Post summary:
- What is live chat?
- How live chat can benefit your business
- 5 Ways to use live for Customer Experience
To improve your customer experience you need to meet and go beyond your customer's expectations when communicating with them. Companies that deliver a good customer experience see an increase in customer loyalty, which in turn leads to higher sales.
Live chat is one of the most dynamic ways to communicate with your customers. With live chat you can turn every interaction with visitors on your website into a memorable experience and build longer lasting relationships.
What is live chat?
Live chat is an online communication tool that you add to your website. This tool allows the people that visit your website to engage with your company; whether they want to ask questions, need help with navigation or want to find valuable information.
With live chat, you can answer questions on the spot and in real-time, giving customers the instant gratification they are looking for. Not only that, your customers receive a response much faster than the standard communication channels, such as email, where a response can take up to hours or even days!
It’s because of this reason why customer satisfaction rates for chat as a customer service communication channel are as high as 73% - where email and social media only scored 61% and 48% respectively.
We have recently launched our own chat tool, called SuperOffice Chat. SuperOffice Chat can be added to any web page on your website and you control where your customers can initiate a chat session to talk to your team.
5 ways to use chat to improve the customer experience
There are several live chat benefits and live chat has been proven to increase sales, generate new leads and improve customer satisfaction rates. In this article we will share five ways that you can use live chat to provide a better customer experience.
1. Help more customers and deliver a fast service in real-time
When your customers are looking for support, they demand instant answers.
And the main reason why consumers use live chat is because they get their questions answered immediately.
Any delays mean you risk losing customers.
In fact, slow response times are cited as one of the top 3 reasons why customers leave.
By using live chat, you can respond to customers quickly. According to our own live chat study, companies that prioritize chat conversations are able to reply to their customers within seconds, rather than minutes or hours (!).
A chat agent, a person who responds to chats, is able to handle as many as 6 chat sessions at one time. Therefore, more customers will be getting the answers they are looking for, without having to wait for too long.
2. Integrate chat with your CRM to provide a personalized service
When you ask your customers to add their contact details before initiating a chat, it will help you personalize the service you provide. You are on a first name basis with the customer from the start, and this information helps you to find the customer’s details in your CRM database.
SuperOffice Chat is completely integrated with SuperOffice CRM, which means that you have instant access to all customer profile information such as contact details, order history and any previous correspondence.
By having access to this information, you won’t need to ask the customer to give you all of their details each time they use chat – as you have already it!
You can also inform the customer about any pending or open requests to provide an even greater service. Your customers will appreciate the update and you can show them you really care about them. Its small details like this which help you deliver a better customer experience.
3. Answer questions to eliminate doubts and fears
With chat on your website, you can help people to navigate to the right place when they are looking for specific pages or products. Therefore, it makes sense to add chat to the pages that your customers visit the most. For example, you can start by adding chat to your pricing, product, and support pages.
With chat on these pages, customers can ask you specific questions about the product they intend to buy and you can answer them in real time, which simplifies the buying process. A chat agent can explain the differences and advise the potential customer on the product that is most suitable.
Overall, live chat keeps your customers happy and returning – and that means more sales as 44% of consumers say that having a live person answer their questions while in the middle of an online purchase is one of the most important features a website can offer.
To improve the customer experience, make sure your chat widget is clearly visible on your website. Use a customized message that will attract attention and make it bold. Make sure you use contrasting colors to your website design to make it stand out – like we have done on our own website (shown below).
By making chat visible, people can easily find help when they need it, which will make their browsing experience much more pleasant.
4. Recommend FAQ’s so customers can help themselves
With SuperOffice Chat, you can offer help in the form of FAQ’s that appear after the customer has entered their question. SuperOffice will scan the question for keywords and show the most relevant FAQ’s that match the description.
Whenever customers need help, they can choose to help themselves by using the FAQ’s or they can start a chat with an agent. Whichever option they choose, they will get the answer they are looking for and that makes for a great customer experience.
For example, almost everyone has experienced landing on a 404 page before. When your chat widget is available on the 404 page, you can help your customers navigate to the information they are looking for. Instead of them leaving your website, they can get the answers they need directly from a chat agent.
5. Send the Chat transcript to create a positive "post-service" experience
You can give your customers the option to receive a copy of the chat conversation, which we call the transcript, by email once the chat has finished. Our own research found that nearly half of all websites that use chat don’t provide a transcript.
By giving your customers the option to send the transcript to themselves, they can always revisit the conversation you had with them at any time, instead of having to call up and ask the same question again (and again). Sometimes, customers forget the answers or they don’t have the time to use the answers they received straight away.
With the transcript, they know where the information is saved - in their inbox. This way the links and FAQ’s from the chat conversation will not be lost.
Conclusion
Live chat is a great addition to any business.
With live chat, your customers get the help they need and they get it quickly, and you get to speak directly with the people that consume your product or service. It's a win-win!
By using live chat on your website, you can convert more anonymous visitors into buyers and you can keep your customers happy (and loyal) by improving customer satisfaction rates. This all adds up to providing a superior customer experience.
What is your experience with using live chat?
And how are you using live chat to provide a better customer experience?
If you would like to see how SuperOffice chat works, click here and to talk directly with a live agent.
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