Live chat is a platform which allows you to talk directly with your website visitors in real time. Arguably, live chat has revolutionized customer service and is now seen as an effective tool you can use to stand out from your competitors, reduce your costs and improve customer satisfaction. So without further ado, here are 5 reasons why you should think about implementing live chat for your business website.
1. Reduce Your Costs
Phone support can be somewhat costly, due to both dialling charges and the employment of personnel to maintain the phones. With live chat, one individual can handle multiple customers at once, rather than just one phone call. This means fewer team members are required for the same volume of customers; if an agent can handle 3 live chats at once, that has already increased your customer service spread by 300%. More customers can have their queries answered at the same time, at a lower expense for your company – a win-win situation!
2. Increased Sales
The American Marketing Association uncovered that live chats increase conversions by 20% and increase chances of a sale by three times. Chat allows for a more personal, instant interaction between business and consumer, resulting in the consumer feeling more positive and confident about the brand and consequently more likely to go ahead with a purchase.
In fact, an eMarketer survey found that 38% of consumers said they went through with the purchase because of the chat session. Furthermore, particularly for competitive industries, potential customers will simply move onto the next competitor if they can’t get an instant response from you. With proactive live chat software on your website, you can proactively engage with your website visitors, answer their queries instantly, and, hopefully, convert them into a customer.
3. Better Customer Satisfaction, Convenience, and Loyalty
An eDigital customer service survey of 2000 customers found that live chat gave customer service ratings of 73% compared with 61% for email and 44% for phone. These numbers give a clear indication of a consumer’s preferences – and it’s obviously wise to provide services your customers prefer.
It seems that consumers enjoy the convenience of using live chat as it means they don’t have to commit too much time or attention. Phone calls require a lot more attention to the conversation, sometimes it’s inconvenient to speak on the phone and wait times for live chat is usually much less than calling up the business (plus customers can multi-task easily if they do have to wait).
Lastly, 63% of consumers said they were more likely to return to a website that provided live chat, proving that it is an important tool for earning loyalty.
4. Improved Problem Solving
Using live chat, team members can send links via the chat box. This can push the customer to the correct webpage where they can find the information they require or be sent to a booking page, for example. Live chat platforms also allows agents to do things like send documents, or request a secure data transfer so that payment can be taken safely. This can all be done very quickly, solving the problem for the customer much more efficiently than if it were a phone call or email.
5. Expand Your Market
Consumers generally like to do business with companies they have quick and easy access to – most are not willing to travel far for products or services. The internet is great because it allows you to expand your market way beyond your local area. However, international customers may not be willing to phone up to enquire or make purchases due to expensive international phone call fees. Live chat means they can contact a business instantly without having to worry about the cost.
Also, research by Inc has shown that millennials do not like making phone calls. They prefer digital communication where you can send messages rather than having to actually speak to a real person – 61% of consumers under the age of 24 even admit to intentionally avoiding calling businesses. Having a chat box on your website, therefore, helps to cater towards millennials’ preferences, and effectively expand your market to them.
What are your thoughts on live chat and have you ever considered using it? Or maybe you have further questions about how it works? Drop a comment below as we would love to hear your thoughts and questions!