Why live chat online is the best investment you can make in your business

Live chat software is an invaluable tool for small businesses, and yet, only a minority businesses in the UK region incorporate a modern messaging solution on their website?

Maybe they can learn from their counterparts elsewhere in the globe, where more than 61% B2B companies and 33% of B2C companies swear by live chat respectively. But for some reason, businesses in the UK are slow to incorporate live chat into their websites. While not having live chat on your website saves you a few pounds in the short-term, its opportunity cost can be a lot more in the long run.

As long as you know how to effectively use a live chat tool to complement your existing customer engagement, live chat is vital for getting customers over the line and seizing every opportunity that presents itself.

Here’s what you’re missing out on if you don’t include a live chat software like Freshchat on your website:

Nurturing leads and boosting conversions

Answering a customer question mid-purchase without them having to leave the page or pick up the phone boosts the chance of a sale. Maybe they just need one last nudge to proceed through a sign-up or a purchase. Maybe they are ready to buy, but there’s a niggling doubt holding them back. Having a live chat option on hand empowers your agents to make a sale to warm leads.

According to stats, customers who chat are three times more likely to buy than those who don’t chat, while B2B businesses see an increase in conversions by 20% if they use live chat on their website.

Improved customer satisfaction and loyalty

Answer your website visitors’ burning questions when it matters and turn them into customers. The response time to a customer on live chat is, if not instantaneous, usually within a few minutes. Emails can take hours and calls can be a hassle.

Whether they have a product query, a request, or a complaint, the quicker you can respond, the more satisfied your potential customer will be. Even if they don’t make use of the live chat function, having it visible on your website encourages visitors that even if they have a question, they could receive a speedy response.

More efficient and affordable customer service

When customers visit your website, it’s not an accident; they mostly have a legitimate question about your product. They find your customer service number, wait to be put through to your overstretched customer support team (or give up in the attempt) and then have a lengthy one-on-one conversation. Meanwhile, the call is costing both you and them (around 50% more than live chat, in fact).

Alternatively, the customer can get an immediate response directly on the website from one of your agents who will be able to manage several conversations at once. All for a cost comparable to a decent email provider.

We spend billions in the hope that customers want a conversation with brands. And in the rare moment they do we consider it too expensive.

— Tom Goodwin (@tomfgoodwin) March 2, 2017

Analysis of your website visitors

Most live chat software provides analysis tools. They can log every single customer interaction in a chat history log which can be sorted, saved, and searched at any time. This allows you not only to identify common issues or pain points but to quickly recall conversations about similar problems to see how they were resolved.

You can also gather data on how many visitors your site receives, where they’re coming from, how many chat requests are accepted or ignored, as well as other metrics that can help you implement strategies to improve your website experience and increase traffic.

Conversion analytics allow you to analyse how effective your chats are at converting conversation into actual sales. From there, you can see which were the most successful and why. You can also harness valuable data about the performance of your agents such as wait and chat time per agent, ratings, transfers, workload, and efficiency.

Where do chatbots fit in?

A chatbot uses artificial intelligence (AI) to generate leads round-the-clock, even when you and your team are offline. All you need to do is customize your chatbot to say what and when. You can even select a tone that aligns with your company’s brand, whether that’s empathetic, fun, or confident.

It can then answer the most common queries and requests by using natural language processing (NLP). The chatbot can also qualify leads and auto-upload them into your CRM so your team can focus on selling. These automated responses provide consistency and can be used to train new staff members in best practice.

Freshworks is a customer engagement platform that helps businesses of all sizes to improve their customer relationship through refreshingly simple solutions.

Freshchat is modern messaging software that empowers business teams to ace customer conversations, whether it’s marketing, sales, or support. Find out more here.