What They Don’t Tell You About Live Chat Effectiveness In Business
It’s a hot summer day. There is a sale and your store manager is out sick. So, here you are handling the register on a holiday weekend. On most days, the team runs your clothing and accessories store like clockwork.
However, on days like this one, you wish you had an on-demand customer service wizard to answer the phone, email responses to customer queries or manage complaints for online orders. The sales team on the floor has their hands full with stocking, shelving and cleaning duties.
Right when you're figuring out how to summon a genie for the online store component, a stray ray of sunlight falls upon a magazine. Within it is an interview with a local shop owner who, like yourself, has recently made the leap to the world of online retail. Among his secrets for sustainable success is a live chat software that provides smart customer assistance to his e-customers.
Website Support
There is a strong probability that your competitors are already using live chat support to generate sales leads. Live chat software enables businesses to convert existing website traffic into concrete sales and orders. What’s not to like about that?
The mall may close its doors at 8 p.m. but your customers can still get directions for an upcoming visit or confirm the availability of a certain pair of shoes no matter what time it is- all courtesy of the live chat window.
For customers who expect to be engaging with a brand constantly for queries and information, “how” they get in touch is as important as “when”. This means that people desire both quick phone-call conversations and easy email exchanges. Live chat-based customer support is the perfect hybrid solution.
See Also: 5 Effective Ways To Sound More Human Over A Customer Support Live Chat
Customer Loyalty
While giving a rousing speech to one’s sales and support teams, the idea is to inspire them to provide customer service excellence. That superior service should, in theory, endear customers to your brand and products. Ask entrepreneurs and they will agree with prioritizing customer retention strategies and gaining customer loyalty in their business operations. Having live chat integrated into your website will help you retain customers while simultaneously increasing the company’s profits.
Time and time again, there have been numerous studies which have shown that retaining old customers and gaining their loyalty results in profit increases.
According to a Reichheld & Schefter study in the Harvard Business Review, a mere 5% increase in the overall customer retention rate results in a significant 25% increase in profit rates.
Customer retention is made possible by live chat because it delivers personalized customer experiences. These customized experiences keep customers coming back for more while gradually increasing their brand loyalty.
Real-Time Customer Assistance
No matter how well-thought out the marketing plan is and how slick the website is, essentially, your customers care about the quality of assistance they receive. They gauge whether customer service representatives and the company they represent are genuinely concerned about them.
Brands that enlist live chat software eradicate hold times that are common with call center-based customer support. There is no longer a need to waste precious minutes on hold to talk to a customer service representative.
With live chat, customers retain control of the conversation and are able to access help immediately on the website. Once they have the information they need, be it scheduling a delivery, initiating a return or checking for a new product, the customers just have to click on the little ‘x’ to end the interaction.
Better Connection
Rolling out live chat software on their websites also gives brands a chance to connect through a new communication channel. This works particularly well where the target demographic consists of millennials.
According to a report by Software Advice, millennials prefer live chat over other communication methods because they want their problems answered fast- and live chat does just that.
The immediacy of live chat is equivalent to that of a phone call. Text-based solutions, on the other hand, are as convenient as e-mails. In the same Software Advice report, researchers found that more than 70% of millennials aged between 16-24 feel that customer experience can be improved by quicker response times.
Accessibility
In addition to immediacy, one of the other factors that customers consider while communicating with brands is accessibility. For millennial shoppers, it is of vital importance that they be able to access their favorite brands anytime and anywhere.
In fact, a recent survey indicates that close to 60% of millennials prefer brands that are readily accessible and easy to engage with. Live chat’s round-the-clock availability and accessibility are strong reasons why millennials prefer it over other mediums.
In Conclusion
Fast forward to the next sales weekend: this time around live chat is up and running on the store’s website. The doors keep swinging up with brand new customers who found directions via the live chat agent. Your laptop keeps pinging with new orders from online visitors. Any business can easily rejuvenate their bottom line, just by adding live chat onto their existing online stores and websites.
For those businesses aiming for a seamless customer experience, both online and offline, live chat can provide the ideal solution. No matter which industry a business belongs to, the benefits of live chat are universal.
Live chat software enables brands to deliver personalized customer experiences while simultaneously increasing customer retention rates and ultimately, their profits.
