If you run an online business, you may wonder why live chat is such big deal.
As a cost-efficient way to offer sales and support, live chat has a huge number of benefits for any business. The benefits of live chat go far beyond the cost.
Live chat has emerged as the preferred solution for taking care of customer queries. Saving you time and reducing workload.
1: Customers like the convenience
Out of all the customer service tools, live chat one of the most convenient for the customer.
In a study conducted by ATG Global, as many as 90 percent of customers find live chat the most helpful.
Customers find live chat is easier to engage with than traditional customer support. Email and phone options having a generally bad reputation.
They don’t like being on hold and they don’t like pushing buttons to reach a representative either. Companies resort to requiring “button pressing” through several menus to get connected. Which can be frustrating.
Live chat is not hard to use in this way. Sending short, fast messages has become the modern way to communicate. A prospect can type a quick message and hit enter, which they can do from any page.
Market research (and common sense) indicates that customers prefer other options than phone. Both options involve waiting for a reply with no clue to how long for.
Yet, with live chat customers can send a message and receive a reply in no time. It’s no surprise that customers tend to prefer businesses with this kind of support.
2: Higher customer statisfaction
According to business monitors, live chat is becoming the norm across several industries to increase retention and overall satisfaction.
It makes sense in the digital age where a website lacks the human store front experience.
No matter what sector your business is in. One of the best things you can do is install is a system that allows you to interact with your customers.
Those customers want to understand what you are all about and how you can help them. And they now expect to visit a brand’s website to see if a live chat service are online.
3: Increased conversions
Having a chat option can mean a potential customer sticking around or leaving. People will ask questions that may not otherwise.
Some businesses report conversion rates doubling following live chat installation.
On average, a medium-sized business can expect a boost to conversion rates by about 20 percent.
How is this possible? Well, live chat can provide answers to questions about products fast. As the customer is viewing the product.
A prospect that is wavering on whether to commit to purchasing. A quick response can be the thing that tips the balance towards buying.
4: Live Chat Saves You Money
You can reduce your operational costs by providing customer service with live chat. If you’re a growing business, you’ll see enquiries rise as your company gets bigger. So finding a solution to address the inbound enquiries in a speedy and timely manner is a priority.
Live chat software is also simple, fast and affordable. As it’s cloud based its also managed for you, no updates or maintenance to worry about. Setup involves signing up and installing once.
Adopting live chat is an effective method for answering customer queries. In fact, live chat has gained recognition as the best method to provide customer support.
5: Improved productivity for the team
It’s not only customers who enjoy the benefits of live chat; the business does as well. Testament to its effectiveness when used in either sales or support environments.
The greatest benefit is in its ability to do much more than chat. The range of features included offer capabilities that collects and organizes customer data.
It’s also fast for resolving problems. Problems as generally solved in the first sitting. Avoiding the infamous back-and-forth nature of e-mail or phone support.
The whole team can see activity in a single place. Conversations, contacts and data are visible so that everyone is up to speed. And you can work on concurrent chats with a smaller team while reducing workload.
6: Automate features to reduce workload
As they say, time is money.
Statistics show that these days a customer expects is to receive a response within 2 minutes.
If this prospect sounds daunting, don’t worry.
You can automate live chat in a variety of ways. From assigning conversations to even having a smart chatbot to respond for you.
AI has the ability to respond immediately from your help content. It’s possible to deflect at least 50% of enquires with AI alone.
For example Fuse IM has many automation types. Auto-responders are quick to set up and keyword based when you’re in a rush. And the conversational AI or even custom bot workflows if you wanted to invest a bit more time.
7: Increase customer engagement
The chat buttons have become so familiar that customers will look for one. Some will move to another site if they don’t see it.
Of course, in some cases forms are the only option. Unless your visitors are warm leads then the presence of a form can be a path of resistance to many.
This makes live chat the best answer for this problem. Increased engagement helps you gather more information for future follow up.
8: Handle many languages at once
Doing business online means talking people across borders and languages.
Live chat has emerged as a solution for providing multi-lingual customer support. Offering comprehension without misunderstandings or crossed-wires due to accents.
Support in many languages has become even easier now. Again, thanks to AI. The software will translate messages to and from you can your prospects in real-time.
Translation is another tool under your belt so that you can work smarter without added costs.
9: Promote self-service
The ideal scenario from a business point of view is to prevent the need to make an enquiry in the first place.
Research shows that customers prefer finding their answers on their own first. If the business offers the ability to do so.
That’s why its important to use a chat-box that can integrate with a help center.
Better still, a platform that offers both integrates all the above.
Having your help content easily accessible and in the chat reduces the work you have to do later.
10: Online 24/7, even when you’re not.
As a constant presence on your website the software will work on your behalf.
That doesn’t mean you need to watch the chat around the clock. With the right combination of settings it’s possible let the software do work for you.
Most will allow you to set a schedule and opening hours. Setting expectations for out-of-hours messages. Careful scheduling of offline hours will give you specific options for offline hours.
As we’ve discussed, people are happy when they can help themselves. Configuring AI, automations to answer FAQs in the chat and your help center ensures self-service at any time.
11: Gives you a competitive advantage
Boost confidence in your business and give yourself an edge over those that don’t.
Customer preference is toward the business that shows the necessary trust signals. If a competitor offers live chat support, your business must adapt or lose out.
The more you can engage with customers, the more data and feedback you can get. This data is essential for learning about behavior and preferences. Your marketing will benefit from such data and make advertising efforts more effective.
Achieve customer success with live chat
Modern customers have become accustomed to messaging and live chat technology.
As AI gains popularity, customers will be more comfortable with automated responses. In time those customers will come to expect the instant responses.
Choosing the right platform is a step to adopting the latest tech for your business.
