Product Overview: Zendesk Chat
Zendesk Chat is a sophisticated, widget-like system designed to enhance customer support and engagement for businesses of all sizes. Originally known as Zopim, this tool has evolved into a multifaceted solution that integrates seamlessly with the Zendesk Agent Workspace.
What Zendesk Chat Does
Zendesk Chat facilitates direct and efficient communication between customers and support agents. It is designed to automate chats, provide rapid responses to customer queries, and track visitor behavior to convert potential leads into customers. The system ensures that businesses can maintain a strong connection with their customers, whether they are online or offline.
Key Features and Functionality
Chat Client and Agent Console
- The chat client enables direct communication between customers and agents, allowing agents to customize their profiles with usernames and profile pictures for a more personable interaction.
- The chat agent console provides agents with easy access to multiple features and shortcuts, enabling quick and satisfactory support.
Customization and Brand Integration
- Zendesk Chat allows for extensive customization of the chat widget, including colors and custom icons, ensuring it aligns with the brand’s identity.
Proactive Chats and Triggers
- Proactive chats and triggers initiate conversations with customers based on their behavior on the website, such as browsing time or specific actions, to offer timely assistance and boost customer retention.
Canned Messages and Offline Mode
- Agents can use pre-composed canned messages to quickly respond to common customer queries, reducing their workload and ensuring swift responses for customers.
- The offline mode feature allows customers to submit queries when no agent is available, with the option to save these queries in the chat history and forward them via email.
Tracking and Live Analytics
- Zendesk Chat provides comprehensive analytics, compiling user data into reports every hour. This helps in tracking the efficacy of the service and optimizing it further.
Visitor List and Pre-chat Forms
- The visitor list feature tracks the number of people visiting the site in real-time and can guide visitors to specific products.
- Pre-chat forms can collect basic contact information from visitors before they start a chat, and also offer offline forms for messages when agents are unavailable.
Multiple Channels and Persistent Conversations
- Zendesk Chat supports communication across multiple channels, including websites, help centers, mobile apps, and social messaging platforms. This ensures seamless and persistent conversations, allowing agents and customers to interact multiple times over a period, without the need to repeat previous interactions.
Conversational Automations and Bots
- The system includes automations and bots that can deflect issues, triage support queries, and help customers self-solve their problems. These bots can greet customers, offer relevant article suggestions, and gather information.
Integration with Zendesk Agent Workspace
- Zendesk Chat integrates with the Zendesk Agent Workspace, allowing agents to handle messaging conversations using familiar productivity tools. This integration ensures that agents can respond to customers at any time and continue conversations where they left off, with access to the conversation history for additional context.
Implementation and Use Cases
To implement Zendesk Chat, businesses need to enable live chat in the Web Widget (Classic) and add it to their help center. This involves configuring settings in the Admin Center and ensuring the necessary plans and roles are set up.
Zendesk Chat is particularly useful for businesses looking to enhance their customer support by providing real-time assistance, automating routine queries, and analyzing customer behavior to improve engagement and conversion rates. It is scalable and customizable, making it suitable for both small startups and large corporations.