Why Is Live Chat Better than Good Old Phone Support?
After seemingly endless months of poring over market research studies and validation details, you’ve taken the plunge in the spirit of #YOLO, kissed your day job goodbye and managed to setup the beginnings of what would be your very own online business empire. Heck, if things go bamm you’ll be retiring to the Caribbean and do nothing but inhale the fresh sea breeze.
You’ve made certain you’re walking those baby feet in the right tracks, so you’ve covered every bit of the basics. “It’s all about the foundation,” muses your stoned startup mentor.
Anybody who’d stray to your site will find it not just compelling (to splurge bucks on) but also a great deal reassuring: there’s a pin bubble in Google maps where your headquarters is, there’s a contact email, and a company/store phone number. Shoppers dig these information. Truth is: you can do better.
Hi, shopper! I’m actually here!
Having 24/7 phone support reassures shoppers that you’re a 100% legitimate company that cares about them after money is exchanged hands. But today’s shoppers are more connected that ever. I mean really, back in the day websites are cool. Websites with real (and working!) contact information were wayyyy cooler. But today, people are more interested if you are actually present online.
That’s why social media interaction became such a huge deal to any marketer promoting a business online.
And if you think social media is the be-all, is-all in building a connection with your buyers, think again. What’s the best place for you to be talking to them? Why, you very own store, of course!
If you’re selling online, and somebody’s looking at an item on your online store, would you really want them to go somewhere else to reach you for any inquiries?
Why favor live chat technology over phone support?
Eliminates sales killer steps
A live chat widget catches all the above in the get-go. Anybody with an inquiry about an item can notice somebody’s online in the shop, and they can instantly chat with you or a customer service representative from your team.
Rather than have them grab the phone or open a Twitter or Facebook app to reach you, potential buyers can get the information they need without these distractions that take them farther away from the checkout page!
Only takes a single click
People browsing the web perform different actions and think differently, more so when they are browsing through a mobile device. In laptops and PCs, your site visitors will have multiple tabs in their browsers that allow them to view multiple pages at once and still keeping all of them. They are also most likely to be shopping leisurely.
When they are browsing through smaller mobile screens they are stuck with the option of only having one experience per screen; thus, the browsing experience becomes linear, not parallel. People on mobile are already “hunting” instead of shopping leisurely, thus their wallets are already open. You don’t want to miss them.
A live chat widget that lets them interact with you with a single click can prevent them from giving up on your item when doubts pop out their minds, and I’m telling you they will, these doubts.
Chat window appears instantly
When you’ve added live chat to your eCommerce store, a non-evading chat window will always be on the ready. Log in to it from the back end control panel as often as you can to make it useful to your online visitors. Or hire someone to cover the essential hours of your business operations.
Unlike waiting in queue for a customer phone support agent to pick up, activating the chat window to find somebody online they can chat with is the sweetest break for online shoppers!
Human presence in your online store
A phone number is what it is: just a number. A very willing buyer would have to step away for a minute from the screen to dial that number. With live chat on your site, your online shop is like a virtual shop with a salesperson behind the counter, ready to help anybody with a question or anybody who can’t find an item.
If your online store is a physical shop down the street, would you let its doors open without salesperson inside?
Key Takeways:
There’s a current war on customer relationship in the eCommerce landscape today. To win against competitors, to have customers buy from you instead of anywhere else, forging relationships is crucial. Online businesses try to be more personable by making it easy for consumers, designing websites with a smooth user flow to increase conversions and sales, and taking to social networks to become reachable.
When buyers are already in your site or online store, make sure they won’t find an silent, empty ghost town.
Cheby writes about live chat insights, improving conversions, epic customer service, online marketing and everything in between. She will take you by the hand in exploring how to extend your website's earning power through Offerchat's smart live chat tool, and even smarter live chat people.
