When was the last time you used a live chat feature on a website? I have used it when other help features did not quickly give me the answer I needed. Sometimes this was because the site I was on was complex and full of information and I did not know where to find what I was looking for. So I jumped on the chat feature and either a bot or a real person was able to help me very quickly. So I stayed on the website to continue reading. First impressions are everything.
Your website is often the first time a potential customer learns about you. The experience someone has on your website can directly influence whether someone decides to pursue business with you. You want to be sure that the experience you provide on your site is one that encourages a customer to do more than just click and scroll through your site.
Although there are many ways to improve the customer experience, smart companies are looking to improve the customer support experience. And that can be done through chat functionality.
Live chat opens the door to instant communication between your company and a customer. Providing a source for online engagement can help your business in a variety of ways: whether your goal is to attract and convert customers, increase sales and add on business opportunities, provide a cost effective customer service experience or all of the above, live chat is a proven, competitive tool that can help you expand your business. In fact, 79% of businesses say offering live chat has had a positive effect on sales, revenue, and customer loyalty. Engagement with customers allows your sales team to get prospects into your email response platform as well.
We already know that increased communication with employees improves culture. It also improves your customer culture (also known as your brand).
Live chat provides an immediate, direct connection with any department of your company. Customers are able to ask questions or get resolution to a service or performance issue. In many cases, the chat representative will not end the customer interaction until the problem is solved. Agents may also have the ability to offer customers specials or add ons to the customers business – not only providing customer support but segueing into an inbound sales opportunity.
24/7 can be a Reality
Live chat agents can extend your customer support by being available at all times of day. Twenty-four hour access to your business is especially important if you are sales-oriented company that offers products and services to a global marketplace. There a multitude of techniques that can be used to make chat a better user experience. So proper training is critical to its success.
Decrease your business’ operational costs and increase agent productivity.
You can reduce overall contact center costs by lowering average interaction costs, while at the same time increases efficiency. Live chat representatives can handle multiple chats simultaneously. Less time on the phone allows agents to handle multiple chat sessions at once. This cuts down the waiting time commonly found in high volume customer service call centers.
Live chat can increase sales.
When customers have an option to ask questions and have a resource to help walk them through the sales process, more sales are likely to occur. In fact, 38% of consumers are more likely to buy from a company that offers live chat than those that don’t. If your business is a retail oriented business, that means fewer abandoned shopping carts.
Live chat can give you an edge over your competition.
When live chat is done right, consumers are more likely to remain loyal, engage in positive word of mouth, and purchase more from your business. This is probably an integral part of your strategic plan for the year. It is possible that live chat can get you there faster.
If you are not convinced that live chat is for your business, check out the results of a recent study done by ICMI. Then, give us call. We can help you manage your live chat response system with a fully-integrated solution. Our live chat response services work with your sales department, providing you with a seamless, constant, and direct means of customer communication.
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