Live chat is one of the most dynamic ways to communicate with your customers. With live chat you can turn every interaction with your website visitors into a memorable experience and build lasting relationships.
So, what is live chat?
Live chat is an online communication tool that you add to your website. It allows visitors to your website to interact with your company; whether they want to ask a question, need help with navigation, or want to learn valuable information.
With live chat, you can answer questions on the spot and in real time, giving your customers the instant gratification they are looking for. Not only that, your customers get a response much faster than traditional communication channels like email, which can take hours or even days!
That's why customer satisfaction rates for live chat channels are up to 73% while email and other social media channels only reach 61% and 48%.
We recently launched our own chat tool, called SuperOffice Chat. SuperOffice Chat can be added to any window on your website giving you control over where your customers can start a conversation to interact with your staff.
5 Ways to Use Live Chat to Improve customer experience
According to several studies on the benefits of live chat, it has been proven that “live chat helps improve customer satisfaction, which in turn increases revenue and generates new leads.” In this article, we will share 5 ways you can use live chat to provide a better customer experience.
1. Help customers more and provide a fast service in real time
When your customers are looking for support, they expect instant answers from you. And that’s why consumers use live chat because they get answers in the shortest time possible.
Any delay means you run a very high risk of losing customers.
In fact, slow response times are said to be one of the top 3 reasons why you lose customers.
By using this interactive channel, you can respond to customers in the shortest amount of time. According to our live chat channel research, companies prefer to respond to their customers in seconds, rather than minutes or hours (!).
Here, one person in charge of “chat” directly with customers can handle up to 6 conversations at the same time. Therefore, many customers will get the answers they are looking for without having to wait too long.
2. Integrate chat with your CRM to provide a personalized service
Before starting a conversation, you ask your customer to provide additional contact details, which will help you personalize the services you provide. You have the customer name base information right from the start, and this information helps you find the customer details in the CRM database.
SuperOffice Chat Fully integrated with SuperOffice CRM, which means you can quickly access all customer profile information like contact details, order history, and any previous interactions.
By having access to this information, you won't need to ask customers to give you all their information every time they interact with you – because you already have it in your database.
You can also let them know about any pending requests or provide a better service. This makes it easier for them to stay informed and shows them that you really care about them. Small details like this help you provide a better customer experience.
3. Answer questions to eliminate doubts and fears
With live chat on your website, you can help people find the information or service they need. So add “post chat” to the pages your customers visit most. For example, you can start by adding chat to your pricing, product, and support pages.
With chat on these windows, customers can ask you specific questions about the product they are planning to buy and you can immediately answer those questions, thereby simplifying the buying process. A chat agent can explain the differences and advise potential customers on the most suitable product.
In general, live chat keeps your customers happier and more likely to return – meaning your company's sales will increase as 44% consumers say having a live person answer their questions while shopping online is one of the most important features a website can offer.
To improve the customer experience, make sure your chat widget is clearly visible on your website. Using a custom message will attract attention and make it stand out. Make sure you use contrasting colors in your website design to make it stand out – as we did on our own website (shown below).
By displaying live chat, people can easily find what they need, making their website experience easier.
4. Suggest FAQs so customers can help themselves
With SuperOffice Chat, you can provide help in the form of “FAQs” that appear after customers have entered their questions. SuperOffice will scan the question for keywords and display the most relevant FAQs that match the description.
Whenever customers need help, they can choose to help themselves using the FAQ or they can start a chat with an agent. With each choice, they will get the answers they are looking for and make the customer experience better.
For example, most people have seen a 404 error message on a website. When your live chat widget is available on your website, customers will reach the information they are looking for through an agent. Instead of leaving your website.
5. Send Conversation Transcripts to Create a Better “After Service” Experience
You can give your customers the option to receive a copy of the chat, what we call a quick survey, via email when the chat ends. Our research shows that more than half of sites that use chat don't offer a survey.
By providing customers with a transcript of the conversation, they can review the conversation at any time, instead of having to call up and ask the same question again. Sometimes customers forget the answer. With this transcript, customers know where the information is – in their inbox. This way, links and FAQs from the conversation don’t get lost.
