Is live chat right for my business website?

Making decisions about your customer service support package is an integral part of running a business, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. If you’re thinking about setting up live chat on your business website, you may be wondering whether it’s worth it in the long run. Will opening another customer support channel really benefit your business? 

To learn more about how live chat can improve customer experiences and boost conversions, keep reading.

Why is live chat important?

With so many different types of customer support available, it can be difficult to know which ones to prioritise to get the best results. If you already have some communication channels up and running, you might wonder whether you really need live chat as well. What could help you to make that decision? Well, the first step to deciding if something is important to your business is to consider what you’d be missing out on without it. 

One of the main benefits of outsourced live chat is that you can provide customer support around the clock. This has the potential to be a big draw for customers, with the ability to cater to far more consumers working unsociable hours or with busy schedules.. Additionally, 24/7 customer support has the added bonus of helping to increase conversions 24/7, which has clear advantages for your business.

Studies show that live chat is a well-liked form of customer support, ranking higher than telephone, email and social media in polls. With this in mind, why not use your customers’ preferred form of support?

Why do customers prefer live chat?

We know that live chat is a popular option, but why is that? First of all, live chat appeals due to its immediacy. If a customer wants to get in touch via email or social media, the chances are they could be waiting for hours for a response. Telephone calls are similar – if all you want is a simple question answered, you probably don’t want to listen to hold music or wait while the lines are engaged. This sort of thing is less common on live chat – one agent can handle multiple chats simultaneously, so waiting times are greatly reduced while customer satisfaction is increased. 

Secondly, people like having someone available to answer their questions while they’re browsing. In a physical shop, this might look like sales assistants – who can help a customer to understand the differences between two different products or tell them where to go in the shop to find a certain item. You can do that for online shopping too, by implementing live chat functions which allow your customers to communicate with you while they’re browsing on the website. And if you use this communication wisely, you can get valuable insights into how to improve your website for the best user experience.

Finally, lots of people like live chat because it’s discreet. Email and social media offer a similar level of privacy so that those around us don’t know what we’re doing, but these channels lack immediacy. With live chat, customers can effectively communicate with your business while they’re at work or in a public place without everyone else knowing what they’re up to. This is especially important for businesses involved with sensitive subjects where customers highly value the discretion offered.

Are people more likely to buy with live chat ecommerce?

For many reasons, including those outlined above, a huge number of ecommerce businesses report increases in sales, leads and conversions after implementing live chat functionality on their websites. In fact, research from Forrester suggests that customers who use live chat are 2.8 times more likely to convert than those who don’t. Additionally, buyers using live chat spend more than their peers who aren’t engaging with this function.

Does live chat work on a B2B website?

While the needs of B2B and B2C business owners differ, there is some overlap between the two. The benefits of live chat on B2C websites is clear, but does the same apply to B2B businesses? The answer is yes! 

B2B sales are typically less impulse driven than those of the general consumer. This means that businesses need to nurture their leads more to encourage conversions. Some of this can be done asynchronously with helpful guides and blogs. However, a human on the other side of a live chat can go a long way in building client relationships.

A one-to-one interaction with clients who are browsing your website can help you to answer any initial questions they might have. Ask live chat customers to supply contact information, and you can then take that conversation further. Live chat can also give you insights into the aims of your customers so you can solve their specific problems with targeted material.