Thanks to the internet, there are ways to communicate with customers these days. Social media, email, and even responses to online reviews are all ways to provide customer service, build relationships with customers, answer questions, and establish your brand.
Quality customer service is a must for any business, including e-commerce sites. One of the best ways to provide that service, along with increasing engagement with customers and fueling conversions from clicks to sales, is live chat support. Customer chat support turns your website into a touchpoint for customer interaction.
As you consider live chat service providers for your business, it’s helpful to understand how live chat works and how it can benefit you—and your customers.
How Does Live Chat Work on a Website?
Live chat support is a relatively new way to interact with your customers, directly from your website. It allows a representative from your company to communicate instantly with anyone who visits your website.
Live chat typically involves a chat box or button, usually positioned on the bottom right of the website (to mirror the placement of Facebook’s chat function), that invites visitors to ask a question. You, an employee, or outsourced live chat service providers will be notified and be able to respond when a customer types something into the chat box.
There are many live chat providers that deal directly in a browser, but many companies are finding greater success with providers that enabling text communication, so that the customer is not tied to their computer and can continue the conversation in their time.
What Is the Purpose of Live Chat?
Live chat has several purposes. The ultimate purpose for many businesses is to drive conversions and sales from website hits.
Customer chat support answers questions and offers help and ideas to prospective customers. If they have a concern or need a clarification about the product, rather than sending an email and waiting a few hours or more for a response, you can interact with them directly on the website. This increases the likelihood that they will make a purchase immediately, rather than clicking away and moving on.
Returning customers may use live chat support for help with the product they already purchased. In both situations, live chat is an opportunity to increase interaction, provide great customer service, and increase the likelihood of a purchase.
What Are the Benefits of Live Chat?
Live chat benefits both customers and businesses. Customers can use live chat support to better understand the products and services and to ask clarifying questions about how the business’s offerings may help in their individual circumstances.
The biggest benefits of live chat for businesses are conversion and retention. Live chat can increase sales—it provides an opportunity for a personalized sales pitch to a potential customer who has already shown interest in the product. Customer support chat is also a way to provide excellent customer service. It enables you to better understand the concerns and questions of your customers.
Customer feedback is valuable: If you are getting the same questions over and over, you can use that feedback to update the information available on your website, making your business even more accessible to potential customers.
In general, customers enjoy live chat—they like the feeling of being heard by a live person, rather than a bot, without having to talk on the phone or be put on hold. Providing an immediate response makes it more likely that customers will take quick action to complete their purchase.
Live chat can help your business gain more money through conversions and retention, but it can also help save money in the long run. It will reduce the costs, in both time and money, associated with responding to incoming mail and phone calls. Additionally, live chats that are done via text can be continued on a phone, while on the go, for both the customers and the customer support representative, which offers even more freedom.
How Can I Optimize Live Chat?
Once you commit to live chat services, how can you get the most out of it? Try these ideas for optimizing live chat on your website:
- Make sure you have at least one operator available to respond for the entire working day, and if possible, weekends, and evening hours.
- Choose live chat service providers that provide analytics and reports that track leads, conversions, and sources for web traffic.
- Customize your chat box location, button, greeting, and avatar to fit with your company’s branding. After hours, include an automatic reply encouraging customers to return when a live operator is available.
- Be helpful and polite in your responses, but remember that internet chat is an informal medium—so be friendly and casual as well. Write in a tone that reflects well on your brand and express a willingness to help out and answer any questions.
- Show empathy—when returning or potential customers have a problem, acknowledge their frustration. When faced with criticism, avoid becoming defensive.
Live web chat is the future of customer interaction. If you are looking to expand your business while offering top-notch customer service, consider using live chat services on your website.
