Microsoft Teams introduces live chat feature for small business customer engagement

Microsoft Unveils Live Chat Feature in Teams for Small Businesses

Microsoft has recently revealed an innovative live chat feature within Teams, tailored specifically for small businesses. This new functionality enables website visitors to engage in seamless communication with business owners through an integrated chat widget. By using this feature, businesses can eliminate the need for separate customer support chat services, as customer inquiries can be routed directly to their support teams via Teams.

How the Live Chat Experience Works

The process for customers initiating a chat is streamlined and user-friendly:

A customer starts by sending a question through the website’s Live Chat widget.
Initially, the customer interacts with a Live Chat bot designed to assist with basic inquiries.
The system logs the request, making it visible to the support team in the “Requests”tab of the Teams “General”channel.
Live Chat automatically identifies and assigns an available support agent to handle the request.
The customer is then connected to the agent via Teams Chat, allowing for real-time support.

Availability and Licensing

This live chat feature is accessible to users of Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Microsoft 365 Business Standard, and Microsoft 365 Business Premium. It’s important to note that all support team members must hold Business licenses. Furthermore, there is a maximum limit of 25 users that can be assigned to the support team.

Additional Communication Options with Microsoft Teams

In addition to chat, Microsoft Teams supports businesses that prefer phone-based communication. The Microsoft Teams Phone feature enables companies to manage and respond to calls through the Queues app, simplifying the process and reducing app-switching. Businesses will need both Teams Phone and a Teams Premium license to utilize the Queues app effectively.

Expanding Capabilities for Enterprises

For larger enterprises, Microsoft has also introduced Teams Phone extensibility for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Contact Center. This enhancement will allow businesses to extend their existing Teams Phone system into the contact center environment, promoting a more integrated approach to customer interaction. This capability is expected to roll out next month and will be available to certified partners including Anywhere365, AudioCodes, and others.

Conclusion

These latest updates are part of Microsoft’s ongoing effort to enhance customer communication and support, providing businesses and enterprises with greater flexibility in their customer interactions.

For more details, you can watch the informative videos here: