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Are you one of those who think technology can be complicated? Well, not all of it! Take “live chat,” for example, which is precisely what it sounds like a real-time chat on your website.
But here’s the cool part: live chat is more than a technological advancement. It’s an enticing way to connect with your customers. Your website visitors simply compose a quick message, hit send, and get instant assistance.
What’s more, it’s way faster than phone calls or emails. Who doesn’t appreciate the ease of use? However, only about 66% of companies use it mainly for customer support.
So, if you haven’t discovered what live chat can do for your business, keep reading, as we’ll show you its benefits and give you some tips on incorporating it into your e-commerce platform.
Benefits of Live Chat For Your E-commerce Business
Here are the benefits that you can gain from utilizing live chat interaction to drive e-commerce success:
1. Boost Revenue
One of the significant benefits of employing live chat in an e-commerce platform is that it can increase sales significantly.
Customers who have questions or doubts about online purchases turn to live chat as their virtual shopping assistant.
The immediate guidance that customers get from live chat may encourage them to keep the items in their cart.
They may be speaking to a live agent or an AI chatbot, but live chat interaction may still give the essence of a personalized approach. It creates a favorable environment to upsell goods or services.
Whether interacting with a live agent or an AI chatbot, the live chat experience may still give the essence of a personalized approach. It creates a favorable environment to upsell goods or services.
2. Capture More Leads
One of the challenges of e-commerce business is capturing leads. Even if there’s high website traffic, it doesn’t always translate to sales. Having a live chat is an advantageous option as it facilitates customer engagement.
Live chat support allows prospective clients to ask questions about goods or services, making it easier to build rapport with online prospects and convert them to paying customers.
Even though there’s no successful sale, customers’ personal information can be gathered for future follow-ups or sales outreach, making it an effective lead-generation tool.
3. Enhanced Customer Support
Unlike traditional communication channels, live chat eliminates long waiting hours for them to get an answer. This real-time interaction allows customers to resolve issues or queries they may have at the very moment they arise to prevent them from getting frustrated.
This real-time interaction also reflects how your business as a whole engages with your audience, may it be potential or existing customers. It leaves a positive impression that helps the brand image and attracts loyal consumers.
Another reason live chat enhances customer relations is that it allows customers to express their
sentiments. This will also benefit your business, as you’ll gain insights about the areas to improve, and you’ll better understand how you can deliver customer satisfaction.
4. Cost-Effective Customer Support
Traditionally, businesses have assisted consumers over the phone, but this can be expensive in terms of toll and labor costs. Live chat operators can multitask and assist multiple customers at a time.
Live chat has time-saving features like canned responses, wherein pre-written messages are ready to be provided to answer repetitive queries. Additionally, the 24/7 availability facilitated by chatbots reduces the need for human staffing.
5. Competitive Advantage
Not all e-commerce businesses can provide a personalized and convenient shopping experience. Incorporating live messaging services positions your business to be customer-centric, which can be the greatest advantage over your competitors.
Its presence conveys your company’s adaptability to leverage technology to meet the customer’s modern demands.
Live Chat Customer Service Best Practices
Now that you have a glimpse of the potential benefits of having a live chat feature for your company, here are some considerations before implementing live chat for your online store.
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Make Live Chat Available Across Your Whole Website
One of the common mistakes of e-commerce businesses is having limited live chat options on specific pages, such as the home page. Your customers have just started browsing what your site offers, so they may still need inquiries or concerns.
Ensure that your live chat functionality is accessible to assist customers at any stage during their stay proactively.
Live chat e-commerce platforms are classified into two ways:
– Reactive
With reactive live chat, it’s up to the site visitor to click the chat box that says “Chat with us” or “Need help?”.
– Proactive
A live chat window will pop up depending on the customer’s activity. There are cues or conditions before the proactive live chat shows, like the duration of stay on the website, pages viewed, number of items in the cart, etc.
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Be Visual
When you hear the word “live chat,” there’s a notion that it’s solely a text-based medium for written communication. That may be its exact way to describe it, but it doesn’t always have to be the case.
Instead of providing text-based information to explain, it can be more engaging to use photos of the products being discussed. Sometimes, it could be easier to illustrate what you’re trying to communicate.
If you’re giving technical help, graphics outlining what steps to take to fix a problem can significantly expedite the resolution process.
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Make Use Of Chatbots
Chatbots are designed to mimic human interactions. They comprehend and reply to communications using natural language processing (NLP).
Instead of employing live customer agents after work hours, chatbots can be beneficial to responding to client queries immediately. It has a programmed knowledge base that could answer frequently asked questions and even basic information about the different products you sell.
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Use Chat History
Make sure that chat history is available so customers don’t have to waste time repeating their questions to numerous agents. This would create a positive impression on your return customers as their basic information is remembered, providing a more personalized interaction for future communication.
Having a chat history could also speed up resolving customers’ problems so that agents refrain from providing resolutions that have been tested already.
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Make Improvements Based On Your Insights
Live chat is a platform where your customers can share whatever pain points or sentiments they may have for your products or even for your business.
Pay close attention to the feedback you receive. It may help you attract more loyal customers and maximize your sales.
Elevate Your E-commerce Customer Experience Through Magellan Solutions!
If you’re looking for responsive and round-the-clock customer assistance, Magellan Solutions is the right choice!
We offer a 24/7 live chat service to help SMEs streamline their e-commerce operations while providing a top-notch customer experience.
From answering queries, managing orders, upselling and cross-selling products, and resolving issues, we can do it all for you at an affordable price.
To know more about how we can deliver exceptional results, you may contact us now and get a free quote.