A study involving businesses based in the US and Europe, including both business and consumer facing websites, has revealed that 21% of companies failed to respond to live chat support requests.

The study, commissioned by SuperOffice, was conducted from over 1,000 websites. To keep the study fair, chat was only initiated during a website’s support hours and only when chat was available and online.

During each chat, questions were asked that were specific to a business. For example, ecommerce stores were asked questions about shipping and handling, while software companies were asked questions relating to free trial offers. After each chat was completed, the site was rated based on the quality of response time, wait time and overall chat experience.

Key findings included:

• 21% of live chat support requests are not answered
• Average wait time for live chat support requests is 2 minutes and 40 seconds
• 55% of companies do not offer transcripts once a chat has ended
• 23% of companies do not ask for contact information before a chat begins
• Average handle time for a chat request is 6 minutes and 50 seconds
• 45% of companies do not ask users for feedback once the chat has ended

SuperOffice concluded that live chat only works if there’s someone behind the software to respond to customers needs.

A white paper based on the study can be downloaded here