Hey, I’m Michael Culp, and today, I’m going to show you seven reasons why you should use a live chat for your website!
In a nutshell, live chat can help you both with your customer service and customer acquisition. Live chat can be so powerful that 38% of customers said they had made their purchase due to the chat session itself.
So, let’s dive into the seven main benefits without further ado!
7 Reasons Why You Should Use Live Chat on Your Website
Cost and Time Effective
A live chat is cheap compared to other channels, such as a phone call. However, when you offer phone support, your operators are limited to only handling one call at a time, and you need to pay for every minute they are on the call. So your costs increase every minute you’re on the phone call.
The investment to build a call center can also be quite significant, and a considerable percentage of customers don’t like to get into a phone to get support.
Okay, but why not email? Email can be an alternative to customer support, but it doesn’t compare to live chat because of the time factor. The back and forth of emails can take a lot of time to resolve your client’s issues, which will decrease satisfaction.
The live chat platform has advantages for your company and your clients. This solution will help your clients quickly get the answer they need without making a call.
And it’s advantageous for you because the live chat platform allows your operators to handle multiple chats simultaneously, and you don’t have cost-per-minute charges as you’d on the phone.
Increase Conversions
Live chat also impacts conversion rates. Live chat functions extremely well for offering customer support and working as a sales channel.
If your customers land on your website and don’t find the information they need to guide them through the buying process, they will go to your competitor’s website. Just imagine how painful it can be if your buyer leaves the shopping cart because they don’t know how to insert the discount code.
So, live chats are great for providing your buyer with all the information they need to make an informed decision and buy the right product for them.
Increases Customer Retention
In this day and age, satisfaction is extremely important and a precursor of customer retention. Therefore, customer retention is a key metric you need to improve in your business. It’s common knowledge in marketing that acquiring a new customer is way more expensive when compared to selling another product to an existing customer.
If your competitors use the live chat in their business, you’ll need to use it to remain competitive. And if they are not using it, it can be a great competitive advantage for you. So, either way, it’s a good idea to implement a live chat at your business.
Automation
You can set up automated responses based on the reason for the contact. The best scenario is to have employees working 24/7, but this would add many costs. A great option is to hire employees to offer support during work hours and set up an automated chatbot during non-working hours.
Your chatbot can be programmed to answer the most common questions and to guide the customer to your knowledge base, directing him to the resources that will help them with their specific problem.
It’s also possible to set up chatbots to work during work hours. For example, the chatbot can try to help the customer by directing him to the knowledge base, and if they have a more specific problem, they can interact with a customer service rep.
Improve The Customer Experience
Live chat is pretty fast, so your customers want it. A great way to improve the customer experience is by resolving your customer’s problems fast, and there’s no better option than live chat.
Many customers also dislike jumping on a call to resolve a problem. It can be a very painful experience for the customer if they have to wait in line and then talk to someone that can’t resolve the issue.
Live chat allows customers to get an answer immediately.
Having a chat available on your website is also a great way to build trust and connect with potential customers who are new to your website.
Reduces Repetition for Your Customers
It’s very boring and painful for your customers to have to explain the issue again and again, every time they talk to another of your customers’ support people.
The live chat allows the next representative who will deal with the problem to look at all the information the customer has provided, so the customer doesn’t need to explain everything again.
Generates Valuable Data
The live chat interactions can generate valuable data for your company. It will allow you to identify and see all the problems that arise so you can fix them.
You’ll get a lot of insights into your customer’s needs and pain points, which can help you develop new products, improve your current products, and have marketing communication that better speaks to your customers.
By analyzing your live chat data, you can update your process to incorporate the solutions that will increase customer satisfaction and sales.
Conclusion
Today, you learned the importance of live chat for improving customer service and customer experience and driving more sales. To recap:
- Cost and Time Effective
- Increase Conversions
- Increases Customer Retention
- Automation
- Improve The Customer Experience
- Reduces Repetition for Your Customers
- Generates Valuable Data
AUTHOR BIO
Michael Culp is a Business Master’s Student and founder at Ambition Yard. He is a business enthusiast, and on his site, he teaches the best ways to make money online.
