The world around us is constantly changing and the way we are communicating with each other is too. As more and more people adapt to a digital mindset expectations and demands have evolved at the same time. This has led to businesses searching for the best ways to keep customer satisfaction and experiences at a high. Live chat has provided a way to do just that.
Live chat is rapidly becoming the leading digital contact method with 79% of consumers preferring this communication channel over others. This is because they offer instant responses and produce the highest consumer satisfaction rate at 92%. With more than 41% of customers expecting to see live chat on a businesses website, we are beginning to see a huge shift away from traditional contact channels such as phone or email as live chat rises to take their place.
What is live chat?
Live chat is a communication app that allows businesses and their website visitors to interact and “chat” in real time. When customers visit a website that uses this tool, a widget will appear in the lower corner of the screen. This will let them know you are available to chat! Additionally, one of the biggest plus sides is that there is no need for customers to download, install or redirect to another channel to use the chat.
A few ways to utilize live chat:
- Review analytics
- Track your customers shopping behavior and habits
- Create predetermined responses to speed up your response time
- Chat assignment and transfer
- Collect feedback
Customer service
Live chat and customer service are without a doubt a match made in heaven. This truly is where the advantages of live chat reveal themselves in all their glory. Everything your customers and agents need is all wrapped together in one lovely little chat parcel. Images, links and files can be sent within the conversation to make the interaction as polished and frictionless as possible. Furthermore, live typing, chat transfer and predetermined responses, just to name a few, will add that cherry on top of the already iced cake leading to happy customers.
The days when customers would queue in a phone line or wait a few days for an email are very much behind us. Quick response times have become absolutely vital to ensure business success. Not only is live chat reactive, where customers are receiving real time responses but it is also proactive. This means that businesses are able to reach out to website visitors first and bring that shopping experience you would receive in a brick and mortar store, online. Therefore, an overall more personalized service is being created for customers reaching out to businesses. As a result this can have huge advantageous impacts such as improving customer retention and building customer relationships that last.
Marketing
Big flashy marketing messages are not always as beneficial as you might think. When a consumer is browsing with intent or following their normal shopping habits it may be a lot harder to sell products or convince them to buy something. However, when a consumer visits your website and begins a chat they already have one foot in the door as they are showing interest. This is a great opportunity for agents to push sales through live chat as customers are more likely to respond positively.
A few ways live chat can help marketing:
- Cross-selling and Upselling: encourage consumers to purchase similar or higher-end products by alerting them to what’s new or what special deals are on.
- Sharing resources: send links, images or files with customers to generate more leads.
- Proactiveness: why wait for the customer to come to you? The great thing about live chat is that it is active. If your visitors are stuck on a page with a chatbot or agent you can reach out and help them complete their journey with your business by giving them a little gentle nudge in the right direction.
Thus, it is clear to see that live chat is quickly becoming a vital channel to interact and support the modern day consumer. With a growing list of advantages, are you ready to give it a try?
