- Aug 10, 2018
- Category: Livechat
Live chat has just exploded. It is fast becoming a must-have tool for any company. Its usage has been doubling every year with more and more companies implementing it.
But do you believe live chat to be the right decision for your business?
Of course, one size doesn’t fit all. Different communication channels like phone, social, email, direct and chat offer various benefits to you and your customer. Some people prefer the immediacy of the phone conversation over the others. Whatsoever, it’s for your business to find the best balance between phone & live chat support and understand when to leverage each channel specifically. In this day and age, where the customer’s expectation for support is exceptionally high, live chat offers a host of benefits with fresh perspectives.
Providing excellent and memorable chat support is more important as ever for client retention. It helps increase customer satisfaction and delivers exceptional service. Without remarkable support, your clients will not return and, average or mediocre support won’t keep your customers either.
Here we have put together the host of 7 reasons why live chat is the most important metric for your website and why customers prefer live chat over any other services.
1. Being Active 24/7:
One of the great reasons to use Live Chat is because it facilitates users to have interactions with support agents during any time of the day. This makes it convenient, and customers need not wait to make a phone call or be on hold. Customers can place orders for any product or service as they desire.
As per the survey by Andersen Consulting poll, “Almost 53% of the consumers said they would make more purchases online if live chat support were available round the clock.”
Live chat enables users to take the experience of customers at all touchpoints and at any time and translates business with increased sales and customer service quality.
2. Improves Upselling/Cross-Selling Opportunities:
Cross-selling and upselling are some of the strategies that earn more value for your business. They are some of the established methods of improving sales and customer loyalty. Live chat is a great way to let your customers know about the exciting new offers after having resolved the existing issue.
Most of the eCommerce websites follow this technique of bundling products together and offering discounts so that he or she purchases together. Another possible scenario could be to remind visitors of any probable discounts or free shipping; this makes your customers to often come back to your website.
3. Live Chat is Convenient:
Live chat, by all means, reduces the average interaction cost which in turn lowers the overall contact center costs. Moreover, it is suitable for customers on the website without having to look for any assistance over email, phone or social media. This added convenience builds a strong relationship with the customers and the speed at which the help is delivered.
As per ATG Global Consumer Trend Study, 90% of the customers consider live chat to be more helpful, and 63% of them were more likely to come back to the website to make more purchases when offered live chat support.
Time being the key element, most people prefer live chat service. This interactive approach offers quick response and fewer hold times making it more favorable in comparison to other support services.
4. Higher Sales and Revenue:
Live chat not just assists customers and solve their queries, but this as well guides them towards specific products and services. It is a significant influencer in making purchase decisions. Customers are less likely to abandon the cart which in turn increases the bottom line of the revenue, sales, conversions, and see repeat customers. In short, you will do more business with like chat. Some of the insights like being available for your visitors, giving immediate help & support, providing typing indicators, are some of the implementations that can keep your customers happy and also improve sales and revenue.
5. Improves Website Traffic:
Yes, live chat is one of the influential factors that affect the traffic on your website. When a visitor visits your website, he or she doesn’t just chat with the support agent, but there are 55% chances that they would go through your site to find something new.
For example, say Jessica is trying to get in touch with the support agent with regards to the order that she placed on one of the eCommerce websites. She suddenly notices that there is an offer of 30% on the favorite cardigan that she once wanted to order on the web page. So, this time as sees the proposal with a discount, there are higher chances that she places the order and as well becomes the frequent visitor.
6. Engagement is more personal:
When your website visitor encounters a problem, they have two options. One is to contact the customer service or to go to another site. Many don’t like to make a call or wait for an email. Customers would like to chat with the person immediately. Offering a chat service at this point in time will enable more personalized interaction with your audience.
It’s also essential to establish a connection by acknowledging and empathizing customer needs. Using service representative names and photos can also start building rapport at the start of the interaction. Live chat is an excellent opportunity to create a satisfying customer experience and can significantly increase companies sales and revenue.
7. Offer Timely Support via Proactive Chat Invitation:
Proactive chat these days have become one of the top trends in recent years. It is a feature that allows chat agents to invite website visitors into one-on-one chat interaction. It is a means to proactively help and persuade people to buy and encourage them.
A study by Forrester Research study shows that the reactive chat produces an ROI of 15%, while that of proactive chat produces an incremental 105% ROI.
Proactive chat gives companies the chance to engage people when they think that clients are looking for some information over the site.
Live Chat stats:
- 77% of the customers say that they don’t purchase on the website if there is no live chat option available on the site. Source: Supper office
- 70% of the clients use live chat purely because of the immediacy it offers when compared to the other channels. Source: ThriveHive
- As per the survey done by Econsultancy, 73% of the customers were satisfied with the live chat experience compared to 61% of the email users and 44% of the phone users.
Some of the benefits:
- It improves customer service and brand loyalty.
- Faster problem resolution leading to happy customers.
- Improved sales and revenue.
- Cost-effective and reduces expenses.
- Builds trust with buyers.
- More satisfied customers.
- Improves website experience.
Wrap Up:
If you want to see success in your business, you no longer can ignore live chat software. Even the best website will be of no use if it fails to turn site visitors into company customers. The popular alternative for phone, email, and social media can grow your business and attract customers. Live Chat is becoming the must-have tool and will play a central role today and years to come. It is gone completely mainstream and an expected feature by online shoppers.
So hurry up and make sure your business gives your customers immediate support to stay ahead of the competition. Live chat is worth the effort and investment.