What is our primary use case?
We primarily use FreshChat to connect with our clients and listen to our stakeholders and clients. We use it to receive queries, feedback, and to execute customer support and resolve any issues that may be held by our clients towards our business. Further, we use it to follow up on our marketing leads, whereas our stakeholders or third parties use it to receive quotes or feedback for people inquiring about us. In essence, we mainly use it to engage and offer customer support to our clients, stakeholders, and our third parties.
One example of how my team uses FreshChat to engage with and support clients occurs when our services experience downtime challenges. There are times when our services may not be running efficiently, and our customers want us to give them that feedback so that we can make a rectification or boost our services. When our services are not reaching our clients very well, that is one area where they give us their concerns and we use it to resolve any issues related to our banking experience or our network.
Another use case is in potential leads. There are people who hear about our services but do not know about our organization very well. We receive many queries, especially from our marketing team. People who want to join our organization and receive our services do not always know how we operate. By connecting with them and giving them comprehensive information, we use it to tap into our target market and diversify our client portfolio and conduct marketing with the platform. This allows us to reach out to new clients and give them the specific information they need about our organization and our business services.
What is most valuable?
FreshChat's number one feature is that it is highly integratable. FreshChat offers other services from Freshdesk and other platforms, so it is easy to integrate it with our customer relationship management platforms, as well as with our e-commerce platforms and our marketing platforms. Another feature is the user interface. Navigating through the platform is not difficult at all. It is easy and straightforward, and even our employees who use it usually find it to be very easy to use. It does not present many challenges in usage. Another aspect is that it is a unified platform. It helps us offer customer support in various forms. We can reach our clients through email, live call, and even chatbots. We can chat with the client directly and engage with them without having any issues.
The feature that has made the biggest difference for my team is the unified communication options. Not all clients can reach us through phone calls, emails, or live chat. This feature gives us various options to reach our clients. If one client is not able to find us on the phone, they can use email. If they are not able to reach us through email or phone, they can use the live chat option. With those various options, we will not miss any query or any concern from our clients because we have multiple ways for them to reach us. This helps us keep our customer base happy.
Another valuable feature is that the platform is cloud-based. A cloud-based platform means that we can use it anywhere. Even when we want to work remotely or reach clients after official working hours, we are able to do so because the platform is easily accessible on the cloud, allowing us to work remotely in a unified manner.
FreshChat has positively impacted the organization in keeping our customer base. It has developed the trust held by our customer base because it is very frustrating when we want a service from an organization that we need and then we are not able to reach them on time. With FreshChat, our clients can reach us anytime they want, twenty-four seven. It has helped us build a loyal customer base and improved our clients' trust in our organization.
What needs improvement?
One area for improvement with FreshChat is that, as a cloud-based platform, it is normal to experience internet downtimes. If FreshChat could develop a plan that allows us to use the platform offline, it would be better, because sometimes when we encounter internet difficulties, it becomes difficult to see messages and respond to clients on time.
Another improvement would be having a diversified customer support system that is globally organized, whereby FreshChat has representatives from users in the Pacific area, European area, or African area. The customer support they offer should be personalized and inclusive of clients' needs. Sometimes the customer support can be one-centered; if they could personalize that and become more inclusive, responding to specific geographical demands, it would be much better.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have worked in my current position for about five and a half years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
FreshChat is stable. As long as we have a proper internet connection and an adequate cloud service provider like AWS Marketplace, FreshChat will be found to be stable. There will not be any downtimes, and we can use it at our convenience.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
FreshChat's scalability is reliable and depends on our organization's size. For small users, mid-sized, or large enterprises, all we need to do is scale up as our customer base rises. In our case, we have set a target so when we reach a specific threshold, we scale up. If an organization experiences a downsizing in customer size, they just adjust according to their threshold and engagement. FreshChat's scalability is superb and quite reliable.
How are customer service and support?
Customer support is reliable, and we have not faced any problems. Many times, especially during our initial periods of using the platform, customer support was always there and ready to help us in adopting the platform and using it effectively. We have not had any delays while using the platform.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We did not have any other solution initially. We relied on traditional methods with trained human staff for direct phone calls and replying to emails directly. We used only those two modes: phone and emails, which is why we acquired FreshChat to improve our customer experience.
Before FreshChat, we evaluated the Zendesk platform, and after gauging the pricing and usage mode, we found that Zendesk was more resource-consuming since it needed adjustments to our IT infrastructure. However, FreshChat provided a more reliable option with cloud hosting.
How was the initial setup?
FreshChat is stable. As long as we have a proper internet connection and an adequate cloud service provider like AWS Marketplace, FreshChat will be found to be stable. There will not be any downtimes, and we can use it at our convenience.
What about the implementation team?
We purchased FreshChat directly from the vendor, but for hosting services, we engaged with AWS Marketplace separately. Later we combined them together at our own premises.
What was our ROI?
We have seen a return on investment because when acquiring the platform, we aimed to enhance the personalization of our customer engagement. We now have fewer employees managing customer experience services, and FreshChat can handle most queries without much trouble. With fewer employees, we have saved time and money due to faster responses, as it is AI-powered, allowing responses to be generated even without a human touch. This has saved us on operating costs and helped channel our employees into further productive activities.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing was smooth. It did not have many difficulties because FreshChat already has curated pricing plans. All we had to do was choose our preferred plan and go with it based on our available resources.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Before FreshChat, we evaluated the Zendesk platform, and after gauging the pricing and usage mode, we found that Zendesk was more resource-consuming since it needed adjustments to our IT infrastructure. However, FreshChat provided a more reliable option with cloud hosting.
What other advice do I have?
My advice to others looking into using FreshChat is that it is reliable. If we want a wholesome customer experience and want to move from traditional methods of reaching clients, FreshChat offers a two-dimensional way of communicating whereby we can relay messages to clients, and they can reach us on time. It diversifies how we engage with clients and stakeholders, ensuring we do not miss any message, query, or concern from our clients, thereby keeping our customer base happy.
FreshChat is deployed in our organization on a public cloud. It is hosted on the cloud, so we use it in the cloud.
We use Amazon Web Services as our cloud provider.
If granted the opportunity, I would pick FreshChat from the beginning to make it our customer engagement platform due to the convenience and easy access to communications from clients. I would rate FreshChat with a nine out of ten.
