It’s important that when a prospective buyer goes onto your site – that they can interact with you. If you were to go shopping in a store for example, it may be that you would like to ask the sales assistant a question or 2 before you make your purchase. This in itself will build trust and give them a sense of reassurance. Of course, there is normally a phone number or email address for people to use – but the likelihood is that the consumer will want an answer straight away, which is why live chat can be the perfect companion to your e-commerce site. Below are some of the main benefits for this functionality.
Allows Better Engagement with Customers
Live chat makes it more likely that clients will ask you questions about products or services rather than clicking off site. Your visitors will instantly feel more comfortable – and will increase engagement rates significantly which in turn results in more sales.
Better Conversion Rates
Even if your website is as user-friendly as can be, and you have some great marketing strategies planned – there is no doubt that there will be a lot of visitors that will leave your site without buying anything. If you have a live chat function this can change things. Stats show that around 49% of customers have made their purchase when they have had a pleasant live chat experience.
Give you a Better Client Insight
When you talk to your customers, you will get a better idea of their behaviours and what their preferences are in general. It means that you can leave with a better idea as to how you can customise your product and service a little more to result in more conversions. It’s all about the personal touch.
Creating Long Term Relationships
The last thing you want is for someone to make just one purchase and never return again. If you have a live chat function you can build a rapport with them and ensure that they are a repeat customer. You could even create profiles and base your personalised marketing campaigns based on their chat history. It’s not just acquiring the client you need to think about, it’s retaining them too.
Cost Effective
An alternative to live chat is a call centre – but of course, this is a much more expensive option. Usually you would need to outsource this, or invest in very expensive software, whereas the live chat functionality is easy to integrate and will only cost resources to be manned. For the best benefit from live chat, it’s a good idea to have a 24/7 service. Even for small businesses, this can still be cost effective to have this monitored. Around 38% of customers have had an increase when it comes to customer satisfaction levels, so for that alone – it’s worth the effort.