We all have been progressing towards a digitized environment, and the onset of pandemic gave it a much-needed boost. When a consumer visits the website, they want all the queries answered without any delay. E-commerce has evolved in a way that a company isn’t just about selling products or services; in order to build a brand, you need to connect with your visitors, and quickly. And live Chat software is the ideal tool for boosting customer support.
In fact, 86% consumers prefer talking to human than a chatbot. Therefore, if you want to leave a lasting impression on every visitor that comes on your website, you need to have a live chat option that connects them with a real sales rep.
The popularity of live chat has grown rapidly as more and more companies went digital when the pandemic hit. Research shows that live chat will continue to grow by 87% in next 12-18 months.
You can increase conversion rate only when a sales agent is available to interact with every visitor that reaches out to your company via live chat. No customer wants to get on a call and wait for a long time when there’s an option for live chat. So, before your prospect’s patience runs out and you have to say,
Implement a live Chat Software that puts an end to all your customer related issues.
So, before we explore the benefits and importance of live chat, let us first understand what is live chat software.
What is live chat software?
Live chat is a platform that connects a business with their website visitors in real time. You can initiate conversations, solve queries and also convert more leads with this versatile tool.
It’s an era of millennials, and the thing they dread most is “calling.” Believe it or not, 75% Millenials prefer texting over calling. Now we prefer communication that is less time-consuming, effective and seamless. Therefore, whenever you’re working with a wide range of audience, you need to consider their preferences.
Here are the reasons why live chat is growing popularity among customers –
With live chat, you can build strong connections with every visitor by interacting with them in a personalized way. So, live chat not only helps you engage better but it also contributes in improving conversion rate, drive more sales, boost customer retention and close more deals.
How does a live chat software work?
The functionality of live chat software is quite simple. Once you implement a live chat software, a chat box will appear on your website, usually on the bottom left side. So, this gives the visitor an opportunity to reach out and chat with the available rep and get their questions resolved.
Live chat software usually has automated responses for frequently asked question. In fact, some intuitive tools are also able to gather data based on the customer details and their question. So, when your customer wants to know the status of their order, the bot will fetch the data and answer them directly.
For more detailed queries, the bot will transfer the conversation to an available agent. And when the conversation is transferred to someone else, the chat history remains intact so that the visitor or customer doesn’t have to repeat themselves.
These features enable lead capturing and gathers crucial data that you can use to drive more sales. Moreover, it also improves engagement when the agent reaches out to a visitor and assists them in real-time. As the saying goes,
“It takes months to find a customer, seconds to lose one.” – Vince Lombardi
You must strive to perform better and level-up your conversational practices with live chat tool. So, read on below to find out how you can choose the right live chat software for your business.
How to choose the right live chat software?
A live chat software can make or break your customer care system. So, we have listed down main points that every company must consider when they’re looking to invest in a live chat software.
1. Ease of use
The main factor while choosing any tool is finding out whether it requires an extensive training or it can be learned without any support. You need to assess whether the tool you’re considering will be easily accessible by your agent or not. After all, it’s them who has to use the software and interact with clients.
So, find out how you can implement the software and if it can be integrated with your CRM or not. When the usability of the tool is not difficult, you will not only experience improved productivity but also increase in conversion.
2. Chatbots
A growing company highly relies on automation. With a large number of customers, you can’t look after the menial tasks. Therefore, you need chatbot functionality in a live chat tool so that it can automatically resolve frequently asked questions.
3. Customization
Every business has an aim to expand at some point; you need to check if the current tool can be customized according to your company’s employee strength and can be scalable in future. So, this gives you an advantage of modifying the software as per your company’s needs.
You can give it a fresh look and make it user-friendly so both your agent and visitors have a smooth communication.
4. Value for money
Investing in a live chat is a major decision; you’re building your entire customer support system around a tool. Therefore, the software should drive value for the money you are paying. Moreover, it’s always suggested to check the plan of a live chat software, and whether there are any additional charges or not if you plan to add more agents.
5. Secured
This entire process revolves around visitors all around the globe, and it’s your responsibility to assure that their information and data remains secured.
Who can use live chat software?
Sales teams
We are experiencing the shift in technology, and every team is getting affected. Even sales teams can now utilize live chat software and make more business. Calling and texting is still prevalent, but it has taken a back seat because of tools such as live chat.
Whether it’s making sales decisions or it’s the initial conversation with your prospect, live chat helps your prospects connect with you in real time. And while you’re having a conversation, you can easily pitch your sales proposition to convert them into customers.
Marketing teams
Marketing is a vital part of any sales process; your team constantly engages with your potential customers and provides solutions. So, using live chat tool for marketing can be the next big change you’re hoping for. Marketing teams can use live chat software when they’re sharing about resources, or upselling a product. Your customers or prospects can directly connect with the right marketing person and get more details on your offer.
Support teams
Support teams are backbone of any business; they’re the ones that largely connect with existing clients and provide assistance. So, when you connect the clients with a support team, they can get their queries solved in no time. No customer likes to wait for a long time on calls for their problems; live chat software cuts down the waiting time and provides quick solutions that helps retain more customers and build a lasting relationship.
Impact of Live chat software on a business
Live chat is largely affecting all businesses, and its impact has been substantial on every business. The usage of this tool differs for every company, irrespective of the size or employs. Since more and more companies are adopting live chat, from small businesses to large scale companies, all have observed a steady growth in their business.
From the chart below, it’s apparent that B2B takes up majority of market when it comes to implementing live chat, as they want to provide the best experience to their clients.
Live chat has impacted every aspect of the business; from customer support to sales, live chat covers every aspect of the business. Take a glance at below graph to understand how live chat has helped companies evolve over the time.
Benefits of live chat – why it is the best conversational sales tool
Connect with visitors
A company is all about its customers and the people that engage with it. Live chat software lets you connect with the visitors on your website. By having a personalized connection with your visitors, you can get insight into their preferences, provide relevant information about your company and help them make an informed decision.
For example, when a visitor lands on your website, they’re more likely to trust your company if they’re provided quick communication mode that clear outs all their concerns right away.
Get access to customer data
Live chat tool makes it easy to get access of customer data. It fetches the customer information right as they enter their basic details. You can get customer data and communicate accordingly to get more out of the deal.
Get context of every conversation
With live chat software, you never have to worry about losing context when communicating with old prospects or clients. Suppose, if the lead has been assigned to a different rep, they wouldn’t need to ask all the information again, which can simply make the communication process lengthy.
So, to save time of both parties, live chat enables you to access old conversation with a client or prospect. This way, you can get a hold of the topic and communicate with context.
Increased conversion rate
Evey company wants to bring more customers, and live chat is an essential tool for converting top of the funnel audience to the sales process and convert them into customers. Moreover, you can keep your customers satisfied, which can get you more leads via referrals. Therefore, live chat tool increases overall conversion rate of the company.
Personalized communication
The reason why live chat is the best conversational tool is because it provides personalized communication between a company and a prospect. Live chat software provides you with customer information, as well as the information about a prospect when they reach out to you. According to Gartner, brands that offers personalization will outperform the brands that don’t. Hence, to keep growing your business, it’s essential to adopt a live chat software.
Prevents cart abandonment
Now, sell your product/service to every potential lead that comes up on your website. Engage with them throughout their buying journey, and guide them through the process to grow your customer base. With automated pop-up messages, you can connect with each lead when they’re making a decision for their business.
Improved customer satisfaction
“A satisfied customer is the best business strategy of all.”
You can only retain your customers when your customer support strategy is impeccable. And according to various studies and the chart below, it’s apparent that high customer satisfaction is achievable with live chat software.
When you don’t leave your customers waiting for long, it shows that you value their time and effort. Therefore, when the customers are satisfied with quick customer support, they’ll stay delighted and help you grow your business.
Track performance
Do you often wonder how much time your sales or support team actually spends on prospecting, or which employee is capturing more leads? Well, live chat is the right tool for you! You can check which rep has interacted with which prospect and how it has impacted the sales pipeline. Keeping this into account, you can assign leads to the one performing better.
Provides competitive edge
Using live chat tool with your CRM certainly provides a competitive edge over the companies that don’t. You can communicate faster, increase productivity, and build lasting relationships while staying on top of all your tasks with a live chat software. Therefore, to gain a competitive edge and stand out from your competitors, a live chat integration is a must.
Best practices of using live chat software
Smart placement of live chat window
Place your window at a place where it captures your visitors’ attention. Generally, live chat boxes are placed at bottom ride side of the page, so when the user opens a page, the second thing they observe is live chatbox. Moreover, you can experiment with colors as well; you can use the color of your brand to give it a personalized look. These minor changes can have bigger impact on overall customer experience.
Increase your response rate
We live in an era where people look for quick solutions, and with other means of communications, it takes a while for customers to reach the right person. However, with live chat tool, you can speed up your response rate to satisfy customers and reduce abandonment rate.
Initiate conversation
A visitor may have gotten stuck browsing through the pages, so with automation and live chat window, you can create pop-up messages that draws the visitor’s attention so they can connect with you. Visitors often get overwhelmed when they’re out to buy a new product or service, and with live chat, you can help them streamline their needs and offer a product/service that is perfect for them.
Create lasting relationships
Since live chat is a unique blend of automation and human touch, you have the chance to build strong connections with your visitors. The experience of talking to a human is much different than getting automated responses, and you can leverage this benefit to bring more customers and keep nurturing them.
Ensure quality over quantity
Since it’s a live chat and you’re communicating in real time, you need to carefully consider the number of chats you accept. Customers expect swift replies, and failure to achieve that will lead to disappointed customers, which you certainly don’t want.
Therefore, accept the chats that you can manage, and assign rest to the other available reps so you can work in a collaborative way.
Final thoughts
Technology brings evolution and challenges at every stage, it’s up to us how we want to turn it into an opportunity. And live chat is a tool that, when integrated with a CRM, can do wonders for business of any size. Real time conversation with live chat continues to open up new opportunities for teams and helps them grow.
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