A quick and efficient service is of paramount importance in today’s world, and since customer’s expectations are growing and the competitors are struggling to meet them, you must also improve the quality of your service. One of the ways to easily boost your performance is by adding live chat software to your website. It is a budget-friendly feature that can be extremely effective depending on your ability to use it.
 

Live chat software can be more than beneficial for any line of work, and today if you are running an online store this tool is a must. Here we will examine all of the advantages that this seemingly simple tool can bring to the table.

1. Increase sales and conversion

Both big and small business have start to rely on live chat, and the main reason for this popularity is because it leads to increased sales. The American Marketing Association has done their research on live chat in B2B companies and the results revealed that these companies witness a 20% increase in sales, on average. This is not surprising at all, since anyone who was in the shoes of an online shopper knows what it’s like to find the product they want, but at the same time they are not sure about making a purchase.  Since we are not in the physical store, we cannot examine the merchandise, and we have a lot of questions related to it, so without someone to answer those questions it is natural to be hesitant about the purchase. 
 

People used to contact providers on social media or via email just to ask the questions that are related to the product. Unfortunately, the response tends to arrive 10 hours after the fact, sometimes even more, which is more than enough time for some customers to lose interest. So, those who have a live chat feature can easily tap into that pool of inquisitive customers, and increase their conversion.

2. Reduced costs

Customer support service tends to be expensive, and if you have large customer base, being constantly available is really difficult. Even having a call center can prove to be ineffective, not to mention exhausting. Live chat is much more reliable and you can easily handle up to six customers at once, according to Telus International. Of course, the nature of the issue or its complexity play a crucial factor in this case. 
 

However, the point is that you won’t have to rely on an expensive and less effective method to uphold quality customer support standards. After all, live chat is 50% cheaper than a call center, so the sooner you make the switch, the better.

3. Better user experience

Live chat equals better user experience, but you don’t have to take our word for it, ask the customer yourself. This is actually a common practice in many companies – after a conversation with a live chat operator, a customer receives a small survey to evaluate their interaction with your support team. 
Customer simply love it when they are able to contact someone with a few clicks and when you are able to respond within minutes. According to eDigital’s customer service benchmark, when compared with email and phone, live chat was selected as the highest satisfaction service channel. The reason for such high praise were efficiency and immediacy, just like we mentioned.  

4. Competitive edge

By installing live chat on your website, you will automatically gain the upper hand over competitors who do not use it. Furthermore, you will be able to keep up with other competitors who started to use the chat before you. However, it is important to mention that in order to experience this advantage you must be willing to utilize your live chat to its full capacity. In other words, do not expect miracles after simply installing the feature, make sure you are active and that you know how to interact with your consumers. 

5. Helps you build trust

If you are constantly available, and able to address customers’ concerns, then that can only lead to building a better bond of trust between them and you. Furthermore, you get to understand your customers better, and also gain elaborate and constructive feedback on how to improve. This will help you generate a loyal customer base and ensure a more stable revenue. 

6. More satisfied customers

By utilizing live chat, you can provide a far better and faster service. You can connect customers who are experiencing technical issues with the corresponding support member, and thus reduce the lengthy queues and resolve all of the issue much faster. 

This can be really beneficial in terms of reputation and brand awareness, since customers who are pleased with your service are more likely to recommend you and help your user base grow.  

7. Generate more leads 

Finally, you can even use chat bots on your live chat and thus be available even when there are no active operators. With chatbots, you can allow your live chat to capture leads while you are sleeping, since you can receive customer information as they interact with a chatbot, and reach out to those potential consumers later on.

These were some of the major benefits of a live chat tool, so if you are running an online store make sure to improve it by using this simple piece of software. Remember to fully utilize the chat by being active, adding a chatbot, and by being polite. If you can do all this, you should experience all of the abovementioned benefits.