Once you’ve cut your teeth at the beginner level, you can move up to jobs in the Intermediate category. Our members love these projects because they can be more rewarding, and they pay well, too. 

At this level, for example, you could become a Subject Matter Expert. This is a more responsible job and gives you a chance to learn valuable new skills. In this role, you need to gain some specialist knowledge of a particular topic. That’s usually easy, as the company will have training and documents to help you. 

You will usually go through a short training program, and perhaps get some extra help from a senior member of staff. This won’t take long, but it really levels up your expertise. And that makes a big difference. 

Once you have this extra knowledge, you are in a good position to make more money. You are now a more senior member, which means you get a pay rise. Let’s look at the type of work you might do as a Subject Matter Expert:

The most important job you will do as a Subject Matter Expert is to help people with detailed queries about the company’s products. Consumers will often have questions that are a little too difficult for a novice chat agent to answer, so the chat will be passed over to you. 

The job is easier than you might think, because you will find that the same questions come up over and over again. So once you know how to answer the top 10 queries, you will find the job simple to do. 

Of course, there will be some questions that are a little more challenging, and that’s where you earn your money! Don’t worry though. The company is sure to have a Knowledge Base—an online library of information that will give you the technical and product information you need. 

You just do a quick search, and all the info you need will be at your fingertips. Then you can help the customer by answering their questions, or you can direct them to resources where they will find more information.

Rushcliff is a patient and practice management software company that needs to deal with a lot of detailed queries. Their software is used by physiotherapists, osteopaths, chiropractors and other medical professionals, and these people often have technical queries.

The company decided to use live chat to provide better service, with Subject Matter Experts on hand to deal with product queries. The project has been a great success, as James from Rushcliff points out:

"Implementing live chat has been a roaring success. We didn't expect to get such great feedback from our clients, but it has truly revolutionized the support desk. We've seen a real increase in good feedback from our clients."

Medical professionals are able to get the expert help they need quickly and easily. The result has been happier customers, and more sales for Ruschcliff. 

It’s not only businesses that make good use of live chat to communicate—many nonprofit organizations do, too. In fact, many live chat software solutions are designed especially to provide the features that nonprofit organizations need. 

This is another job opportunity for you as a live chat agent. You can become a Subject Matter Expert who specializes in a particular topic, whether for a nonprofit or some other organization. 

In this role, you will learn about all the concerns people have in this sector, and become an expert at resolving such queries. Live chat is great for this, because people can get answers to pressing problems very quickly. 

One advantage of this type of work is that you may get to work in an area that you really care about. You may find yourself assisting a charity, or working for some other worthwhile cause. 

Live chat is really taking off in non-commercial organizations, as they realize how valuable this channel is in helping them achieve their goals. With the help of expert chat agents, they can raise more money, help people faster and have a bigger impact on the world.

So if you want to do a job you feel proud of—as well as getting paid—you may find that this is a great option to look into. Who knows what this might lead to….there are so many possibilities!  

Most companies who use live chat also use a Knowledge Base to help them. This is a comprehensive database of information about how to use products, and other data that people need to know. 

When live agents need more information, it’s the first place they look to find the details they need. A good Knowledge Base ensures that all queries are answered promptly, and that customers get all the details they need. 

As a Subject Matter Expert, you will be qualified to help put this Knowledge Base together, or to update it with new information. That’s easy to do, because the Knowledge Base is usually built right into the support system that you use every day. 

Let’s say you are working for a software company, and a new product version is released. You will need to update the Knowledge Base with an article explaining the new features, and anything else that people need to know.

The system will make it easy for you to manage articles, creating new ones or editing existing ones as necessary. You will be able to organize them into categories, delete outdated ones and share drafts with your colleagues.

While chatting with customers is fun, it’s nice to take a break for a while and do some computer-only work. Just make yourself a cup of Joe and enjoy a relaxing afternoon writing simple articles and doing a little admin work. 

You might also be asked to review articles created by others, to ensure they are accurate. After all, you are the Subject Matter Expert now, so you have all the answers!