How Live Chat Services Take Your Company One Step Ahead
In today's era of online shopping, customers expect to be able to reach a customer service representative at any time. Just one click and the customer is now talking with someone who can answer their questions or take care of their problem. This expectation has caused companies in all industries to invest in live chat services so they can provide this experience for their shoppers. Live chat software is an affordable way for your company to provide excellent customer service before, during, and after the purchase process.
Live chat is a great opportunity to handle customer inquiries, and take them through the buying process. This way you can help customers along with their answers without giving out too much detail – this helps save time, effort, and manpower on both ends of the conversation.
What is a Live Chat Service Provider?
A live chat service provider is an online company that provides a communication platform for businesses to communicate with their customers in real-time. This allows you to connect with your clients on any device and stay updated at all times – even when you're offline.
The effective customer lives chat software consists of various features that boost the customer service aspects of your business:
Live chat software generally creates a private environment where agents can have a conversation with customers. Live chat communication is almost instantaneous, helpful when you need to gather information or fix an issue quickly and efficiently. They also come in handy for any companies that wish to establish credibility with their customers, especially when they require expert advice. Customers want their inquiries answered as quickly and easily as possible, even while on the go.
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Reach Customers Anytime and Anywhere
Live chat is a faster way to reach out to your customers. It can also be used on the desktop or mobile devices. Your company can provide better service when those questions pop up at 2 AM! With live chat, your customer service rep is at the ready to answer any question a shopper may have.
There are several live chat solutions on the market. They all work in very similar ways and can be used on the desktop or mobile devices.
Chat with Happy Shoppers
For a shopper, your live chat window will always be visible on the bottom right of a page.
When a customer taps "chat", they will instantly start chatting with one of your representatives who will then answer any questions they may have. They can even show them around your e-commerce site to get more acquainted and find exactly what they are looking for!
Live chat apps are highly customizable! You can enable or disable elements, adjust the font size and colors to match your brand's look and feel. Some programs even allow you to create personalization groups based on certain customer questions for which you want to have pre-written answers ready.
It Doesn't Need Regular Updates
Live chat services do not require any software updates to ensure they are functioning properly. Since chat is cloud-based, all you need to do is log in to your account and the app will be running perfectly. That's a lot less hassle than having an IT guy update the software on each computer you use for live chats or scheduling downtime every time updates are due!
Products can be sold directly
One benefit of live chat software is that it allows you to sell products directly from your website through the program's interface. This can be done through cold calling and sending unsolicited emails, something which may get your company blacklisted in some countries. With live chat services, you can promote products by simply browsing your site, opening the live chat, and offering assistance to someone who is looking for something you offer at that particular time. It's as simple as that!
The advantage of cold calling is that you are not sending any unsolicited emails that may get your company blacklisted. With live chat services, the person you're chatting with will already be interested in your product. So, you won't have to spend countless hours researching and emailing prospects who might not be interested in your products or services.
No matter what part of the world you operate in, live chat is sure to take care of your customer service needs. As stated earlier, even if you're using conventional marketing methods like cold calling and emailing, live chat can still complement these efforts with great results. Sometimes when people call up other companies for sales or support, they are asked to submit an email with their questions and complaints. This might seem easy at first, but the process can turn complicated when you have a long queue of customers waiting for replies. Imagine spending 30 minutes on each customer's inquiry then multiply that by the number of people waiting – it's going to be a very hectic day for your sales and support staff.
Attracts more customers
Live chat is an excellent way to attract new customers, generate leads, and increase sales. In a recent survey on Internet Marketing Strategies, it was found that live chat generates more sales than other marketing strategies such as emailing (40% of respondents), telemarketing (12%), and cold calling (9%).
While all chats are not necessarily sales-driven, chat service representatives can direct customers to your website for more information or promotions.
When sales staff or an account executive takes charge of the live chat, they can contact prospective customers and convert them into paying clients. The success of live chat may also increase customer loyalty by allowing them to talk to a real person instead of an anonymous `voice` on the other end of an email or phone line.
Another advantage is that it becomes easier to maintain contact with existing customers, which can help reduce customer service costs. For example, by using live chat services, a company can easily reach out to clients and offer technical support whenever they feel the need for it. This allows the company to lower the cost of customer support since the need is met at a time when it would be most convenient and affordable for the client. Additionally, live chat also gives service representatives the chance to show their empathy toward clients by giving them support as soon as they experience any problems.
Help Improve Service Quality
The quality of any products or services is usually the main reason why clients decide to give up and switch their business to competitors. For a company to ensure that its clients' needs are met, live chat services can be used to assist in resolving client queries right away. This gives customers the impression that you are listening to them and addressing their problems.
With the help of live chat services, companies can also minimize the number of lost clients who would normally have to deal with frustrations like delays and poor service delivery otherwise.
Improved Sales Conversion Rates
When you consider that 84% of shoppers abandon their shopping cart at some point during a sales transaction, according to Forbes, you can see how live chat tools improve sales conversion rates by handling issues that would otherwise have led to disappointed customers and lost sales.
You will be surprised at how many potential shoppers leave your site without even returning after they experience problems like being unable to add a special item to their online shopping cart, signing up for a newsletter, or requesting information about a product.
What's worse, you won't even know which visitors left because of problems that your live chat support could have helped them resolve! The only way you'll ever know for sure is after they contact you by phone or email to get an answer that should have been provided in the first place.
Interestingly, many shoppers will not contact you at all with their questions. They will jump to a competitor's site or give up and choose not to purchase at all.
The biggest problem is that going live on chat means answering more than just questions about products and shipping options. Chat agents should be prepared to answer basic product information, research user issues, fix technical problems, and even handle some billing issues.
At the same time, many customers simply want to chat with a human being because they find it faster than submitting a support ticket or waiting for an email response.
Last Word
There are many ways to get your company ahead of the competition and Live chat services are one way that has been proven successful with businesses all around the world. Contact us for a free consultation today!
