Website with Live Chat: A Little Story About CPA Beauford, Told in GIFs

This is a story about how website with live chat made one man very happy.

Beauford was having a busy Monday.

It all started, as it usually does, with an alarm clock.

(Beauford was an old-fashion kind of guy and liked to use an old-fashion alarm clock. None of that new generation mumbo-jumbo)

And so Beauford got up, as he normally did, and got ready for work.

No, no. Beauford was not a member of the special forces. Nor was he on a mission to retreat a hidden treasure from a remote location in a desert. Beauford ran his own accounting firm. And that sometimes can feel like a high-stress endeavour with never ending flow of tasks.

It did so now for Beuaford especially because today was the first day he could fully reopen his business. For 12 weeks prior to this fateful morning he worked for home.

A global pandemic caused Beauford to close his physical office location. He communicated to all of his clients virtually. Learned how to use certain digital tools to conduct his business. And even hired some new team members remotely.

Beauford and his team had some good and bad days. Some interesting Zoom call mishaps. And some fun, too.

But now it was time to get back to the office. Time to see clients face-to-face, implement safety protocols, and figure out how to conduct business without touching people. (Social distancing is a must!)

Beauford was excited to get to work. But also a bit worried. There was so much work to do! So many to-do lists!

And so Beauford got to the office and got started.

As always, email was the number one priority. Oh uh…

Clients, employees, partners…The CDC itself with specific guidelines for office operations. Everyone had something to say to Beauford. That felt…overwhelming…

So Beauford closed his inbox. “That mess can wait,” he thought to himself. He had an appointment with his very first client coming up, so he had to get ready. He started to go through some paperwork. A very large pile of paperwork. It felt just as overwhelming as the email box.

Then the phone rang. A customer was complaining that one of the webpages on the firm’s website was showing an error.

Beauford promised to look into the issue. He hang up the phone, returned to his computer, and saw that the page with FAQs for prospective customers was, indeed, down. Now what?

Beauford was not a tech savvy guy. He wasn’t very good with technology at all.

So he was about to call his friend, Mario, who set up Beauford’s website to see what he could do.

But then the phone rang, again.

“Hello?” Beauford picked up.

“Hi, this is Stephanie Miller. I just have a question. I have an appointment coming up with you and I was wondering if there are any changes in the tax filing process. Also, if there is something I need to bring with me. I was on your website, but I couldn’t really find the answers.”

Beauford explained what Stephanie needed to bring to her appointment. He hang up the phone, feeling stressed out over the website, the ever-growing paperwork on his desk, and the overflowing email box.

Then the phone rang again. Someone was looking to set up an appointment. Then it rang again. Someone wanted to see if Beauford received an email to which she did not yet receive a reply. Then again – a question about changes in the health insurance policy due to COVID-19. Did Beauford knew anything about it? Another person was checking to see on the tax return deadline…

The phone kept ringing and ringing.

Beauford felt overwhelmed.

By noon he still haven’t answered a single email. He hasn’t gotten started on the paperwork he needed to finish by the end of the day. And he still had to deal with the website issue. And Beauford really wanted some coffee. But he was too busy answering the phone.

Urg!

Finally, the phone calls stopped around lunch hour.

Beauford got to call Mario.

“Hey, there, buddy!” Mario was always cheerful. “How is your first day back to the office going?”

Wasn’t that the question of the day!

“Oh, I’m hanging in there,” Beauford said. “It’s a busy day. Everyone’s calling! Everyone’s got questions! On top of that my FAQ page is down on the website, so that just gives me more phone calls and more emails! I’m at my limit with questions today.”

Beauford explained the issue about the broken webpage, which Mario was able to fix instantly, while still on the phone.

“Hey, Beauford,” Mario said. “Have you ever though about live chat for your website?”

“A what?” Beauford asked.

“A live chat customer service tool. It’s a really cool technology. Your customers can get support without calling or emailing you.”

Beauford was skeptical when he heard “technology.”

But the latter bit of what Mario said got his attention.

“A website with live chat is really good for business,” Mario said. “It makes your customers much happier. Many people say that they prefer to live chat because it is so fast. For example, it only takes 40 seconds for a customer to get an answer to a question through live chat. What’s cool is that they don’t have to bother you with every little question. If you have a website with live chat a whole team of agents is there to answer all inquiries.”

“Really?” Beauford was quite intrigued. “But how does it work? I’m not good with technology, you know that.”

“Oh setting up a website with live chat is so easy!”

Mario went on.

“You sign up for the service. You will get an email with instructions on how to install the live chat on your site. I can help you with that if you want. Then you send a list of FAQs to the company. You can use the FAQs you have on your page we just fixed, but you can add more. And that’s it. The agents take over all your customer inquiries. So you can do your work in peace. There is no additional paperwork or anything.”

“Wow,” Beauford was impressed, especially with the no paperwork part. “And you say it makes customers happier?”

“Of course! I actually just talked to my one client from Allianz Travel. It’s a travel insurance agency. The company recently added a live chat. It actually helped the team identify opportunities to make improvements to the website based on customer feedback. Also, the customer service team conducted internal focus group study. They were able to hear and evaluate the conversations and concerns customers talked about in chat.

“Additionally, website with live chat can really help in situations like today. Your FAQ page was down. If you had a live chat your customers could have reported the issue through it right away and get their questions answered, too. The benefits are endless. Companies using live chat have found many different ways to use it for their businesses. The customer service agents can even get you more leads and attract more new customers!

“You know what, I will send you some information. You can take a look and tell me what you think.”

Beauford hang up the phone. He was kind of excited about this new tool.

He opened up his inbox again. However, this time with a little less dread.

Mario sent him a few “website with live chat” statistics.

Additionally, Mario sent Beauford some comparison charts between live chat agents providers.

And so good ol’ Beauford made the executive “website with a live chat” decision on his first day back to the office.

Mario did not lie. The process of signing up for live chat service could not be easier.

Beauford decided to go with a company named HelpSquad. It had great customer reviews, it won #1 Tech Start Up in the area, and it offered some cool features other companies didn’t. Like a 14-day free trial to see how it works. Like the ability for the customer to text the agents. Or contact them on Facebook. Beauford didn’t know much about either things, but the agent he talked to made them sound really cool.

The company also had a really funny video about its services.

The next day Beauford returned to the office, looking forward to a new day.

He now had a website with live chat, so he didn’t have to answer customer service emails.

Beauford didn’t have to be on the phone all day, answering questions to which customers could now get answers in 40 seconds.

He didn’t have to schedule appointments. The customer service agents did that for him and all he to do was look at his calendar.

Beauford could do his work in peace. And even enjoy a cup of coffee now that the phone stopped ringing.

He could even finish up at 5 o’clock and go home because HelpSquad agents would answer all after-hours inquiries, too. (The service team worked 24/7/365!)

Beauford was very happy.

And this is the story of how website with live chat made an accountant named Beauford very happy.

It can make you happy, too.