How to Win Customers Over with a Live Chat System

Live chat is a popular tool to identify potential customers on a website and increase sales conversion. More than 60% of online shoppers return to an online retailer that has real-time chat options, reported KISSmetrics. Here are some tips to help you better use live chat to win your customers over.

Make Great First Impression

First impression is important. Building a professional branding image will increase customers’ trust in your company, which will further influence customers’ purchasing behaviors. Make sure that your live chat system uses appropriate colors, fonts and images so that it appears as an integral part of your brand.

Take chat button for example, you can design the chat button image according to the layout and style of your website and place it where you deem most appropriate. When Christmas is coming, you can even add some special holiday elements to the chat button image, such as Christmas hat, snowflakes, etc. to make it look merrier. These customized details will catch the visitors’ attention and give them a unique impression of your brand.

Give Prompt Reply

According to a report from Live Person, 71% of consumers expect assistance within five minutes; if they don’t receive it, 48% will abandon the site. The speed of response is a key factor to keep visitors in your site and convert them to customers. Using live chat is already an advantage , as it enables you to respond to customers’ queries instantly. Plus, you can take multiple chat requests at the same time, which reduces the waiting time.

Typical live chat software also offers tools for you to improve the chat efficiency. Typing indicator allows you to preview what a visitor is typing in real time so that you can prepare the answer in advance. Canned message empowers you to give an accurate answer to frequently asked questions within seconds. Auto-accepting chat minimizes the customer waiting time and contact history gives you the ability to quickly understand the customers.

Identify Potential Customers

When managing an online store, you can’t even see who are visiting, let alone what they are interested in, if they have purchasing potential. It may be a great barrier for you to analyze visitors and identify potential customers.

With a professional live chat system, you can literally see who are in your store and what products they are browsing just like in a brick and mortar store. Besides, there is a lot of useful information about the visitors for your reference, such as where they are from, how they found you, how long they have stayed, if they have come before and many more. These data allow you to analyze the visitors’ behavior and understand their interests or needs. When potential customers are identified, try to reach out to them proactively rather than waiting for them to contact you.

Trigger Personalized Chat Invitation

In most cases, customers need to know more details before making a decision. A study from Forrester shows that 44% of online consumers say that having questions answered by a live person while in the middle of an online purchase is one of the most important features a Web site can offer.

With proactive chat, determining when and where to engage prospects is critical. When visitors are shopping on your website, sending chat invitations too early or too late may not produce a good conversion rate. Use rules to make the auto invitations targeted and personalized based on parameters such as time on current page, current page URL, referral page, visit times, etc.

For example, if a visitor is staying on the homepage, you can trigger the chat with a simple greeting message; if he/she is browsing your products, you can start the chat with a product suggestion.

Are you using a live chat option for your website ? Has it improved your conversions ?