Are you a small or medium-sized business with an online presence? Do you interact with your customers or prospective clients on your website?
If so, you might be interested in the benefits of click to chat…
Why?
For a small or medium-sized business, click to chat (also called web chat or live chat) is a key tool for improving customer satisfaction and increasing online sales. But how?
Customer satisfaction
There’s no longer any doubt about it; online customers enjoy using live chat and increasingly expect to find it on your website. Live chat has been rated by consumers as the customer service touch point that requires the least effort, according to a report by eDigitalResearch. Of the 2,000 consumers surveyed, a quarter (26%) have used live chat to contact a company in the last year – 73% of whom said they were ‘satisfied’ or ‘extremely satisfied’ with the service they received. One third (30%) of those surveyed now expect to be able to use live chat to contact a brand. So by not providing live chat support, you are actually disappointing 30% of visitors.
As a small business, live chat can make the difference because internet users who end up browsing your website may not have heard of your business before. They might be slightly concerned about buying a product on the website of a small brand they’ve never purchased from. Small and medium sized businesses need to reassure their online visitors, about the quality of their products, the security of online payment, delivery conditions, etc, which is why you need to be particularly present on your website to answer these questions and concerns. By being able to talk to a real person via chat, your new visitors will be reassured and impressed by the quality of service.
Conversation
The smaller you are, the easier it is to have a real conversation with your customers. Make the most out of this opportunity to create a relationship with your online visitors. With click to chat, you will not only improve the quality of customer service but also be able to chat in real-time with your visitors and collect their feedback on your product, service or website, be it positive or negative. If your structure is still small and flexible, you might be able to act upon this feedback and improve your offer.
Click to chat is a channel which encourages a friendly interaction, less formal than via email or phone and is therefore well adapted to the needs of small and medium-sized businesses. Seize this opportunity to listen and grow.
Conversion
Part of your budget as an online business is most likely dedicated to AdWords and increasing trafic. Getting people on your website is one thing, convincing them to stay and to complete the check-out process is another. On average, only 2% of visitors on a website are converted into customers. Click to chat will help you prevent the 98% from leaving and increase the average order value of those who are ready to buy. Indeed, with some live chat solutions, an average of 1 out of 4 visitors who chat are converted into customers. However, to achieve a high conversion rate, you need to think strategically about which visitors you want to interact with in real-time. By implementing click to chat on the check-out page or creating a rule which will make the chat widget appear after a visitor has been looking at a product page for 2 minutes, you will target those visitors who will most benefit from your advice and support. They will have had time to think about the purchase and might even be nearly ready to complete their order, except, they have one last question… that’s when you come in and save the deal!
What should you look out for?
Click to chat is not a gadget. When implemented correctly, it can transform the customer experience and results on your website. Integrating and optimising live chat is a long term project. Which is why it’s worth taking the time to think about what your objectives are and which solution is best for your business.
No matter how big or small your company is, you’ll be looking for a tool which you and your customers enjoy using. Somethings that’s easy to use and nice to look at. But you also want a solution which provides you with a wide variety of key performance indicators, like customer satisfaction rate, average response rate, missed contact opportunities, turnover after chat, etc… Without these, how can you assess whether you are achieving a return on investment with your live chat project?
To put all chances on your side, you may choose to get expert advice and support with the implementation of your live chat solution. The initial investment may be slightly bigger but this valuable help at the start of your project and the close monitoring of your results throughout by an expert will optimise the potential of this communication channel on your website.
Tips for chat beginners!
Miranda Hobbs is Communication Manager for the UK at iAdvize. The company is specialised in real-time online customer service and provides a live chat, click to call and video chat solution. Combined with a behavioural targeting engine, these tools can increase conversion rates and optimise customer satisfaction and loyalty. Founded in 2010, more than 1000 clients throughout Europe use iAdvize today in order to improve their real-time online customer service. Clients are from a wide range of industries, including ecommerce, banking and insurance. iAdvize is the leader for live chat in France where its headquarters are based and has recently launched in Germany and in the UK