According to a report featured on Forbes, 92% of customers are satisfied when they use a live chat service on various websites. They are using other communication options as well, but to a slightly smaller extent (voice 88%, email 85%, Facebook 84%, Twitter 77%), which shows that live chat features provide them with better benefits.
Several more live chat customer support statistics show that 77% of customers are not likely to make a purchase if there is no live chat support, 63% of customers say that they are more likely to return to a website that has live chat, while 42% of customers say that the main reason why they prefer live chat is not having to wait on hold.
With such a high demand for live chat, entrepreneurs are starting to realize how big of an effect it can have on their business, which is why they are increasingly implementing it on their websites. Here are the top reasons why entrepreneurs are huge fans of live chat and why you should seriously consider adding this greatly beneficial feature to your website.
1. Live Chat is a Great Tool for Lead Generation
Lead generation is one of the primary goals of a number of entrepreneurs, and live chat is one of the best ways towards getting more quality leads. Live chat offers a real-time monitoring feature that can help you learn more about your website visitors and help them on their customer journey.
You can learn how they found you, where they are located, how many times they have visited your website, what pages on your site they are browsing, as well as how long they stay on each page. When you gain an insight into their behaviour and their preferences, you will be able to nurture your leads and successfully convert them into customers.
2. Live Chat Increase Sales
A Forrester report shows that 44% of online customers say that one of the most important features a website can offer is having their questions answered by a live person. Since customers are more likely to return to a website that provides them with an option to talk to a real person, as opposed to a website that doesn’t have live chat, you can significantly increase your sales and ROI if you implement this feature.
With the convenience of live chat, your website visitors will be much more satisfied with your service and they will gladly do business with you. Excellent customer service equals more closed sales, and live chat is one of the best ways to achieve that.
3. Increase in Upselling
Live chat is one of the best vehicles for up selling, which is yet another reason why you should integrate it into your website. You can use it to offer your help when a customer needs some recommendations, which is a great chance to entice them to purchase an upgrade of a particular product and, thus, make a more profitable sale.
Proactive live chat invitations are excellent for accomplishing that, as they are messages that you send to your visitors according to their behaviour on your website. With real-time monitoring, you can see when someone is switching between two different products, for instance, and engage in a proactive live chat session to offer your help with the decision. That is when you can use an upselling technique and not only close more deals, but also considerably increase your ROI.
4. Addressing Customers’ Pain Points
With a live chat service, you can learn about your customers’ pain points and make sure that you resolve every problem they may have. You can satisfy their every need and, thus, build trust with them and compel them to come back again to do business with you.
Apart from chat ratings, your customers can fill out a post-chat survey and tell you how satisfied they were with your service. That can help you really tap into their pain points and improve the quality of your service, because not only will you learn whether or not their needs were actually met when they engaged with your brand, but also how well your live chat agents were performing. Armed with such knowledge, you can improve your efforts and turn those pain points into sales opportunities.
5. Live Chat Can Extend Your Reach
Live chat has multi-lingual features, so you can easily communicate with customers all around the world and significantly grow your business. What’s more, you can provide the clients who may not be able to call you with an option to chat with you whenever they need your help.
Mitchell Bank, the founder of Military Cruise Deals, says this feature greatly increased their ability to communicate with overseas clients and, thus, extend his company’s reach. Being able to automatically translate your chat transcripts can really go a long way and help you gain more customers.
6. Cost-Effectiveness
With live chat, you will have fewer calls to deal with, so you will greatly cut down on your expenses. What’s more, your live chat agents will be able to handle multiple chats at the same time, which will not only reduce the waiting queue and increase customer satisfaction, but it will also reduce the need to hire more agents.
7. Building Trust and Customer Loyalty
With live chat, you will be available to your customers 24/7, which will help you build trust with them. You will inspire customer loyalty, as you will show that you care about their needs, since you will be there whenever they need you. Of course, your agents need to be properly trained in order to form strong relationships with new website visitors and returning customers, but the availability of live chat will definitely show that you are accessible and committed to take care of everyone’s needs.
Selecting Your Live Chat Solution
Now that you’re convinced live chat software is a business essential, it’s time to compare the top solutions available. You can do this by visiting software comparison sites such as TEC, who compare each solutions’ top features, prices, customer reviews and more. A word of advice: the most popular solution is not always the best fit for your unique business, so , when looking into live chat solutions, make sure you have thoroughly researched your business’ requirements, and compare these to the solutions’ features.
Author Bio: Jason is a technical writer currently associated with ProProfs Chat. He enjoys writing about emerging customer support products, trends in customer support industry and the financial impacts of using such tools. In his spare time, Jason likes traveling extensively to learn about new cultures and traditions.