magazine
38
If youarea customer ofAmazon,
Aviva, Fordandmanyother leading
brands, the likelihood is that youwill
alreadyhavefirst-handexperienceof
live chat, anonline communication
technology that lets customer
support staff communicatewith
websitevisitors in real-time.
Widely adopted for sales and
customer service purposes, the
technology is cost-effective, saves
time and boostswebsite conversion,
engagement and customer satisfaction.
In theUS, it is already an established
customer communication channel and
adoption is now growing strongly in the
UK and Europe.
Today, live chat is no longer just
for big brands or call centres.Greater
acceptance and falling costsmean that
thousands of smaller businesses use it
too.
In fact, it’s ideally suited to SME
e-commerce operations, as,with little
set-up time or impact on internal
resources, it gives the impressionof a
large brand and amore professional
website presencemore responsive to
visitors’ needs.
As visitors browse yourwebsite,
wouldn’t it be useful to trackwhat
interests them andfindoutwhere they
are hesitating or stumbling, perhaps at
the registrationor credit card page, then
reachout tohelp them through the
process?This is preciselywhat live chat
is designed to do.
Industry research shows that online
shoppers aremuchmore likely to
make a purchase if they can talk to an
assistant online just as theywould to
a shop assistant in a high street store.
Indeed, statistics show that using live
chat can increase basket retention by
40-60%.
Without live chat, a shopper in
needof helpwouldhave to pick up the
phone orwait for a response by email
or on socialmedia.However,where it
is incorporated into the online customer
journey, brands can give shoppers
immediate assistance,without having to
change communications channel.
Experience shows thatwhen
implemented correctly, offers of
assistance via live chat arewelcomed
rather than seen as a nuisance.The
advice is simple: don’twait for a
customer to abandon their basket and
then try and recover the sale, do all you
can before they leave yourwebsite.
One reasonwhy live chat is
particularly suited to SMEs is that it
makes better use of internal resources
than phone calls.Agents can be trained
up touse the software very quickly and
can alsomulti-task, engaging inmultiple
conversations at once.
SomeUK live chat providers
offer small business versions of their
enterprise products for just a few pounds
per user, permonth.Thiswon’t eat
into the annualmarketing spend and
enables smaller business owners to gain
an advantage over the competition by
engagingwith their customers online and
increasing overall customer satisfaction
levels and conversion and retention rates.
Choosingaprovider
When selecting a provider, examine the
different features available andmake
sure they suit your business needs.
Things to look out for include the
number of users and tracked sessions;
pre-written responses; custom chat
surveys; and the ability to dynamically
invite your visitors to chat.Also check
that the software can be integratedwith
your internal CRM system.
Live chat software is not only about
business-to-customer interaction; it
also provides valuable insight into your
customer base and its buying habits.The
ability to track the customer journey
and generate dozens of different reports
provides useful information thatwill
enable you tooptimise yourwebsite and
Earlyadoptersof live chatwere ITand telephony companies, but falling
costs andgrowingacceptanceof the technologymean it isnowbeingused
byeveryone fromAmazon to the smallest e-commerceprovider.
HowardWilliams explainswhy
Live chat
– it’s not just for the big boys
improve the user experience.
It is alsouseful for businesses looking
to expandoverseas.Modern live chat
software, such asWhosOn, includes
real-time translation so that an English
speaking agent canhelp aMandarin
speaker in another country. Live chat
converts chat from English toMandarin
and back again enabling both agent
and customer touse theirmother
tongue.This feature is useful for trials
and e-commerce campaigns inother
territories and potentially removes the
need to employ staff andfind premises
inother countries.
Bymaking themost of live chat,
smaller online companies can broaden
their digital footprint andmaximise
the return from their online services.
It enables them tounderstand customers
better, engagewith them andoffer
timely help and advice. Best of all, it’s
proven to raise sales and service levels.
It’s good to chat!
HowardWilliams ismarketingmanager
ofWhosOn, a live visitor tracking and
live chat solution developed by Parker
Software. Established in2003, Parker
Software is an independentUK software
house specialising in solutions for
companies that do business on theweb.
Communications
...statistics
show that
using live
chat can
increase
basket
retention by
40-60%.
