly respond to help requests is something that needs focusing on.
The ability to talk to almost anyone from almost anywhere in the world is something that has changed the ways in which we interact with each other. This is means that it has changed the levels of customer support and service that can be offered to customers and merchants of payment service providers. It also goes hand-in-hand with the fact that it enables general challenges and issues to be resolved quickly through live support and chat systems.
With the advent of new technology coming at payment service providers and merchants almost weekly, it is paramount that providers understand that most of this technology is lightly tested and even totally untested in some circumstances. As well as this, the ability to quickly integrate new acquiring partners and banks quickly creates situations for bugs and faults to arise without the provider seeing them, and only be noticed once the merchant is affected or realizes there is an issue. The biggest challenge with these cases is that there is almost always a monetary loss due to the “down-time” it causes.
One way payment service providers can combat large-scale downtime or total shutdowns due to bugs being found in technology is by providing their merchants with access to instant and live support as opposed to a ticketing system and emails. The benefit of this is not only providing great customer service to merchants but also allowing merchants to act as “quality assurance” team members as they are the most likely users to be able to find and spot potential issues with the system that they are using. For example, let’s say your gateway recently upgraded its anti-fraud system, but the system was set to a level that meant that the merchant could not process cards from a specific jurisdiction that they previously could. This could have a catastrophic effect on their business as now they are losing revenue. If you do not have a live chat support system available, it forces the merchant to send an email and also possibly divert their traffic to a competitor in order to minimize their losses. Not only has the merchant lost revenue, as well as you, but they have lost trust and given the opportunity to another processor to process those particular payments and it may even take you a few days to find and respond to the email from the merchant. This simple fact should directly impose the decision to incorporate a live chat system, just as BrightCart does.
The 3 simple ways in which live chat support can benefit you are:
- Allows you to have quick and constant communication with your merchants
- Gives your merchants the opportunity to help you spot potential issues before they escalate
- Provides you the opportunity to deal with small, easy-to-fix issues fast
As for the types of live chat, there are literally hundreds. Some are more beneficial than others, and some are more suitable in terms of pricing (there are actually free ones available). One thing is for sure though, your company would not lose anything by having a live chat system. Your sales team will enjoy it, your merchants will thank you, and your business will grow significantly by showing that you want to invest time in helping your customers.
