Hi everyone! It is me again, Russel and I am back here in our YouTube channel. For today, I will share another video about working at home. We will be focusing on how to be a chat support. I will share all the necessary information you need to know to be a chat support. This will also serve as a guide for those beginners. I hope this video will help you. And if this helps you, please do not forget to like and share this video. Before we start this video and if you are new here on my channel, please consider subscribing by hitting the subscribe button down below. Please click the bell icon as well for you to be updated on our next videos. What are we going to discuss in this video? First, we will discuss what is the nature of the job or job overview as a chat support at home. We will also discuss the skills that you need to work as a chat support. I will also share 15 tips on how you can be an successful and effective chat support representative.
Just to share with you, for my 6 years of working experience, half of it is working as a chat support. So I will be sharing with you my tips and tricks on how to be an effective chat support. At the very last part of our video, I will share different companies and websites to where you can apply as a chat support. We will also discuss how much will be the salary for beginners and experienced chat support agents. What is the nature of the job as a chat support? There are companies and websites that who offer products and services online. They are looking for agents or employees that can work for them.
Those who will be their frontliners. These people will attend to customer inquiries and they will answer live chat sessions. That is where chat platforms come in wherein as a chat support, you will be the one to answer customer inquires. You will be the one to solve their problems. As a chat support agent for a specific company or website, you need to know and to master the products and services that your company offers. Say for example you will be working for a company for a billing website or eCommerce or for sales, you should know the product that you are offering. You should also know the processes when it comes to those products and services. And you should be familiar with their platforms. We will discuss all those later on. Like what I have mentioned earlier, for chat support, there are many line of business depending on which company you will be applying. There is a chat support for sales, technical chat support, billing chat support, eCommerce chat support and many more.
It might b best to choose the line of business to where your profession is aligned or the one that might be the easiest for you. But if you are a fast learner, it is fine to do chat on any line of business because you will be able to grasp all the information you need to know as a chat support for that specific line of busniness.
Now let us talk about the skills qualifications as a chat support. The first one if of course, English fluency. You need to be fluent in English both written and verbal communication. You will be using the English written language as a medium because you will do chats It is just like you are using your social media accounts to chat with your friends. Most of the time, that is how it works. Why do we need to be fluent as well when it comes to verbal communication? As a chat support, you will be working with a team. You will be having a team, you will have a leader and manager. There are times that you need to be coached, there are information and updates in need of dissemination.
There will be such meetings, coachings wherein you will need to communicate and converse in English. That is why you need to have an excellent verbal English communication as well. One great important skill that you need to have is problem-solving skill. As a chat support agent, you will be answering live chat sessions. It is like doing calls, but the difference is that you're on chat but you are talking to your customers live too. You need to have your skills when it comes to problem solving. You need to practice solving different problems for your customers. You should also know how to multi-task. You might think that being a chat support is just easy, but it will be challenging for you as a beginner. You will not be chatting with just only one customer at a time you have to chat for different concurrency depending on the company that you applied to.
They might require you to do two chats at the same time, three chats at the same time or more than that so you need to know how to multi task. You need to know how to navigate from different chats at the same time. And of course while chatting with your customers, you also need to navigate through different platforms and tools that you need to use. Software navigation skill also plays a role for that. As a chat support, you will be using different tools at the same time.
If you are familiar with Alt-Tab and other keyboard shortcuts that you need to utilize. Based on my previous experience, Alt+Tab and other keyboard shortcuts are really being used as a chat support. There are tools that you need to use at the same time while chatting with your customers. You can also arrange your screen wherein you will be able to see all the tools you need and you can just click on them.
You can also find your own style and technique on how you can make tools navigation easy. Of course, the most important skill that you need is your typing skill and accuracy. As a chat support representative, some companies will require you about 40WPM. Some others might require a lot higher typing speed. Say around 50-60 WPM or more. Most especially if the company you're applying for is requiring 3-4 chats or more at the same time, they will really need higher typing speed. But for companies who hire chat support beginners, if you can achieve around 35 to 40 WPM for your typing speed that will work. It really depends on the company itself. Those are the requirements for you to qualify as a chat support. Now let us move on to the 15 tips that I can share with you as an experienced chat support.
I will be sharing with you my best practices. When it comes to typing speed, if you are not that fast enough, that's fine. Everything can be improved through practice. So before you apply, if you think that you will not be able to reach the typing speed required, it is better for you to practice first. There are a lot of typing speed or speedtest tools online. You can use them. That is for you to practice your typing skills and it will help you improve.
If you think that you already improved and that you can already meet the minimum speed That is the time that you can start applying. The next tip that I can give you is that when you are already doing live chats, you should avoid robotic responses. These are responses that are out of emotions and most of the time, transactional. Most of the companies measure their customer satisfaction. This third tip I can advise is not necessary especially for some companies that do not allow these, but if you will be allowed to do so and if you think this will help, you can also create your scripts.
You can use MS Word or Gdocs or any other platforms What do I mean by scripts. There are ready-made responses. For example, you are encountering a common issue from different customers, you will create your response format this way, you can just copy and paste it when you encounter the same issue again. You can also do that but please make sure that your scripts are personalized and not robotic responses. The fourth tip is, if you will also be allowed, use proper punctuations and emojis or emoticons. There are companies that allow the use of emoticons but some do not. But in order to convey emotions on your chats, this is a challenge. As a chat support, it is really hard to convey your emotions or feelings to your customers. That is the big difference when comparing doing calls to doing live chats. In calls, it is easy to show your motions, but in chat, it is a bit more difficult. You need to use the proper words, appropriate punctuations and emojis if you are allowed to.
Fifth advise if for you to keep response time low. What is response time? This is the time interval of your responses from your customer's messages. Say for example customer sent you a message, it will be advisable for you to reply to your customer as soon as possible like replying to your customer within 1-2 minutes. With response time, you need to have your mindset that you need to always be the last person who sent a message on the chatbox.
Tip no. 6 is very important guys. You need to use positive scripting. You need to know how to deliver a bad news. When I say positive scripting, do not use negative works like "unfortunately". Avoid using the words "No", "I can't", "we can't". Instead of using those negative words, you can also try to deliver it in a form of a good statement. Say for example delivering a bad news by saying, "As much as we would like to help you, we are unable to process this or that.
On the other hand, this is an alternative that we can do." Most of the time, in order to deliver a bad news in a good statement you should look for other alternatives. You should avoid the use of negative words and replace them with positive scripts. Tip#7, you need to know how to empathize when needed. If a customer mentions a specific event in their lives, you need to empathize. You need to let them know that you feel them. And if they are having issues or whenever they are venting out, let them know that you understand them and you are there to listen. It is like putting yourself in your customer's shoes or place. Letting them know that you feel what they feel and that you are always there to assist them. Tip#8, I would also suggest for you to blueprint on the start of your chat. When you already confirmed the problem or issue of your customer, try to blueprint.
You need to let the customer know what will be the process or what will be the steps and flow of resolution. That way, they will be aware if the chat will take long, what will be the processes, what are the steps to take or what not. You can start by saying like, "Here is our plan…", "Here will be our plan", "Here is what we are going to do" Tip#9, once you have resolved your customer's issues, it would be best to recap what have you done at the end of the chat. Make sure to repeat it at the end of the chat like "Mr/Ms Customer, we are able to process this, we are able to do this and resolve your concerns …" that way they will be aware hat their issues are fully resolved and at the same time they will know that you were able to help them resolve their problems as their chat expert. Especially when customers have multiple concerns, it will be best for you to recap at the end of the chat.
If ever they misses something out, they will also remember and you can still assist them with that. Tip#10, proper holding procedure. Just like calls, when you need to check on your customer's account or you need time for research and investigation you need to hold your customer for 1-2 minutes. Then after 2 minutes if you still need additional time, you need to go back to your customer and let them know. Don't let them wait for too long because it might get them irritated and agitated. Tip#11, probing. When there are times that you are having a hard time figuring out your customer's main concern, you need to ask the proper probing questions.
It is like narrowing down the issue. If your customer's description is too general, you need to ask appropriate questions to narrow down the issue and to resolve the problem in a timely manner. Tip#12, you need to use triple C statement. What I mean by triple C statement? These are statement that are clear, concise and condensed. You don't need lengthy responses. As long as the message has the thought, explanation is clear an facts are there, you're good. Tip# 13, you also need to learn how to set your customer's proper expectations. When you process a specific thing on your customer's account, or when you do some changes, you need to make sure that they are aware of what will happen next. If there are ways for your customer to do the process on their end like self service options, You need to let them know as well. Tip#14 which is really advisable especially for all beginners, utilize your company's knowledge base.
Each company has its knowledge base tool. When I say knowledge base, this is a platform where all the knowledge and information about products, services and processes are stored. If you don't know the next steps to help the customer, utilize the knowledge base. And if you still can't find the answer from it, that is the time that you'll ask assistance from your leader. But first, you need to utilize your tools.
Tip#15 is of course, you need to provide concise and precise information and resolution. Do not provide any false information. Don't invent resolutions for your customers. Make sure that all information you are giving them are all correct. Because you will be held responsible if you misinform a customer. It might lead to termination too. Those are the tips that I can give you guys and I hope these will help those who want to be a chat support especially the newbies. Now let us talk about the companies to where you can apply as an online chat support. The first one is Upwork. If you have your Upwork account or if you can create one, you can scan available jobs for chat support.
There are a lot in there. At the same time, you can also search jobs for chat support at onlinejobs.ph. You just need to create your account and look for job openings for a chat support. And recently, I have covered a video about Hepflow. Helpflow is also hiring chat support agents all around the word. So wherever you are located, you can apply. You can also check that video on my channel. I also want to share this, The Chat Shop. The Chat Shop only hires applicants from the US and the UK. For our viewers from the UK and US, you can feel free to apply here. For US, they are only hiring for specific states. Those are displayed on the screen. Another website for US applicants only, Site Staff. You can also check their website, Another company that hires international applicants is Directly. For directly, there are a lot of accounts that you can choose from.
I will post all necessary links on the description and comment section. By the way, as a Chat Support, you can earn from $4-$10 per hour That will depend on your experience. Those are the information that I would like to share with you on how to be a chat support especially for the newbies and for those who are wondering how to be a chat support, what is the nature of the jobs and where to apply. There are the things that I'd like to share. I hope this helps. If you have questions you can feel free to message me directly on my social media accounts. Please also feel free to comment down below if you have any insights or ideas just comment it down.
Please don't forget to like this video and share this to your friends and family that way they will also be aware how chat support works. Again this is Russel, if you are new here, we are covering work from home job videos and you might want to consider subscribing by hitting the subscribe button below please also hit the notification bell for you to be updated on our next uploads. That will be our video for today guys and I hope that you learned something from me today.
I will see you again in our next videos. Bye for now..