The news is surprising. After all, for years we've only read and heard good things about live chat. Users love it, and these are people who are always in search of ever more instantaneous answers to their questions. Businesses, for their part, are crazy about it: lowered processing costs for incoming messages, increase in sales, greater proximity to users. And the impressive expansion of chat software for businesses drives this home, to the four corners of the world.
Nevertheless, the signs are popping up, giving us a glimpse of a profound transition, as much for users as for businesses. A transition that leaves the role of live chat, as we know it today, compromised.
Some recent studies are conflicting. They drive home live chat's key success factors-a desire to avoid waiting times of course, and the convenience of instantaneousness. No one wants to have to work to contact businesses these days; it's up to businesses to make themselves available and accessible. It's not surprising then that these studies have found that live chat is more popular with young people, particularly aged 18-24. It corresponds to usage tendencies that are already engrained in them. The final reason mentioned is multitasking, mentioned by nearly 15% of respondents between 18 and 35.
But upon closer inspection, these studies don't just explain the reasons why live chat is so popular today, but implicitly show why it will be in decline tomorrow as well. One need only take up the three points just raised to see:
- Accessibility: Is it easier to go to a website to chat or to open a new conversation in an instant messaging app that you're already using?
- Convenience: Is it better to access past conversations all in one place or in different places?
- The desire to avoid wait times: Even if the need persists, chat does not satisfy it more than messaging - you still need to identify the user, their problem, and respond to them. This takes time and messaging at least doesn't leave false hope. Its asynchronous nature allows conversations to be maintained one day to the next. Last but not least, messaging is designed for mobile and corresponds to its use in a much clearer way than live chats, which often awkwardly latch on to brand applications.
To these irrefutable tendencies, one must add some inconveniences tied to the very nature of live chat itself, which some software companies have begun to point out:
- Chat is sometimes "on" and sometimes "off"-what are you supposed to do when it's off? Even in the middle of the day?
- As soon as the chat has been interrupted, there's no way to pick up where you left off.
- What's worse, chat is sometimes cut off from other modes of communication, which makes knowing the client difficult.
- In the end we've seen the need for immediate responses cannot always be satisfied immediately. Businesses, in order to provide a pertinent response, often need time to respond. What was considered waiting time with live chat is transformed into something more productive with messaging-I can go about my business and be notified as soon as the company has responded to me. The conversation can then be taken back up, without having felt impatient. Quite the opposite, the exchange moves forward. Convenience, in the end, seems to have changed sides.
- Live chat cannot be more than what it is. Messaging, on the other hand, can directly link customer service and payment, in the case of reimbursement or compensation for example. Examples like this are countless, as messaging apps can host any third-party application. In this sense, they are closer to platforms than modes of communication.
We can't ignore the truth, even if live chat still had wind in its sails, it's already outdated. What will happen to it then? It will likely converge as it has begun to do with messaging, but without ever really being able to offer the same accessibility. Messaging applications are already everywhere. Live chat will remain a secondary channel, giving way, little by little, to eventually become a relic of the past, or the last resort to messaging. Only time will tell. And the future? Silly me, that's what Asia's here for, to tell it like it is. The recent release of Facebook for Businesses, after Line@, will only speed up the trend.
Photo credit : MarkGregory007 cc