In a digital world, speed is king. From expedited shipping to instant access to your services, your customers want solutions now — and they usually get them. However, this is not always the case with customer service. Research shows that the average response time for customer service requests via email is 12 hours. In your customer’s eyes, this is unacceptable. Delays like this will ultimately result in fewer customers and a damaged reputation for your business.
If you don’t react to your customers quickly enough, someone else will. So, how can you respond quickly to current and prospective customers? It’s simple: use live chat support.
By adding a live chat tool to your business website, you can help remedy roadblocks, increase your team’s efficiency, and give your company an advantage over its competitors. Keep reading for more benefits of adding live chat to your website.
Build trust with your customers
Trust is critical in the business world. Unfortunately, consumer trust is a fleeting thing that can be gained or lost at the drop of a hat. Consumers are naturally skeptical of buying things from people they don’t know. It’s human nature. When you walk into a physical store, the sales associate gets the chance to build a relationship with you during the sales process. This helps them establish trust and make the sale. But online, you can’t do that – unless you implement a feature like live chat support.
A study from ATG into global consumer trends found that 90% of customers said that live chat gives them confidence that they can get help if they need it. With live chat for websites, you can have a direct conversation with your buyer that allows you to build trust and close the gap between online and offline purchases. Without live chat, you will have to work harder to build trust with your website visitors.
Increase sales and conversions
As live chat software for websites has evolved, online marketers no longer consider the technology merely a support feature but more of a sales channel itself. Live chat for websites leads to a 48% increase in revenue per chat hour and a 40% increase in conversion rate. As mentioned above, a customer is more likely to purchase with the proper guidance. If your live chat support team is knowledgeable and experienced enough to guide customers in their purchases, you will undoubtedly see a boost in your sales and conversions.
At this point, you can use several additional strategies. For example, your live chat team can offer discounts for other purchases or even promotional codes to nudge the consumer along the sales funnel. Again, valuing a customer’s time and interest in your site will go a long way in converting a lead into a sale.
Provide 24/7 support and convenience
When it comes to providing high-quality customer service, the accessibility of your support team and the timeliness of your response are two vital factors in delivering a positive experience. Adding live chat support to your website can meet both these demands because it reduces stress for customers by meeting consumer needs more immediately.
In comparison to a phone line for customer support, most live chat providers don’t have a call queue where customers will wait on hold before speaking with a rep. Instead, the chat widget on the page will be visually marked that there is a rep standing by to help right away.
In addition to wasting time waiting to speak with a rep, chat channels also remove the need for putting customers on hold during troubleshooting. A study found that the most popular pain point that customers experienced with support teams was being placed on hold for too long. Of the nine options listed in that study, being put on hold for too long captured 42% of the respondents’ votes for being the most frustrating.
Adding live chat to your site can remove this poor experience altogether.
Increase engagement and boost the customer experience
Customer experience refers to your customers’ opinions and impressions of your brand. A bad customer experience can drive your customers to leave. On the other hand, a good customer experience can increase your customer retention rate and loyalty and boost your recurring revenue.
With live chat for websites, you will provide your customers with all the support they need before, during, and after the purchase. This affects the financial performance of your business and also improves your client’s experience with your brand. When customers have a way to contact you at all times, they are less likely to have a negative experience with your business. Even if they do, you can find a way to resolve it quickly and retain your reputation.
Save your business time and money
Phone and email support don’t just prolong the response time. These methods come with many back-and-forths, which eventually increase resource spending. However, with live chat for websites, one agent can simultaneously lead several chat sessions. With reps able to effortlessly multitask, you can use the same amount of reps to double or even triple your potential to take on more support cases.
This can save your business a significant amount of money because you won’t have to spend more on your payroll to meet a higher support demand from your customers during busy times.
Another benefit of live chat support is that customers can choose better-suited products for their needs, as they can ask questions about your services in real time. Naturally, this decreases product returns, which indirectly improves your company’s profits.
Collect important information and data
Data is the most desired commodity in the digital era.
Live chat for websites makes it simple to gather relevant customer information, such as their name and email address, which you can use for other marketing efforts down the road.
In-depth reports can also indicate your team quality. You can’t provide excellent customer service if you don’t measure your team’s effectiveness. Reports allow you to keep track of your metrics and improve your service wherever needed. Usually, customers get an option to rate the live chat agent after each conversation. You can include different types of questions, such as “Was this conversation helpful?” or “Was the live agent knowledgeable and friendly?”
From frequent customer questions before purchasing to common issues customers might have after using your product, this data can be valuable to improve your marketing efforts and product development.
The takeaway
Live chat for websites is an excellent option for today’s competitive business environment. This feature can dramatically increase your number of leads and sales by eliminating friction and building trust. If you’re not using live chat on your website, you could miss out on reducing costs, improving satisfaction rates, and increasing revenue.
Overall, there’s a lot to gain by adding live chat support to your website.
Hyport Digital’s live chat software provides everything you need from customized branding, targeted welcome messages, and full integration with most CRMs and marketing platforms.
Reach out to our team today to learn more!
