We’re living in a digital era. An era defined by efficiency, accuracy, and speed. Your business going digital, therefore, means bringing together all the above characteristics and more. The same must be true of your customer support system. In this aspect of your business, you cannot separate quality from speed. If therefore, you’re running an online store, you must embrace a customer support approach that delivers with speed. Thinking of SMS? That’s not fast enough for customers. How about phone calls? Only a few people have the personality to dial a number.
How about a live chat? This does it. It’s a great way to provide customer support, as it allows for instant responses to your website visitors at no extra charges above what they’re already paying for internet.
Why is live chat important? Do statistics confirm that it’s indeed a great tool?
A study by Zendesk revealed that more than 90% of customers felt more satisfied when attended to through a live chat, with phone calls coming second at 88%, email at 85%, web forms at 85%, and social media also coming at less than 90%.
Ironically, so many websites still run without a live chat feature. This is happening despite many websites relying on the WordPress CMS that allows users to install live chat plugins effortlessly. The truth is, some website owners aren’t alive to the importance of chat functions or they’re simply dismissive of it because they believe that the other channels are already enough. Believing that SMS, phone calls and social media are more than enough is more mythical than real.
The benefits of an online store live chat cannot be traded for any other feature. Here below are a few of these benefits.
1. Convenience
The convenience that comes with a live chat service on your online store cannot be overemphasized. Once you install a chat plugin, you’d be able to connect with your customers instantly. Your customers won’t need to dial some numbers on their phones or navigate to a different application to fire a question to your customer support agent. The convenience of being able to multi-task also makes a live chat a great tool. Even if the store visitor has to wait for a couple of minutes, they’d easily continue with their other tasks.
2. Personalized
You can argue that emails can be personalized, but the way a live chat is personalized reaches an extra new level. The beauty of live chats is that it’s quite informal and still gives the customer support service agent a moment to think through a question or look for an answer before responding.
The answers provided are specific to the individual visitor’s needs thus making it friendlier.
3. Money Saving
When you install a chat plugin on your online store, you help your business, as well as your existing and potential customers, save money. The cost and time involved in setting up a call and email systems is way higher than what you’d typically need for a live chat service.
For someone using WooCommerce, you can easily install a live chat plugin to help you with your customer service.
Live chat also helps you save money because it makes it possible for one agent to attend to different visitors at the same time. The beauty of this is that the visitor wouldn’t know that the agent is attending to others as well.
4. Turns Visitors into Customers
When visitors come to your website, your most crucial prayer is that they’re converted into customers. The instant nature of a live chat makes this easier. When they visit your online store, your customer service agents get to answer visitor questions that come to mind as they browse through your products and services. This is unlike calls that demand that the customer disconnects when they feel satisfied, and then they’ve got to call back again as soon as another question comes up. Chat, therefore, ensures that every customer is uniquely and satisfactorily answered. This would make it easier for them to make a buying decision. In fact, statistics show that over 30% of customers end up buying after a live chat.
5. Multilingual Functions
When you install a chat plugin on your online store, it saves you the cost of having to hire multilingual agents, especially for a business that’s selling its products internationally. With a live chat, you can employ such tools as Google Translate to help you understand and respond to customer questions with great ease.
6. Raise Business Trust and Credibility
Installing a live chat plugin on your online store is a great way to show your website visitors the human side of your business. A store visitor’s experience with a customer support agent who’s informal and is efficiently answering questions gives the store more credibility thus earning your business customer trust. Whoever is going to be charged with the duty of responding to chats must be someone conversant with the products and services that your company offers so that attendance to customer needs may be efficient and a demonstration of expertise.
7. Easier Support on Technical Matters
A customer who calls to receive technical support is quite challenging to help.
For example, someone who’s seeking help with the use of software may find it difficult following verbal instructions given by a technical support agent. A customer would be told to click a button that he’s not able to locate. This problem can, however, be solved using a live chat. Through a live chat, you can share step-by-step instructions, accompanied by screenshots. The customer too can take a screenshot to show you what they’re seeing on their desktop. This makes it easier to solve technical challenges than when using a call.
Wrapping it all Up
Customer service forms the backbone of every business. If your customer services are satisfactory, you’ll win more buyers and subsequently turn them into return customers. At the same time, your existing customers will remain loyal to your store. A point to note is that installing a live chat plugin doesn’t mean doing away with the other channels of communication. Keep those as well so that your customers can choose their most preferred channel.
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