Live chat has been available for more than a decade. Despite this, businesses have only lately realized its significant impact on website conversion rate. According to recent statistics, customers are fifty percent more likely to repurchase from a firm that offers live chat assistance.
Why is it that live chat has such a significant impact on conversion rates? It has been stated that the only way to give genuine human connection during an online transaction is to use live chat. Customers, in other words, want answers to their queries and comfort, which can only be delivered through live chat. This is when the human factor enters the picture. Your agents may assist in minimizing risk by giving comfort and a sense of value to the goods being purchased via live chat. The positive distinction is unmistakable. Here are some pointers to get you started with live chat. Make careful to read to the finish since there are some more sophisticated strategies towards the conclusion.
1. Choose appropriate emoji when conversing
Emojis are one of several tools that assist express warmth and feelings in digital discussions since isolation and social distance have become the new normal. Emojis generate empathy and make you more relatable, according to the majority of worldwide emoji users. Emojis, according to ninety percent of users, make it easier to express oneself. Emojis can assist avoid misunderstandings by taking the sting out of tough online interactions. Without seeing the other person’s emotions, conversations might look uncomfortable or dry. However, emojis can help to relieve tension and brighten the conversation.
By using appropriate emojis, your customers will feel that they are well-valued. However, some of the emojis in our databases are limited. If you are worried, try the vast collections of emojis in the emoji planet that are compatible with various types of devices. Emoji Planet has lots of features and types of emojis to offer, such as people, food, flags, animals, nature; just name it! When communicating online, emoticons and emojis can help compensate for the loss of nonverbal clues.
Furthermore, research suggests that appropriately employing emojis, particularly positive ones, aids in connection development as well as cognitive understanding. Emojis may be used to express emotion, emphasis, and complexity in tone in a completely remote job where you may not encounter your coworkers in person.
2. Practice canned messaging
Customers should be greeted professionally and courteously when they enter a live chat session. However, typing out these same messages again and over might take a long time for your chat workers.
This is where pre-written scripted messages may be quite useful. You may automate sections of the discussion and boost your professional reputation by using well-prepared standardized pre-made messages. Use this function with caution since too many prepared messages may lead your consumers to believe they’re speaking with a computer rather than a human.
3. Consider a pre-chat survey
When consumers start a chat session, they should be able to give some preparatory information in the form of a pre-chat survey, which will determine the chat episode’s direction. They can, for example, give their name and a brief description of what they’re searching for. After that, the chat representative can enter the discussion prepared to respond to the customer’s query.
The pre-chat survey also allows you to swiftly route the chat to the agent best suited to manage it. Create a pre-chat survey form that helps consumers to steer the conversation in their preferred path. Create a library of professionally prepared pre-made messages and show your chat agents how to utilize them.
4. Explore the upsell and cross-sell methods
Your chat operators should be well-versed in upselling and cross-selling methods. In simple terms, an up-sell is when a consumer is convinced to buy a more sophisticated or improved version of the product he initially wanted. For example, a person wants to buy a regular watch for $24.99 but instead, chooses to spend ten dollars extra on a solar-powered watch. He is upsold on the concept that the battery will never need to be replaced; thus, he will save money in the long term.
When a customer is encouraged to buy accessories for his original product, this is known as a cross-sell. When buying a digital camera, for example, a client is informed that he’ll need some additional memory cards in case he gets out before uploading his photographs. Provide your chat agents with basic sales training so they can recognize and act on upselling and cross-selling possibilities.
5. Have a typing indicator
Customers should be able to see what your live chat agents are typing as they type it. It allows the alert chat agent to see what the customers think as they type. Additionally, it also helps the alert chat agent to reply with an answer more rapidly.
When a consumer presses the “send” button during a chat, it must notify the chat operators. The warning can be audible, visual, or both, and it can be used to notify a busy chat agent that a client is waiting for a response. Remember that your chat agents are likely to be handling many chats at once, so whatever you can do to assist them in multitasking will be beneficial.
6. Encourage cross-departmental collaboration.
Your chat operators should be treated as an in-house sales and support department, and as such, they should be familiar with all of your company’s product lines. This qualifies them to give a more comprehensive viewpoint while engaging with clients, whether as salesmen or as customer service representatives. Upsell and cross-sell possibilities may be identified rapidly by chat operators who are familiar with all of your product lines. Put your chat employees through the same pre-employment training as the rest of your team.
Conclusion
Live chat is fast gaining in popularity due to its capacity to give a human connection during the conversion. Your chat agents represent the “human” aspect of live chat. These chat agents must be just as skilled as your salesmen and support staff, with the extra ability to articulate themselves in ways that engage consumers on a personal level online. The pointers in this post will assist you in implementing live chat on your website.
