WHY MANAGING YOUR LIVE CHAT IS SO IMPORTANT?

Many people underestimate the importance of live chat.  A recent study revealed 92% of customers feel satisfied when they use a live chat feature, compared to other communication options like voice (88%), email (85), a web form (85%), or social media (Facebook 84%, Twitter 77%).

Many websites have added live chat support in order to provide real time answers to queries rather than have customers leave their websites. Real time chatting builds customer confidence during their shopping experience and helps to improve your conversion rates. According to another survey 68% engage in live chat and 63% prefer getting back to a website with live chat for repeat purchases.

The main advantage that live chat has to offer is its convenience for customers. Research found that 44 % of online consumers say that having questions answered by a live agent while in the middle of an online purchase is one of the most important features a website can offer.

There are two main types of customers who need help and use live chat to get it.

The first are potential buyers who:

• want to know more about product specifications and other details about the product.
• are having problems finding a specific product or service on your website
• want to compare products where the specifications may be unclear

Having an online chat to resolve uncertainties can hugely affect the buyers purchase decisions. In fact, a significant number of online customers state that they took their purchase decision due to a live chat session. Chat agents play a huge role and if they are properly trained and professional, they can easily generate more sales, or generate upselling.

The second group of live chat users are your current customers. They are most likely to use live chat when they:

• want to know the status of their order – especially if you don’t provide tracking
• want to ask about returns or exchanges
• want to report problems or suggest improvements in your service

Live chat also allows you to get instant feedback or notifications if there is a wide-scale customer-facing problem.

There are several reasons why live chat is beneficial for a business today:

Competitive advantage

It’s really hard these days to stand out from your competitors.  We all know there is a growing pool of competitors, both from the same and larger sized businesses.  Businesses are recognising how important it is to provide the personal touch including real time customer service.  Corporates like Apple, SKY, Virgin Airlines, and many more are using live chat to be one step ahead of competition. Now you can do the same as a smaller business.

Save money

Live Chat increases efficiency because live chat agents can handle multiple chats simultaneously, keeping the number of staff to a minimum.

It can also increase the average order value, because customers get real time advice and answers to any questions they might have. It reduces the likelihood of product returns because the live chat representative can help your customer choose the right product or service, which suits them best.

Convenience

Customers appreciate the immediacy of live chat where they can get an answer straight away.  They can also deal with it in their own time at their own convenience. Many live chat systems are available in the evening when more customers may be active, but when a business may be closed.

Creating long term customer relationships

Satisfied, long-term customers are statistically less likely to switch to another provider. As an added bonus, they also tend to be a little less price-sensitive. Experts suggest that customers who feel taken care of and have a high level of customer satisfaction are less concerned about what they are paying.  Many customers will actively pay more for an improved service.

As mentioned earlier, 63% of customers who have used live chat tend to come back for a repeat purchase. Studies show that regular customers tend to buy more often, and they are less expensive to maintain because of their familiarity with your business and the processes behind it.

When customers feel their voice is heard and they chat with a person behind the company, it’s more likely that they’ll have a stronger connection to your business and share their positive experience.

More conversions and sales

Having a real person discussing your purchase and providing detailed advice around specifications and other product or service information adds confidence and customers tend to spend more than those who don’t use live chat. A positive experience leads to a higher average order value; thus, your sales are directly improved by providing live chat.

Multiple studies have proven that live chat can bring a 20%+ increase in conversion rates.

The key to a success increase in conversion rates is having properly trained staff manning your live chat line.  By providing them with detailed knowledge about your products, so they can recommend additional purchases that may be the perfect fit for that particular customer.  It also helps to provide discretionary discount coupons, which they can offer to customers who are still hesitating before purchase or to encourage customers to upsell.

Here are some useful tips when starting to use live chat:

Make sure you have at least one operator that will be available for the majority of the working day. (If your live chat is more often offline than online, it might have a negative influence.)

Train your operators. Provide your chat operator with enough knowledge to answer customer queries.  They should also be equipped with sales skills – it will boost your conversion rates and increase sales.

Be human.  The whole point of having live chat is bringing human help to your customer’s shopping experience. Providing automated responses can kill the effectiveness of live chat as it’s very obvious that this is what is being used.

Make the most of the feedback.  Analyse and track the most common issues that your customers face or report.  Make sure you act on these to improve your website.