When we talk to companies about how to manage their customer interaction, we ask them why they are not using live chat software yet. Their answer often comes down to this: "Because we are already using phones, email, and social media."
These companies are not paying attention to which chats they can give, but to the additional work that another contact channel will bring them. We've put together a list of 10 benefits that will help companies see the benefits of chat rather than redundancy and extra work.
Before we focus on the benefits of using live chat, it is good to highlight that the concept of chatting on your website makes sense. We often compare websites to physical stores. In a physical store, visitors are always assisted by store employees. In fact, it is the chat that allows you to do it online.
1 - Promote Conversion and Retention
One of the most important reasons for companies to implement live chat service is its positive impact on sales. Several, research and data reports suggest that chat has a strong influence on conversion rates.
Boldchat's research shows that visitors who chat are converted 2.8 times faster than those who don't chat. The study also shows that these visitors spend up to 60% more on their purchases, making them 4.5 times more valuable than visitors who do not chat.
A case study with Under Armor showed a conversion rate of 10.9% from a chat conversation to direct sales.
In addition to increasing conversions, chat also has a positive impact on retention rates. A study by e-Marketer shows that 63% of customers were more likely to return to a website that offers live chat support.
But how does chat have a positive effect on sales? This leads me to a comparison with a physical store. People on your website have questions just like visitors in physical stores. However, many companies still rely on traditional contact channels such as phone and email.
Do you think that many visitors will call an electronics web store about a product-related question? No, it is very unlikely that a visitor will pick up the phone, perhaps wait in line and ask a product-related question that seems relatively trivial. The threshold is too large right now.
Leaving email forces visitors to leave the website. They will not get an immediate answer, so visitors will not convert immediately. This creates a risk of losing potential buyers to competitors.
Live chat combines both real-time and on-site factors. In search of the desired information on their website, visitors can ask questions simultaneously. This allows you to overcome hesitation and uncertainty during the purchase process. This is why chat converts better than other contact channels.
In addition, most marketing teams do not take adequate action to improve conversion rates. They mainly focus on generating traffic. But when customers enter their website, they do A / B testing and optimize the website. This means that there is so much potential in conversion optimization, and chat is an ideal tool to do this because it answers questions instantly.
2 - Reduce Shopping Cart Abandonment
Consistent with increased conversion rates, allowing real-time contact on the website reduces shopping cart abandonment. Consumers are not obliged by your products, simply because there is too much supply. When the checkout process is not clear, methods of payment are not properly communicated or shipping costs are not stated, consumers seek direct answers. Without an immediate reply, they would not fulfill their order.
The Bayard Institute has collected data from 41 different surveys about the disconnection of visitors from online shopping carts. The average dropout rate from this study is 69 percent. This means that more than two-thirds of all potential purchases are lost, totaling about $ 4 trillion. Research by Forrester Research shows that 53 percent of visitors almost certainly end up shopping when they cannot get an immediate answer to a question.
Live chat is fast and allows personal contact with customers when their purchase ends. By promptly answering questions while shopping, the shopping cart abandonment rate decreases significantly, and sales increase.
A report by Business Insider Intelligence shows that 63 percent of abandoned shopping carts are potentially impaired. An important fact, because a small decrease in the abandonment rate already results in a large increase in business. A 60 percent departure rate that can be reduced to 56 percent means a 10 percent increase in sales. On a sample of 100 shopping trolleys, the number of purchases dropped from 44 to 40 drops, an improvement of 10 percent.
3 - Increase Customer Satisfaction
Increased conversions and fewer abandoned shopping carts seem very exciting and interesting, but live chat software also affects the way your customers connect with you. In short, the chat is direct and easy to use, making it a highly preferred contact channel for customers. Several pieces of research on customer satisfaction prove this.
eDigital Research conducted a survey on customer satisfaction of customer service channels. Results show that live chat scored the highest on customer satisfaction of all customer service channels. More than 71 percent of people using live chat for website were satisfied.
Comm100 found that 83% of customers are satisfied with their customer services via chat, while only 61% for email and 44% for phones.
Statistics vary across studies (some as high as 92%), but the message is undisputed. The live chat app satisfaction benchmark is higher than other contact channels. There are some important features of chat that make it such a favorite channel.
Fast
The most important feature of a chat is that it is fast. Phone contact is also relatively quick, but as they wait in line, they can annoy visitors. When visitors need quick answers, they don't even bother asking via email. According to e-consultancy, 79% of customers prefer to live chat because it provides instant answers.
Suggested Read: Top 5 Advantages of Live Chat Support for Your Website
Anonymous
Unlike email and phone, live chat software allows customers to contact companies and organizations anonymously. This both increases the number of customers who contact the company in questioning and increases their satisfaction. In many cases, customers prefer to remain anonymous due to the type of product or service they are looking for (such as plastic surgery clinics). In addition, organizations dealing with sensitive topics chat for their anonymity.
During the outbreak of Corona in the Netherlands, the Dutch government launched a website that included a live chat service where citizens could notice domestic violence. Anonymity has a positive impact on the likelihood of people contacting your business or organization.
People Use The Channel
The on-site aspect of the chat is described as one of the reasons that positively influence conversions. This feature also increases customer satisfaction, as customers do not have to switch between channels to ask questions.
Inclusive
The anonymity of live chat creates clutter. It does not discriminate on the basis of gender, race, age, or disability. For example, live chats may meet the WCAG guidelines to ensure that people with physical weakness are able to use the chat.
Multimedia Friendly
Live chat allows users to share documents, video chat, and add additional explanatory information such as screenshots and pictures. Not doing so while switching channels increases the speed of the conversation, and thus customer satisfaction.
4 - Reducing Costs And Increasing Efficiency
Live chat has the image of being a conversion booster, but it works both ways. Since trained chat operators are capable of handling up to 6 chats simultaneously, it is more efficient than calling or emailing.
A study by Forrester shows that live chat software is more than 50% cheaper than handling phone calls.
In addition, implementing a live chat service on the website also reduces the number of incoming calls and emails. Chat access causes more people to contact companies through their live chat rather than call or email. The cost is therefore reduced by using fewer employees to manage customer contact, but also by reducing the amount of customer contact moments that are more expensive.
In addition to increased efficiency, the live chat app increases scalability. The fact that chat operators can manage more customer contacts gives you the opportunity to develop your business and customer service. Since chat software is cloud-based or an application, your customer contact team can be extended into a wimp, without having to buy more phones and add phone lines.
Suggested Read: How does live chat software work?
5 - Generate Valuable Data
An easily overlooked advantage is that live chat support tool collects a large amount of valuable data. Data is becoming extremely valuable and live chat software is an ideal way to generate it.
Customer queries are saved in writing to chat software, making it easy to convert them into analyzable information. The information describes what your customers ask, how they change when they contact you, and how they value your business.
Often, these customer insights can lead companies to develop and execute new business cases. For example, a case study of BNP Paribas' lease company Arwal states that a private lease label was started by analyzing chat data. Most customers who started a chat were interested in a private lease rather than a commercial lease (which was just the label they offered). He established a private lease label which is now more profitable than the business lease label.
Chat and Marketing
The data generated through chat can be used to optimize marketing activities. First, to improve the information on the website. When customers repeatedly ask for some product information, this is an indication that this information needs to be clarified on the website. Secondly, the data can be used to check on the performance of your chat operators. Which ones get positive feedback and which more customers convert? And thirdly, using data properly, chat can become an integral part of marketing activities. Two chat innovations show how:
Retargeting by Text Mining
This innovation allows you to increase the relevance of your ads using the information requested in a chat. Most advertisements are based on click behavior, but people often visit pages they are not really interested in. However, the information they request in the chat is very reliable.
Chat Banners
Chat Banner allows you to talk to potential customers in the domain where your ad is published. It gives you a chance to contact people, increase the CTR of your advertisements, and engage with your brand without entering your website.
6 - Track Results
Monitoring your performance is critical to providing customers with the best possible experience. The chat software platform is an ideal platform to track your results. The statistics generated within the software provide a lot of information to improve customer interaction through chat.
The number of chats per hour allows you to schedule the number of chat operators required at specific moments. Also, the agents' performance can be tracked by looking at satisfaction and conversion scores. In addition, the first response time allows you to see if chat operators respond quickly enough.
Using success codes is a convenient way to track results in your chat software. These are the codes you add to classify conversations (f.e. sales, support, general). These codes allow you to track different types of chats managed over a particular period of time.
7 - Provide Human Interaction
Often when we talk about live chat, people think of its automated version: the chatbot. Although chatbots provide a significant value on efficiency and 24/7 availability, real human interaction still wins the battle. For now, the quality of the human brain simply defeats the technology of chatbots.
An important aspect of live chat support is the ability of chat operators to show sympathy. When customers have complaints or they experience problems, it shows that you care and you will do your best to resolve the issue and provide a feeling of comfort to the customers. It is the human interaction that increases customer satisfaction and motivates people to return to you.
Chat operators are able to think with the customer and understand the problem rather than providing a set of solutions based on certain keywords. This is how most chatbots work. They can be used well to answer first line and repetitive questions, but when they are not able to help it increases anger and makes people desire a better conversation. This is why a hybrid model with a connection to the chat operator is preferred when using a chatbot.
8 - Personalize Your Brand
We refer to a live chat service as an online translation of a physical store employee. Websites are often in the jungles of information that lead to confused visitors. A service worker at the forefront of the website allows your customers to introduce your brand to the digital jungle.
One aspect that helps with this personality is the design of the chat window. Chat windows can be designed for personal preferences to suit the overall design of the website. By doing this, chat becomes an integral part of your business.
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9 - Available Outside Regular Office Hours
Unlike physical stores, websites are never closed. So customers buy products online all the time, even outside office hours.
Live chat software gives you the chance to ask customers questions during the visit on their website outside office hours. On average, more than 40% of the questions are asked through chat outside the office. Under Armor, case studies show that 50.6% of all their chats were handled outside of office time.
Being for your customers when they intend to buy, what that chat is about.
10 - Work On The Remote
In our modern society, it would be more common to work remotely. Live chat software allows your employees to do this because they are not sticking to fixed telephone lines. All they need is their computer and internet connection.
In the event of another epidemic breaking out, you will not need to reorganize full customer service. Everybody does exactly that but from home.
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