Established in 1999, CPAP.com has been dedicated to providing affordable Sleep Apnea equipment and superior customer service to its clients for 20 years.
According to their website, whether the CPAP staff is serving customers in-store or online, their goal is to provide “unmatched customer service.”
I sat down with CPAP.com’s CSR Manager, Elizabeth Hamilton, to find out how the brand has brought their award-winning customer service to their website with live chat.
We also dive into how her team is using live chat to improve their customer satisfaction scores.
Elizabeth Hamilton, CSR Manager at CPAP.com
Q: Your team has won numerous LiveHelpNow Challenge awards for providing excellence in customer service with live chat. What do you attribute to your continuous success?
A: Our CSRs are really the reason why we’ve been able to be so successful. They are the backbone of our company.
CPAP.com has a really in-depth product knowledge base that we pass on to our CSRs throughout their training. So, they’re required to learn everything about our products from general information to helping customers troubleshoot with the products. So, with having that knowledge, they can respond quickly and accurately to our customers whenever they come in with questions and requests.
62% of customers feel a customer service representative’s knowledge was the most important factor in their interaction, and 51% of customers prefer technical support through a knowledge base. @AmericanExpress @Econsultancy Share on XA: We also encourage our CSRs to really bring in an empathetic ear to the conversation. We really want our customers to feel heard even over chat…to know that there’s a human on the other end of the conversation.
An emotional connection to a brand means customers have a 306% higher lifetime value, and 71% of these customers recommend brands to their friends. @Motista #customerservice #customerexperience Share on X
Related Post: How to Adapt Call Center Tactics to Chatting
Q: Once you implemented live chat on the CPAP.com website, about how long did it take for you to notice that it was having a positive effect?
A: We noticed immediately. We were able to get customer feedback instantly through the satisfaction surveys that we set up. We did already have a previous chat client, so we wanted to make sure that it was seamless for our customers. So, we made sure we set up those satisfaction surveys so we knew exactly how we were doing.
Customer satisfaction ratings for live chat are often higher than all other support channels, likely because of the speed and conversational nature. @customerthink #customerservice #livechat Share on X
Q: Where did you notice it having the biggest effect first? Sales? Lead Generation? Customer Satisfaction?
A: I would say the biggest impact was on our customer satisfaction, which you can say that directly affects sales in a positive way. Because of the nature of our business, we’re not able to take orders over chat, but we are able to impact that by giving them great customer service, by getting them the knowledge that they need, by telling them, “hey we’ll have someone call you back.” So, really just seeing that customer satisfaction…that made a huge difference.
Satisfied clients resulted in a 30% increased profitability for a business as they were 80% more likely to renew the services. @HelpScout #customersatisfaction Share on X
Q: Since you have implemented live chat on the CPAP.com website, what type of impact has it had on the company’s sales and revenue?
A: We’re still in the process of collecting and analyzing data to really see the true impact that LiveHelpNow has had on our sales, but I can share with you that our customer satisfaction has improved by 15% since providing a new avenue for customers to reach us. So, we have really seen a good impact there.
Our customer satisfaction has improved by 15% since providing a new avenue for customers to reach us.
Related Post: Conversion Tracking: LiveChat and Email Support
Q: Did you see any positive or negative impact after rolling out Live Help Bot (LiveHelpNow’s Chatbot)?
So far the results have been really positive. That feature allows us to gather useful customer information that we have to have anyway prior to accessing their account history. So, you know they are entering it in before they get to us.
We’ve also been able to reduce our incoming chats by about 60% because customers can now find their answers or because it just makes the chat easier on both sides because we’re getting that information upfront.
Q: How do your customers feel about having the option to live chat with your staff? Have they given any type of feedback regarding their chat interactions?
A: Yes. So, we actually do the [post-chat] surveys. So, we’re able to see immediately what they think. Our customers love the ability to chat with us rather than always having to call in or if they email us having to wait for that response.
We continually receive positive feedback about our chat. Some of the specifics are that it’s fast, that issues are resolved efficiently, and our customers love the assistance they get from our CSRs, who of course are knowledgeable and friendly with them.
A: And, I wanted to just share some pieces of feedback that we’ve gotten in from customers that I just pulled from our chat surveys (we get them all the time):
“An immediate response. An agent was excellent and quickly answered my questions”
Another one from another customer: “The rep answered all my questions and guided me to next steps and products that I needed.”
This one calls out on of our CSRs by name: “Bianca understood, quickly addressed, and resolved my issue. I wish all customer service reps were as good as Bianca.”
So, we get some really great feedback from customers.
Q: So, how does your staff feel about using the LiveHelpNow live chat software to chat with and assist customers?
A: They love it. One of our favorite things is to be able to quickly see which web pages customers are on, so that we can see that ‘Oh, they’re looking at this product,’ and we’re able to just jump in there and help them. On both sides, it’s really beneficial.
Q: What is your approach for training your staff to use the LiveHelpNow live chat software to provide the exceptional customer service they deliver consistently ( i.e. use of incentives for agents, positive culture, etc.)?
A: Our CSRs really come from a deep bench of knowledge. So, they learn how to assist customers through LiveHelpNow only after they have been on the phone talking with customers to gain that experience first. So, it translates very easily from phones to chat.
A: We train our CSRs on proper chat etiquette, not using shorthand, and really to talk with the customer using words and phrases that ensure a positive customer experience. And, again empathy…really relating to the customer and what they are going through.
Our team of CSRs love working in LiveHelpNow. So, really just the feature itself is an incentive…so, the fact that they get to work those shifts where they can chat with customers.
Also, we use a platform called Bonusly, which is an internal recognition system that allows our CSRs to recognize each other, and managers, of course, are on that as well. It’s really just to give people a shout out. It’s a point system that does add up to monetary value, but really it’s about the recognition.
Companies using incentive programs report a 79% success rate in achieving their established goals when the correct reward is offered. @EngageTrends #employeeengagement Share on X
Q: Why do you think live chat customer service is working so well for CPAP.com?
A: Well the platform (LiveHelpNow) is easy to implement and really beneficial to our customers because they get help instantly. It also has an intuitive backend, making it easy for our CSRs to use on our side as well.
Q: What would be your advice for other call centers implementing live chat in their organizations to make sure it is done properly and efficiently?
A: First, what’s really, really important is just determining exactly what you’re trying to achieve with your live chat system. Are you trying to make it easier for your customer? Are you wanting to increase your chats? Just figuring out all of those things beforehand…Thinking about what you want to accomplish and exactly what that’s going to look like for your customer is really important.
Companies that excel at the customer experience drive revenues 4% to 8% higher than those of their market. @BainInsights Share on XAlso, doing a lot of testing along the way such as mock chats between CSRs to make sure that everything is working and that your CSRs are completely trained in the platform before you go live. Taking the time to create an extensive list of chat templates…like I said before the canned responses…that was huge for us also because it really helped the CSRs to answer questions quickly while they were still learning how to use the platform.
Key Takeaways:
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- 62% of customers feel a customer service representative’s knowledge is the most important factor in their interaction. All of CPAP.com’s live chat agents are thoroughly trained and provided with proper resources prior to utilizing LiveHelpNow’s live chat software to effectively assist customers. (American Express)
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- CPAP.com encourages all of their CSRs to bring in an empathetic ear to each conversation. An emotional connection to a brand means customers have a 306% higher lifetime value, and 71% of these customers recommend brands to their friends. (Motista)
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- CPAP.com has post-chat surveys in place, so its staff can immediately see how their customers feel about their interaction with the company’s live chat agents. Brands are viewed more favorably by 77% of consumers if they proactively invite and accept customer feedback. (Microsoft)
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- The customer service department has a recognition/incentive program in place to acknowledge top performing agents. Companies using incentive programs report a 79% success rate in achieving their established goals when the correct reward is offered. (EngagementTrends)
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- Before implementing live chat software, CPAP.com’s team found it imperative to outline what they wanted to accomplish and to envision what their strategy would look like to their customers (i.e. they thought about what the customer experience would look like). Companies that excel at the customer experience drive revenues 4% to 8% higher than those of their market. (Bain & Company)
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