And no, that’s not the x-rated Live Chat that might have sprung to the not-so-innocent mind. Live chat systems are instant messaging tools that lets your website browsers ‘chat’ to a customer services advisor whilst browsing your site.
On a personal note, the main reason I like live chat screens on websites is that I can get a query about a purchase answered pretty much immediately. This means I’m more likely to make that purchase, firstly at that time, but secondly at all, because if I get an email response ‘within 48 hours’ I might have changed my mind, found something else, forgotten about the purchase… You want to make sure you capitalise on that person’s immediate purchase power and decision-making and answer the query that might be putting them off the purchase. And increased conversion rates is a proven benefit of live chat, so don’t just take my anecdotal evidence.
Live chat can increase customer satisfaction. This is because people can have their queries answered quicker, can complete the purchase they wanted to with more ease and live chat also tends to answer queries quicker than other forms of communication. With phone calls, people are often put in a queue before they can speak to someone, or with emails, you have to wait for the response as your email gets queued up again. However, live chat offers you the chance to have a quick back-and-forward chat with a customer to ensure that their query is resolved quickly. And statistics show that repeat customers are more profitable to your business, so make sure you get the customer satisfaction right!
Within a company it can make a big difference too, it can actually save you money. It’s proven that customer services advisors responding to live chat queries can respond to more people at once, and overall, than a customer services advisor on the phone. Well that’s pretty obvious, you can only really have one phone call at a time. And if an advisor is responding to more people then you don’t need as many of them, thus reducing your costs.
Finally, live chat can actually end up enhancing the overall customer journey on your website. For this to happen, you need to monitor all conversations, what the queries were and what the solution was. By doing this, you’ll be able to find out where the sticky points on your website are and what might be possible to make these areas less confusing or difficult for customers. But you should be doing this sort of thing anyway, you always want to make sure the user journey is as easy and straightforward as possible.
If you want to look at setting up a live chat system on your website, get in touch: hello@webfwd.co.uk
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