A digital marketing trend that has been growing lately is the introduction of live chat buttons on websites, especially mobile ones. A site visitor clicks on the button and gets instant customer service. Like many other trends, this might be mistaken for a fad that will be out of vogue soon. This is a myth that won’t be happening anytime soon.
The fact that live chats work, especially to improve interaction with your customers and guarantee loyalty, is what makes them an important marketing strategy. Live chats can be a source of direct conversion as Kissmetrics claims that 38% of website visitors make purchases through a live chat. Its effects can also be indirect as it helps retain customers as well; for instance, 63% of website visitors prefer a chat with a live chat for a repeat purchase.
You may find examples of brands that have leveraged live chats to increase their conversion rates here. No doubt, live chat is an excellent method of increasing leads conversion. However, before it can be as effective as it should be, like every other marketing approach, there has to be a strategy in place that will guarantee maximum value. To answer the question of how to use live chat to convert more, the following points are important.
Consistent Availability
When trying to communicate with an agent, nothing satisfies a customer like swift responses. In a study conducted by Drift on a number of countries, they found that responding to a customer in more than five minutes increases the odds of making contact up to ten times. Therefore, you have to have agents at hand to address customers’ concerns, even in the dead of the night.
The truth is that you are not the only person offering that service. More so, if a customer is willing to talk to you instead of simply leaving your website for another similar business, you might as well prioritize their issues. This is a guaranteed way to keep customers loyal and retain them for a long time. This also helps you in managing your brand online reputation. This would mean increasing your workforce, but considering its potential in terms of leads, that is definitely worth it.
Personalize the Interaction
Automation is what everyone is raving about now. That is perfectly fine; automating repetitive tasks helps save time and improve consistency. However, they still don’t fill the gaps for customers who need to talk to someone, a real person.
Having a robot respond to queries is not the best way to express concern for your customers. Besides, some questions cannot simply be replied to using automated replies. Personalize the interaction by having human agents who then interact with the customers using their name, personal pronouns and the likes. A customer is a king, right? Make them feel like one.
Analyze Live Chat Data
What is the use of a tool or feature if you cannot determine if it has any effect on your business, and how much it does? This would subsequently help you decide what further steps are to be taken. Analyzing live chat data does not directly impact leads, but it does help you know where improvements are needed. For example, what kind of questions do your customers ask most? You might want to make its answer easily accessible and so on.
Address Issues Directly
For this, your live chat agents have to be trained thoroughly. A customer who uses the live chat feature wants to get as much information as soon as possible. They don’t want to chit chat, they want prompt solutions.
Therefore, agents must be able to address issues directly and even discern what the actual problem is when the customer can’t seem to express themselves properly.
The aim is to demonstrate value in the least possible time. Avoid statements that demonstrate confusion or indecisiveness. No customer wants to hear that you can’t help them; they expect you to help and that’s why they are in your inbox in the first place.
Offer Help, but Don’t Distract
I have visited sites where, while I’m busy scrolling through, a live chat button just pops up in my face and turns my attention away. Sometimes, it may even be a pop-up covering the whole screen which I need to close. Proactive live chat, where the chat button is intuitively set to automatically initiate itself at some point, is fine.
Howbeit, you are trying to offer help, not turn off site visitors. You don’t have to shove it in their faces. A button placed decently at a corner of the screen is fine for me. Visitors who need help would find it and use it as well.
See Also: 5 Effective Ways To Sound More Human Over A Customer Support Live Chat
In Conclusion
In the Drift study I mentioned above, the researchers found out that of the 433 companies surveyed, only 14% of them were using live chats. That is to show that the majority of brands’ sales teams don’t even adopt this approach yet. However, given its numerous advantages for your business, the best time to introduce it is right away. The results would prove itself.