The How and Why of Live Chat

Live chat used to be “a nice option to have.” Its job was to look flashy and make customers feel confident that if all else failed, they could get their questions answered. But it’s starting to become an essential part of the online customer experience.

The modern-day customer expects an unparalleled level of customer service and they want it now.

Just like the salespeople at a high-end department store, it waits patiently until a customer asks for help and then answers the customer’s questions quickly and cheerfully. At least, that’s the ideal. It’s effectivity ultimately depends on you and your team.

Read on to learn more about why live chat is here to stay and how to step up your live chat game.

Why Your Customers Love Live Chat

63% of customers are more likely to return to a website that offers live chat (Source: eMarketer). Why? Because customers want answers NOW! That means the stakes are high, but so are the rewards.

• 57% of customers report abandoning their purchase if they can’t get their questions answered quickly enough (Source: Forrester).
• Conversely, at 73% live chat has the highest satisfaction levels of any other customer service channel, like email or phone (Source: Econsultancy).

It can give customers what they want when they want it, but that’s not where the magic stops.

Why You Should Love Live Chat

That customer satisfaction translates into dollar signs for your company. B2B companies who have used live chat have seen a 20% increase in conversions on average (Source: American Marketing Association). eMarketer reports that 35% more people made a purchase online after using live chat, and just having live chat available leads to a 48% increase in revenue per chat hour (Source: Forrester).

How to Do It Well

Average response times for email and social media are 12 and 10 hours respectively. Meanwhile, live chat response times sit around 2 minutes on average (Source: SuperOffice). But that doesn’t just happen on its own. It’s up to the sales teams to keep those response times low. Reps are 85% more likely to have productive conversations if they respond in less than 1 minute (Source: ChatFunnels). Here are a few suggestions to get those response times down and keep them there:

1. Track the performance of the reps and update results to encourage competition and improvement.
2. Dedicate reps to certain chats or times so everyone knows who is responsible for which chat.
3. Personalize the conversations to optimize the customer experience.

We have recently launched a new feature called agent performance tracking. It will drive productivity and improve overall team morale. 

This new agent performance tracking feature will transform your business operations and increase the effectiveness of your chatbots. It motivates your team to work hand in hand with the bots so your conversion rates can skyrocket!

Read this article to learn more about what this new feature can do for your team. 

Get Started Now

As previously mentioned, the beauty of live chat is the ability to connect with customers in real time. Also, with ChatFunnels targeting, you can jump directly into a chat with site visitors based on URL, time on page, scroll percentage, total visits, etc. 

If you’re interested in finding out what a bot can do for your website, book a demo with us today! 

Get started!