Live Chat has been around for some time now. But why is it everyone talking about it all of a sudden? For starters, more than customer support, it can also be used for marketing and sales.
Despite not being a new tool, it is being used in different and more efficient ways now. Even when it was already used for customer support, it was not really the best of channels since it promised real-time answers, and that didn’t really happen.
However, with the digital presence’s growth, many customer-related services and marketing strategies needed to evolve. Before, companies were more centered on presenting and selling their products.
What’s different today? Strategies are customer-centric! That means that most content is focused on the customer’s journey. Instead of just showing them the product, marketing needs to work around the pain points and how to deal with them.
And what does Live Chat have to do with this? Since it’s a communication channel, it’s a path that will give the customers what they are looking for: a quick and efficient service. Plus, it’s a benefit for the company.
Through Live Chat, you can get to know who your consumer is, what they are looking for, and store important information that will lead to the brand’s following marketing plans.
Why is now the best time to invest in a Live Chat solution? Let’s learn a bit more about it!
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Why does marketing need Live Chat?
One characteristic of the Live Chat is the capability of personalizing the initial message. Every system gives you the possibility to do that. Even more than one message can be included to be sent according to the customer and navigation made.
So, if someone visited a product page, you can send them a message offering a discount. But if it’s the person’s first time on your page, you can simply say, “welcome! What can I do for you?”.
This feature is excellent because it allows you to work according to the current strategy and moment the brand lives. Additionally, you don’t need to use the same messages for the rest of the company’s existence. The decision is not that dramatic. It can and should be updated as your brand grows.
Many companies have difficulties using Live Chat, they have and use the tool, but they know they could be doing more and better with it. If that’s the case for you, I’m glad you are here to find some ideas to improve your tactic.
What are Live Chat features?
You can talk to customers, sell products, and work your marketing plans through the chat. Overall, all of these features will follow your chat’s first message. That’s the link we make here that explains why I’ve talked about it in more detail earlier.
That happens because that’s where you catch the client’s attention to start a conversation. From then on, it’s on the attendant’s hands. The conversations need to be helpful and flow naturally, always thinking about the customer’s needs first.
Does Live Chat have anything to do with Customer Experience?
To sum up: it has EVERYTHING to do with it.
Every bit of interaction someone has with your company is already a part of their experience, so it wouldn’t be different with Live Chat. Though it does have something more: it’s a tool that allows you to communicate directly with the consumer.
It’s a means to help them and make their entire experience easier and better. If you’re having trouble with customer services, Live Chat can help you transform your image for the better as long as you follow some best practices, of course.
More than installing this tool, you need actually to have a strategy to work with it. To help you understand what kind of approach is the best for your brand, here is some more information on the benefits of this tool:
What are some Live Chat benefits for your company?
A happy customer
When you put the client at the center of your strategy, things tend to get better magically. And Live Chat is one of the tools that help that magic happen. It gives the consumer convenience of having their questions answered without the need to make a call, send an email, or even leave the page.
More than that, customers can:
- be attended while multitasking;
- have real-time and efficient answers;
- get their questions answered before, during, and after the purchase;
- have a closer relationship with the brand.
Higher satisfaction levels
Because of the reasons mentioned above, you could only get this consequence: a higher customer satisfaction level. It’s considerably better than other support channels, like through email or phone.
Besides, with the real-time factor in action, customers get a more positive and complete experience. Thus, increasing the chances, they will recommend your brand to friends and family.
Sales strategies
By using Live Chat, it’s possible to create automatic messages and practice complementary sales strategies. So, through this, you can rescue abandoned carts, offer discounts on products that were visited but not added to the cart, and use the cross-selling strategy.
All of these alternatives are made with the first message coming from the brand itself.
How does that work? For instance, if you have an abandoned cart, there’s a reason for it, right? So, what was it? Maybe shipping costs were too high. Perhaps they tried using a coupon that expired, or something like that.
To know exactly what message will affect the customer, you need to track what actions were taken by the consumer on your page. On this note, you should also know that working with Customer Data is essential.
If the expired coupon was the reason for an abandoned cart, what can you do? One option would be sending a personalized message offering a new coupon.
Customer’s journey
Because it provides service for any customer, it works the entire life cycle, being a complete tool. In other words, it works the customer journey. If they’re in the discovery phase, the chat can work to lead them to purchase faster. But if they are already considering a solution, the chat can be used to convince them your product is better — or at least to give them an extra push with a discount.
Even if a decision isn’t made right away, you can still generate qualified leads through the use of Live Chat. For example, if someone comes asking details about a product, you can say you’ll send all the information through email.
There are many ways to work the customer journey here and it’s better that you talk with the marketing team so you can line up the best strategy for your brand.
Faster decision making
Because Live Chat can influence the customer journey, it can also be used to help consumers make faster decisions. That is one reason why your conversion rate increases by up to 42% by using this chat system.
Everything should be done in a way that doesn’t pressure the client, of course. However, this method to lead them to purchases in a quicker way is quite efficient.
Basically, when someone asks for shipping costs of a certain product, you can offer some special advantage — for example, free shipping to buy that product + some complimentary item like, let’s say, a smartphone and a personalized case.
Instead of spending weeks thinking and analyzing if they actually do want to buy that item, the client will take advantage and purchase at that very moment, hence making a shorter customer journey than it’d be without the help of a Live Chat.
Offline configuration
Despite many companies already knowing the impotence of using Live Chat, they recognize they are not using it at its full potential. More than that, they end up disabling the chat during some periods when there are no attendants available.
Why shouldn’t you do this? I mean, yes, you can make a form available where clients will share their email and share what is their question, but when will they be answered? The real-time chat is what really gets them satisfied, so this might not be the best choice.
So, how will you deal with this problem? One alternative is the use of chatbots when there are no human agents to chat. They are not as efficient as humans, but they keep the instant messages going and, if you choose an AI bot, most problems will be solved.
A lot of Live Chat tools have the chatbot available within their system. Make sure to check that information when choosing the tool for your eCommerce.
Longer relationships with customers
Have you ever had issues when purchasing online? Who did you go to? Was there someone you could talk to? If there’s no one available, the chances you lose purchase and a customer are high.
That means, when offering a Live Chat solution, you’re giving yourself a treat: a better relationship with your consumers that will have a great purchasing experience. Therefore, maintaining a relationship with the brand.
Cost reduction
First of all, acquiring a Live Chat system is not as expensive as other software might be. Moreover, it pays itself really fast. What does that mean? It has an excellent ROI.
Besides, when you used to invest in 6 telemarketing agents, now you can invest in just one attendant for the Live Chat. According to research, an attendant can talk up to 6 people at once while keeping a quality service.
Do you see now how Live Chat is perfect for helping your business’ marketing?
Do you want to use Live Chat for your brand’s marketing?
Then you’re in the right place!
The job of a marketing team is, essentially, listening to the customer. The more you know your audience, the better you will work with Live Chat. Here, I should also add that having a trustable database is crucial to understanding consumers’ needs.
Also, real-time tracking of the customer’s actions on your page will help act at the right time and guarantee a higher conversion rate.
Best practices for a more efficient Live Chat
An important action to succeed with the use of Live Chat is to make your CTA the most attractive. Thus, the initial message needs to be a trigger to the consumer.
Moreover, you can and should program different initial messages according to each consumer and the phase of the journey they’re in. After all, people visiting the website for the first time need a different incentive than the ones who have already purchased previously and are coming back.
One of the most critical factors is: train your attendant team!
But first, who will have access to the chat? Will it be the support team? Or the marketing team? Whoever is responsible for talking directly with the customers needs to have both the capacity to support and sell. When this information is defined, you’ll know exactly what type of training will be necessary.
What else needs to be done? You should definitely create a protocol and some answer models. However, make it clear for the attendants to personalize the messages, not only copy and paste. They should never sound like a robot!
Does your company have a tone of voice defined? If so, the chat should stick to it. If not, you should immediately work on it. Keep it professional and helpful, adapting to your public’s language. For example, if it’s a younger audience, use slangs and emojis or keep it a bit more formal if it’s an older public.
Instruction to not pressure the client should be clear as well. Nobody likes to do anything under pressure, and, if that does happen, chances are you will never see that person again. Knowing who the best leads are is an ability to be trained too.
Usually, when consumers ask about payment means or ask for more information on a product is an indication of a qualified lead.
Lastly, it’s not only about answering right away. Just as important is actually resolving the customer’s problems. Most people won’t mind if you take one minute longer to answer them if they get the information they want.
So, if you create this combo of velocity and efficiency, there are no brands that will beat your customer experience!
Why should you choose Arena?
We have over 6,000 clients worldwide that will tell you just how much Arena has helped them improve their customer experience and grow in the market with Live Blog, Live Chat and more.
Besides, you can try our platform for free! It’s all about advantages right from the start.
Start testing our tool today and try all of these Live Chat marketing strategies we’ve talked about!
