Live Chat vs Email Support. What works best for SaaS?
Wilson Wilson
8 replies
For the last 12 months, we've been using live chat as a support tool for our bootstrapped testimonial SaaS, Senja.
Today we decided to kill it, reason being that it creates unrealistic expectations for customers and it makes room for _very_ low quality conversations (will write more about this soon).
Now I'm wondering if anyone else has had similar experiences. What are you using for your support and why?
Replies
Baptiste Jamin@baptistejamin
We are having a tool that will help very soon for both Live Chat and we will be able to automate most of your conversations.
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yep, had the same experience! Lots of very basic questions. Took a lot more back and forth to get to the issue. I almost burned out from support when I was solo. Been using just email for years now and it's going great.
It depends on scale @wilsonsquared
For your first 1000 customers, email support is gold. You can spot bugs, build your community of super users and get real time feedback.
Post 1000, automation is a necessity. You don't want people waiting for days to sort their issues out. Email support is super helpful then.
I prefer email support from most SaaS companies. Far easier to deal with as a customer. If I get a support chat, I'm assuming it's for a big company to deal with my problem right away.
For me it's the responsiveness - I like live chat if I get a response, and I like email if I get a response within the SLA.
Live chat and email support for SaaS each have advantages and disadvantages.
Chat live:
Pros include immediate assistance, better client satisfaction, and more sales.
Cons: Demands more resources and may be too much to handle during busy periods.
Email assistance:
Advantages: Makes it simpler to manage and works well for complex concerns. It also enables extensive responses.
Cons: Slower reaction times; may not satisfy urgent client demands.
The ideal solution for your business will rely on its resources, client expectations, and the type of support requests it normally handles. The best approach might be a combination of both.
I go with: "Talk to the Hand".
Jokes aside, I think chat just comes with certain expectations because of the format.
We have a chat widget that just sends an email, usually works fine.
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