According to the latest survey, 79% of customers prefer live chat instead of other mediums. In fact, as the digital age progresses, the importance of online support has grown even more because speed is the king for marketing success.
From instant access to overnight shipping of the product, consumers want things quicker than ever, which includes quicker customer service. Also noticeable is, the average response time for user’s issues on social media and email response is 10 hours and 12 hours. In contrast, live chat enables the brand to respond 100% more quickly than any other digital service channel.
From the e-commerce sector to the banking sector, companies use quick response time to improve their services and establish themselves as a high-end brand. In this article, you will learn the top 10 reasons that live chat is important for your business.
Top 10 Live Chat Benefits That Business Can’t Ignore
Live chat empowers service agents to provide proactive assistance to visitors and consumers. Its use is known for strengthening user relationships and improving service communication. Below is the list of benefits of live chat services that will create a positive impact on the overall growth of the business.
Meeting Customer preferences
According to the ICMI report, online users prefer live chat as one of the top digital contact channels for their favorite brands. Most brands prioritize it for their real-time solutions compared to other modes of digital channels.
This medium of conversation is known for its rapid response time with its advanced features such as canned tags and responses. Support agents use it to reduce the number of touchpoints, thus increasing consumer satisfaction rates.
Proactive Customer Support
Users feel delighted whenever they get quick, personalized support from a brand. Live chat is known to be the first preference of most users because they get a quicker response than any other digital channel.
Implementing it can help in providing proactive support to the clients while engaging them in a fruitful conversation with the help of visual engagement tools. While delivering real-time customized solutions, an agent can handle multiple conversations easily thus the queue time gets reduced.
FAST FACT
Some of the etiquette rules that customer support executives should follow are friendly and empathetic behavior. This helps ease users’ stress and fosters trust in the conversation.
Prevent Cart Abandonment
Cart abandonment is one of the biggest challenges that brands face across the world. Consumers take some time before purchasing any product online. They might have any queries related to the product or maybe during the buying process.
Live chat on the website helps users in answering their questions immediately. A proactive response reduces cart abandonment and can convert potential buyers into customers.
Deliver Contextual Support
Nowadays, various software and tools are available that can add value to the live chat feature in providing contextual support to users. It not only creates better engagement but also helps in delivering personalized solutions to consumers, thus increasing user loyalty and improving sales.
Online engagement tools help in making an instant resolution process, thus reducing the number of touchpoints. Additionally, integrating an AI voice over generator can further enhance the customer experience by offering seamless voice-based responses, making interactions more dynamic and efficient. Visual tools improve the FCR (First Contact Resolution) by preventing clients from returning with the same query.
Improved Customer Experience
According to Forbes, 75% of brands tend to improve user experience as their main agenda. Live chat helps in resolving customer complaints way before they become pain points.
By using its latest features, proactive support can be provided to consumers within a fraction of a second. What attracts more for this online engagement tool integrated website is the instant connectivity with the clients, thus serving a rich user experience.
STATISTICS
The graph shows customer’s reasons for preferring live chat to other communication channels.
Superior Website Experience
Live chat integrated on the homepage of the website leads to an improved website experience for the customers because they get their queries solved within a few seconds. Hence, they can become a potential buyer.
As per Forrester’s research, 57% of consumers abandon their cart if they don’t get an answer quickly from the brand. The same study has found that almost 44% of online users like to have their problems resolved by a person in the middle of their purchasing process.
While improving the user experience on a company’s website through the online support feature, clients are 3 times more likely to make a purchase.
Informed Product Decision
Due to the advanced features present in the live chat tools and software, customer service agents can collect data from consumer interactions. One of its major perks is that data can be picked from the software by developing a set of tags and feature requests. This helps in changing the product’s features that clients are facing issues with.
Or, in the case of any services, improve service quality or change any aspect of the service that is creating a problem for the users. The marketing team can also use the data to frame marketing strategies that can help in connecting with the users with the brand.
Personalize The Brand
Collecting the latent needs of the customers is the main agenda of every company across the globe. But when a thick layer of cyberspace separates brands from reaching their consumers, live chat is the option that helps in breaking the mold that helps in building long-term user relationships and loyalty.
Smart routing modes of this feature can automatically connect the users to the frontline person from the company. Hence, the agent can easily resolve the user’s query while providing him with a customer-delight experience.
Boost Agent Motivation
Live Chat is not only about user satisfaction and loyalty, but also it motivates customer service executives. Visitors get instant feedback on the website which is a big relief for the agents. The chatbots help a lot in answering the basic client’s queries.
Compared to talking on the phone 24 hours a day, writing small texts is a good way to deal with consumers, especially those who are unhappy. Thus, chatbots help support executives to focus on more significant work rather than doing repetitive tasks.
Increased Sales
Implementation of live chat on your website can increase the sales rate. According to the American Market Association, B2B companies that have used it on their website have witnessed a 20% increase in sales.
While purchasing a product, a user may have multiple questions in mind. Users get the answer immediately and can make a purchase decision accordingly.
Live chat helps in overcoming the objections faced by a potential buyer by reaching the buying decision. A report from eMarketer depicts that 35% of clients make a purchase decision after using online support services.
Hence, companies having live chat services integrated into their websites witness more sales than brands that don’t have this feature.
Final Words
Redefine your brand’s user experience with the live chat feature by adding a new meaning to its digital communication. Businesses nowadays understand its immense benefits in increasing the efficiency of the customer service team by providing proactive, real-time assistance to the clients.
Beyond the improved consumer experience, live chat also increases the motivation and productivity of the customer support agent – combined with the collected data that will lead to greater success for the business. Also, learn about ChatGPT for Financial Analysis by reading this article.