by Ernesto Comodo
Customers today are increasingly empowered by modern technologies, easily accessible information, and a wide range of options not only locally but globally. As a result, there has been a greater demand for faster response and live assistance.
Why are businesses implementing live chat and why should your business consider it?
In order to meet the expectations businesses look for new ways to deliver outstanding customer service. Live chat will get you faster response, more leads and better customer service satisfaction and better return on investment.
1. Live chat is real time
Businesses to connect with customers in real time with the best live chat tool. Identifying the problem helps to resolve it in the first contact, which boosts customer satisfaction.
2. Live chat is multi tasking
With live chat, businesses can enhance efficiency by empowering agents to handle multiple conversations at the same time. Delivering faster responses reduces the average queue time.
3. Better return on investment (RoI)
Businesses can deliver instant responses that drive sales from your website, preventing sales funnel drop out and ultimately delivering a better return on investment. Responding within 5 minutes increase your chances of converting by 10X versus waiting 10 minutes to respond. Waiting over 15 minutes loses most of your potential leads altogether. Why? Well is just the fast pace world we live in today. If you don’t get your answer right away you will just click the back button view your Google search result and click on the next company who might be able to help you out.
Gain Competitive Advantage
Besides the benefits and the low cost of entry with online chat surprisingly most companies are not using it. Only 14% of companies currently use live chat. Chat can be one of the ways to set yourself apart from competitors providing a superior customer service. If you engage business within the US, South Korea, India or Singapore the #1 preferred channel for customers to communicate is chat as shown in the survey below:
Automated Responses
Now, what if you are a small business or one person shop and don’t have time to answer right away, because you are busy working on other aspects of the business?
That is why you will use bots.
With chatbots you are able to route customer in the right direction, collect their email and get back to them as soon as you are available.
Bots can handle automated sales and supports conversations by promptly handling the FAQs by the customers 24/7. It reduces the number of support tickets raised and boosts user engagement.
But it isn’t just about using AI, it’s also about finding the niche areas where AI will be fast and reliable. For complex issues, you will still need to connect with the support agent. Ensure to automate your customer support in the right way to provide customers the best of both worlds without losing the human touch.
Set the right triggers to the right audience
Customers that access specific pages or stay on a page a certain amount of time more than likely is trying to understand, or get an answer to something so why not make it easy on them? Set up proactive triggers in real time.
You can gain a better understanding of the visitor’s journey with the help of live chat software about the buying experience from a customer perspective by combining the pain points of the customers and acting to their specific requirements.
Here are some common times you can trigger a message to start conversations:
- A hesitant buyer
- Customers who returned back or repeat customers
- Customers who are from certain regions or geographical locations
- Customers who are visiting FAQ pages
- Visiting certain product pages
- Reduce Lead Forms
You can reduce cart abandonment by triggering right and timely messages to your website visitors & customers. Based on their buying journey, send personalized messages to guide through a seamless checkout process.
Adopt The Right Chat Etiquette
As with all aspects of your business poor customer service will fail to impress customers and affect your business reputation.
Some of the areas where live chat etiquette can be followed are:
- Set positive tone
Listen patiently and allow customers to explain their problems. Set a positive tone while speaking to them by using phrases such as Please don’t hesitate, Please note that, Kindly, You are great, , you are special, etc. make customers feel valued.
- Ask for feedback
Asking feedback from customers and acting on it is an important live chat etiquette and a key factor that determines business growth. Feedbacks help to transform your products & services to gel with the needs of your customers.
- Real time customer service
Never keep your customers waiting. The best way to win the hearts of your customers is to close their cases in the first contact itself, without having them have to come back multiple times and go over the same questions again.
How do I setup my live chat?
You have a lot of options the first thing is to view what CRM and system your website is using. Are you using WordPress, Shopify, Hubspot, Zapier, Salesforce look for a platform that will integrate with these systems. Please read our past blog for our recommended apps.
Final thoughts on live chat best practices
Live chat is widely adopted for marketing, sales, and customer support. If you have implemented live chat to your business make sure to follow its best practices to help increase your customer engagement and deliver great live chat support.
Ernesto Comodo
Creative Director of 907K Marketing , Co-Owner of eBiz Marketing Academy and Marketing Director of LA South Chamber of Commerce.
15+ years of experience working in Marketing, is a Shopify Partner and Google Ads Partner.
ernesto@907k.com