What is the most essential rule of being successful in business? Establishing a long-lasting client base by providing customers with satisfying options in real-time. In simple words, it means that corporations need to use all their available assets and follow the current trends in order to stay at the top. Moreover, it is the indisputable way to stay ahead of the competitors while providing an excellent service and quality products.

All of these reasons subtly answer the question if a business should go for live chat or not. Though some might overlook this communication platform due to its similarities with an instant messenger, the reality is there is a difference. With live chat, it is possible to monitor, track, and collect valuable information about the website visitors.

If we take look at study reports, 42% of online customers prefer an online live chat feature than other mediums, such as email (23%) or social media forums (16%). While an entire 97% claim customer service as an important factor that displays their loyalty to a brand, 53% of adults online would most likely to quit their purchase if they don’t get a quick answer to their concerns.   

What is Live Chat Software?

A live chat on the business account is an application that enables the visitors to engage in a conversation in real-time with customer support. It is a small window, usually located in the right corner of a website that greets the potential clients and offers assistance.

The opening message is an automatic website response, but as the guests share their concern, the service is transferred to a customer support agent (who is free to address the issue). Although it is used by businesses of all sizes and industry verticals, this unique online solution is most crucial for ecommerce and consumer care industries.

Initial greeting has proven to be more effective in lead conversion. Therefore, it is safe to say that customer satisfaction and devotion to a brand, as well as further recommendations, are almost guaranteed with the use of the live chat feature.    

How can live Chat help your Business?

There are five crucial advantages by which an online chat software increases business productivity and spreads a positive brand message across the globe. In the modern digital world, it is all about the speed and fast solutions allowing us to grab a lot of prosperous opportunities and a live communication channel is capable of offering exactly that along with the below mentioned benefits.

1. Increased Sales

It has been noticed that companies that use a live chat experience have, on average, a 20% increase in conversions. Consider the power of ending the cycle of endless website browsing by a simple ask/response feature that immediately provides answers.

Apart from saving time, it helps you reach the customers and make their buying decision a safe choice. The profound impact a simple chat has over visitors is witnessed by the fact that 35% more people made a purchase only after consulting with a live chat agent.

2. Reduced Costs

The days of traditional customer service support are coming to an end. With the use of live chat software, a business can see an overall decrease in service costs, as the cost per interaction is lower than the other alternatives such as phone or email. To be precise, a live chat is 50% cheaper compared to phone calls.

Furthermore, due to a quicker response time, agents spend less time on interactions while being able to attend to a larger audience. This immediately decreases the necessity for hiring more agents, thus saving the company even more money.  

Not to mention the fact that this type of job can be done remotely, which drastically lowers the travel, office and maintenance requirements costs.

3. Amplified Value

Increasing the average order value is another benefit of this application. By using live chat to understand and help the customers, an agent can recommend similar products and services that may interest them.

It is not uncommon for a live chat agent to recommend additional accessories that go with an acquired purchase. So when a buyer selects a product, an agent can immediately refer the client to related products, which results in a greater order value.

4. Better Website Experience

Implementing live chat means ending the need for writing long emails or calling to ask more for information about the product. Instead, the software allows for a personalized customer experience and a real-time correspondence with a live person.

This is a win-win situation for both the visitors and businesses. While the interested parties can resolve suspicions, they are three times more likely to buy the website offerings whereas the organization gets a loyal customer in return.

5. Shaping the Market

The key to successful marketing is understanding your target audience, and live chat offers a valuable insight into your customers’ habits and demands. Live chat allows the organizations to collect information about the customers and turn them into profitable leads.

Through the provided contact info, it is easy to identify the existing and potential customers, which gives a business the upper hand. Firstly, the companies can use them for their email marketing strategy and send the consumers promotional material and news. Secondly, they are more likely to convince them that certain products are most suitable for them.

On the other hand, with all the collected data, corporations can efficiently perform market research and see the business from a customer’s point of view. By gathering the “Voice of Customer Data”, a company can reshape their marketing strategy and product development to clear all sort of customers’ doubts in the future.

The process of collecting data is quite simple and can be done through live chat transcripts. Likewise, this process guarantees annual business growth and 10 times revenue increase by each following year.

Summing up

A live chat software is a must if a business wants to succeed. It is more than a passing trend, as it is slowly becoming the number one customer approach every business should benefit from. Satisfied patrons return to their favorite brands that showed them respect and were concerned about solving their issues in real-time, while businesses increase revenue, lower costs, and explore the market to gain a competitive advantage.