Every one of us has called a helpline which has an option for various departments and the IVR says, “Press 1 for Sales, Press 2 for Technical Support etc” but have you ever wondered why is it done? The reason for this segregation is to reduce the wait time for the customer who is trying to get some help. The same applies to Live Chat Support, when a customer lands on the website it is not mandatory that he will be interested in buying the product or service which is listed on the website. May be he is just looking for some help with the purchase he has already made. Or May be wants some information which is not on the website. So, in order to help the customer and to reduce the wait time for the online chatters Chat Routing technique is used.

Over the course of last decade Live Chat has evolved from basic online messaging to a complete and comprehensive support solution for business whether they are looking to expand their sales force or trying to wow their customers with superior support Live Chat Support has been there to help the online businesses to achieve their goals. But everything has its limitations, same is the case with Live Chat, the Agent who is responding to chat is not a superhuman or a supercomputer which can process and handle thousands of processes and requests at the same time. He or She is a normal person and they do have their limits to handle pressure and work load. So, in order to maintain the optimum service and reduce the wait time for customer Chat Routing Technique was introduced. How it helps? Well Imagine you are running a store and you have 6-7 customers in front of you but they all have different needs. One of them is looking to make a purchase, other is there to return an item, and couple of them are interested to know about the new promotions while some of them are there to offer you some business of their own. If they would have come one by one you would have handled them pretty easily but what if they all are there at the same time and they want your help at the same time.

How will you do it?

Simple it is not possible to handle all of them at the same time. Some of them will have to wait and that may leave a bad impression on them about your business practices. Now take this example and apply it to Live Chat we all know that a Live Chat Agent can handle multiple chats simultaneously but it does effect the level of service. But what if there are more than one agents sitting and the customers are redirected to the concerned person where they do not have to wait to get a response. That will make them happy and it will also reduce the work load on the Live Chat Agent. As we all know that increased workload leads to a reduced quality of service.

So, in order to keep the service quality up to the mark this technique is utilized where a customer selects the department before getting actually engaged in a conversation with a representative over Live Chat. This Pre-Chat Form helps the customer not only select the appropriate department but also the agent to identify the customer’s needs before actually getting engaged with him in a conversation. It also helps the agents to concentrate on their current chats when there is a high volume of online traffic as due to this chat routing all the incoming chat is distributed among the agents who are idle and available instead of distracting the agents who are already busy with customers. This way the work load is easily managed and the service level is maintained as well.