As today’s consumers, our expectations have grown thanks to the choice and convenience we have at our fingertips. We can think about a new coffee table in the evening and have it in our living room the next morning and our favourite meals arrive at our doorstep hot and ready to eat in less time than it might take us to cook them ourselves.
This kind of instantly gratifying buying experience means that we, as customers expect answers to our questions as quickly as possible, so waiting for an email response may just be enough to send us to another website where we can get answers immediately. That’s why live chat is such a brilliant feature for small and large businesses alike, enabling you to instantly connect with your site visitors and engage with them. Here are the key benefits of live chat on website.
Available 24/7
Now, of course, we understand you and your staff may not be working 24/7, however, even when you are unavailable, live chat can still keep doing the work for you through the help of bots. Bots can be programmed to respond to certain key phrases, answer basic questions and direct your customers to the links they may be looking for and, if the bot can’t answer their questions, they can leave a query for you.
Consumers are more likely to contact you via live chat rather than email or contact form, so this is a great way to make sure you don’t miss out on any enquiries. And yes, during the operating hours, when you or your team can answer the questions live, this function provides more accessibility and brings in more engagement from your customers, which you can convert into sales.
Increase conversions and order value
One of the most important benefits of live chat on website is increased conversion rate. As your potential customers are just browsing your site, they may have some questions that you are able to answer right away. This creates instant connection between you and the customer, similar to when they walk into a store and approach a salesperson. They no longer have to wait over 12 hours for a response to their email and this will help you increase enquiries and sales for your products and services.
In addition, benefits of live chat on website include the opportunity for upselling, which will feel a lot more organic as you’re having a live conversation with them and are able to gauge what they are looking for and may be interested in.
Decrease costs
In every business, someone will be answering the phone or email and helping with customer queries. The trouble is, you can only ever deal with one phone call or email at a time. With live chat, however, you can reply to several people at the same time and the interaction could take less time than sending emails back and forth, which means you can potentially decrease the amount of time that needs to be spent on customer service, therefore, minimising your costs.
Gain a competitive edge
If you and your competitor offer the same or similar product or service, having a live chat feature on your website could be the key to winning that sale for your business. If the customer can find the information they need quicker through you than someone else, it is also more likely that you will build that trust with them to secure future sales.
Valuable insights
Potential customers are less likely to send you an email about every little question or query as they browse but, because of the accessibility of live chat, they will contact you about smaller queries as they think about them. One of the less obvious benefits of live chat on website is the insights you can gather from it. Through gathering data from your live chats, you can start to understand how you can improve the user experience for future customers.
Build trust and create a rapport
Your visitors may not convert into customers straight away, however, if they have to provide their contact details and email address, you can start to recognise them the next time they visit and build a rapport with them. Plus, this is also an opportunity for you to ask if they’d like to receive your newsletter or a follow-up email, so even after they have left your website you can keep building that relationship with them.
If you’d like to know more about benefits of live chat on website or ways to implement it, chat to our knowledgeable team today! We have a wealth of experience in web design and marketing and we can help you set up a live chat feature on your site, so you can start reaping the benefits.
