The Best Live Chat Solutions For Your Website

What is a Website Live Chat?

When visiting some websites you might notice a consistent trend. Right when that web page loads you are immediately prompted with a chat box in the corner of your screen, asking if you have any questions or need any help finding something. This is live chat and it has become one of the best ways to offer customer service online.

Live Chat has grown in popularity and consistently ranks as one of the best customer service options. 41% of those surveyed said they preferred live chat as their method of consumer inquiry. This was the largest reported percentage; with telephone, email, and phone trailing behind at 32%, 23%, and 3% respectively.

The desire for live chat has grown so much so that Facebook has started implementing a live chat option into their business pages. Facebook For Business has offered users an easy way to test out live chat, giving them a great introduction that’s easy to use. Whether you are already accustomed to live chat through this model or you are completely new to the concept, we are here to help take your online customer service efforts to the next level by providing your website with a robust live chat feature that your staff can manage with ease.

Implementing Live Chat Software

There are a few different ways to implement and maintain live chat on your website, most of these differences depend on your organization’s size and requirements. If you are a smaller organization with a minimal amount of inquiries coming in it could be easy for your organization to handle answering questions, especially if you have a dedicated person monitoring the chat. If you are a large organization with many customer services questions coming in each hour, it might be useful to automate some chat options as well as make live chat monitoring a required position.

The first step in building your live chat solution is knowing which group you fall under. Knowing the demand this system will have to handle is key to making sure you provide the best customer service experience.

Live Chat Maintenance

At this point it is important to know who will maintain this live chat system. Whether it is an auxiliary task for your team to take on or a dedicated position, it is important to establish how this system will be run. What makes a live chat program efficient and appealing is the fact that customers can get a response instantly. If it is not established early on it can be hard to maintain a reputation of efficiency.

Once you have figured out the demand and established a plan of action it’s time to make it a part of your website. Depending on the CMS system your website operates on, this process can vary in effect. Whether this chat option is a plug-in that needs to be implemented or a coding project designed to fit the precise layout of your site, you will need to take action in making sure it is actualized properly. Look into what others have done with a website like yours to make sure you are getting the results. If you are someone with minimal website management experience it can be beneficial to reach out to a consultant.

SEO Design Chicago provides a wealth of website development services. Regardless of the CMS system your website uses, we can provide you with a  live chat program that works for you. The best live chat software is one that is comprehensive and effective for you. We want to provide your team with tools they can actually use, not complicated or convoluted for appearances only.

Website Live Chat can open your website up to a new world of customer communication opportunities

Automated Chat Responses

While developing your live chat solution it is important to consider the benefits of automated responses. Automated responses are specific responses designated by your team to automatically respond to inquiries. This can help save time and better direct inquiries to those best equipped to answer them. 

If you are a large customer service team, with a high influx of cases coming in this can be useful in answering simple or general questions. A common inquiry that comes in on a frequent basis can lead you to create an automated response that will be sent out when that inquiry is asked. 

Customer Support Benefits

If you are a customer service team that handles a variety of different inquiries about your business you could use automation as a chance to redirect different inquiries to specific members of your team who are best fit to answer these questions. For example, you could be a company that sells products online. You might have inquiries come in that are related to the quality of the products, the shipping of the products, the return policies. You might have members of your customer support team who focus more on specific areas of your business than others. By creating automated responses you can start to sort these inquiries into different categories, making it easier for these expert team members to answer them.

The downside to automated responses is that they can come off as impersonal. One of the biggest values that comes with live chat is that customers enjoy the quick and personal response. If your live chat becomes too automated it can turn off customers and it might not be able properly answer their questions in an efficient way. If you are a smaller team, anticipating only a few inquiries per day, it might be best to keep everything manual to make sure you are providing the best service you can.

Benefits of Live Chat Software

Live chat can be an easy solution to many of the problems your organization faces when it comes to digital marketing, lead generation, and online customer service. Live chat offers your potential customers an easy way to ask questions and find information. If your website hosts a wealth of information, detailing all aspects of your business, it might be hard for a new visitor to find the answer to their specific inquiry. Live chat gives visitors an easy way to find answers, keeping them interested in your services.

When it comes to customer service, one of the biggest issues consumers face is getting answers in a timely manner. No one enjoys sitting on the phone, listening to hold music for hours on end and sending an email to the company’s contact address can feel like a shot in the dark. Website live chat offers a solution to these consumer problems with little extra effort required of the business. 

Live Chat Messaging

Another benefit offered by live chat is that it is a communication method that is easy to use and already a part of our daily lives. Texting and instant messaging are the major form of communication, the younger the demographic the more this statement reigns true. With so many of us already used to communicating this way it is easy to utilize. More traditional forms of customer service communication, such as phone calls and email, are not as much of our typical daily lives anymore; making it more intimidating or obstructive to certain customers. 

Messaging is also a very casual method of communication, if a customer has a minor inquiry they are more likely to reach out via live chat rather than making a phone call. The option of live chat gives them the chance to get their question answered, leaving that interaction with a better outlook on your business where they wouldn’t have otherwise.

When it comes to managing live chat, there is less overhead than other forms of customer service. Once a live chat system has been developed for your website the only thing your staff will need is a computer and access to the chat backend. Unlike call service customer service, you do not need to provide your staff with specific equipment and a dedicated place of operation. Most live chat customer service is done as an auxiliary task by team members already involved in sales support. Even if you need a dedicated team to operate your live chat they can easily access it from multiple locations, making this job an easy work from home position.

Conversion Rates

It might not seem like it at first but live chat can be a great way to increase leads and conversion rates. On average, there is a reported 40% conversion rate when live chat is utilized; with a 48% increase in revenue per chat hour. Live chat offers consumers an accessible and responsive manner of customer service. Instead of potential customers getting turned off of your business because they couldn’t find the right contact phone number for customer service, they are prompted with a chat box before they even decide they have a question.

With all of these great benefits accessible through implementing a live chat service, it is surprising that only 25% of businesses offer it as part of their customer services. While this number is sure to keep growing, now is a great time to get ahead of your competition. By offering this more responsive and consumer preferred method of customer service you can stand out from your competition. Providing customers, new and old, with the assistance needed to encourage them to make that initial or return purchase.

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