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This one particularly unpleasant period punctuate every entrepreneur’s career. It occurs when you pour your heart and soul into developing a company, create an incredible product, get a large amount of internet traffic, yet ultimately receive just a small number of consumers.
Everything seems to be running smoothly: there is a lot of traffic on your website, buyers are looking through your items and sending you emails with product queries. However, your conversion rate is far from ideal.
The average website conversion rate is between 1 and 5 percent, and yours is in the top quartile… So that is, at or below that level.
Fortunately, there is a method to watch your website visitors’ behavior, give support, and prevent them from abandoning their shopping basket altogether. Optimization of conversion rates is feasible owing to a single complicated solution: live chat software (want to test it out? It’s completely free).
In this article, you’ll discover how to use live chat to enhance conversions on your website.
Live Chat and CRO
While putting a live chat system in place requires a significant effort, it makes a considerable impact. For example, in our careful research of a customer who sells specialty pen kits, we discovered that overall conversion rates increased by 3.84 percent, resulting in a 6 percent increase in total income after adding live chat on their website.
According to Intercom, one reply in chat “may raise the chance of conversion by 50%; one further reply increases the likelihood of conversion by 100 percent” for a particular visitor. “A basic discussion including six exchanged messages increases a visitor’s likelihood of becoming a client by 250 percent.”
Every response is essential. Visitors are 50 percent more likely to convert if they get one response from you. One additional response increases the likelihood of conversion by 100 percent. Two hundred fifty percent: A brief conversation with six messages exchanged raises the probability of success by 250 percent.
The takeaway: Yes, live chat may help you improve sales and other conversions on your website. To convert individuals, however, the actual chat discussions do not need to be difficult, nor do they need to be extensive and time-consuming to achieve success.
One caveat: When live chat is misconfigured, it might result in lower conversion rates. For example, suppose your chatbot is unusable because it isn’t helpful. In that case, it is obtrusive, or it is off-putting to clients for any other reason. Again, this may lead to a decrease in confidence and a decrease in the conversion rate for your business.
Through developing connections with your website visitors, real-time dialogues help you move them through the marketing funnel more rapidly. This transforms the experience of viewing a website into a one-on-one buying experience.
“Conversational marketing,” as defined by Drift, is the term used to describe this emerging marketing niche in which live chat is the interface. This involves customizing the chat experience to boost customer happiness and conversions by interacting with, understanding, and proposing items to each client individually.
Additionally, we do an annual Best-in-Class research study of eCommerce companies throughout the sector on our customers’ behalf, in addition to conducting chat testing on their behalf. Eighty percent of 25 well-known businesses, ranging from Adidas to Sephora to Zappos, offered live chat. Only five of these significant corporations did not make use of it on their websites.
Setting Up Live Chat for Conversions
Step 1 – Selecting a Page
Install the live chat platform on the most important sites to you based on the information provided above.
Some chat systems need you to install the platform on every page of your website. This is done to guarantee that a dialogue may continue even if the visitor is moving across pages.
Step 2 — Proactive Greetings
“Greetings” is a term used in the business to refer to automated chat popups. It is a vital component in the process of obtaining leads.
Most reputable live chat companies allow you to establish triggers for proactive welcomes, such as the following:
- Time spent on the webpage (popup after a specific time on site)
- Whether you’re a first-time visitor or a frequent visitor,
- The current page’s address is “……”
- During this session, I visited the following page(s):…”……”
- The URL of the referring website is “……” (i.e., facebook.com, google.com, forbes.com)
- The nation or city in which the user resides is “……”
- The keyword that was searched for was “……”
- Variable created on the fly
Step 3 – SaaS vs. leads vs. support
Different applications need different configurations. It will cost you if you make a mistake.
Live Chat Best Practices for CRO
Gather data
The use of live chat for qualitative research is one of the most influential and underappreciated uses of the technology. The fact that you can utilize it to get to know your consumers, whether you’re a startup undertaking customer development or a giant gathering quantitative information, is essential.
“A live chat support system makes understanding customers’ worries and requirements simpler since you’ll have a written record of what is causing consumer troubles that can be mined for data,” according to The Conversion Scientist.
When LawnStarter wanted to collect Voice of Customer Research for copywriting, they employed live chat (as well as telephone interviews). Given that live chat includes prospective and existing customers, they could learn more about what individuals were searching for than if they had spoken to existing customers.
Of course, you’ll want to make the sale as quickly as possible, but it’s also crucial to ask thoughtful questions. Things like as:
- What was it that attracted you to our website today?
- How did you hear about us in the first place?
- What are the sources of your discomfort?
- How long have you been on the lookout for a particular [product]?
- Do you presently utilize a [product] in your daily life?
What you’re receiving is effectively a focus group that has been specifically targeted. Therefore, you should pay attention to the specific words people choose to explain their issues and desire.
As a bonus, live chat software captures all transcripts, and many of them may be integrated with a ticketing system like Zendesk. Thus, when it comes time to construct your value proposition, you will be able to use your live chat replies as a source of further information.
Lead generation
Live chat has the potential to be a powerful lead-generating tool. There are two methods to go about it:
- First, reactive chat may be used as a qualification tool.
- Proactive chat may be used to guide a prospect through the signup/checkout process. However, if that isn’t feasible, get an email address or phone number so that you may follow up with them.
LawnStarter’s purpose with live chat is to get a phone number for further communication. Thus, they will be able to follow up with prospects in person and turn them into customers in this manner. Because of this, during the proactive live chat, they attempt to educate the consumer while also obtaining a phone number for further investigation.
Another excellent example of a firm that has effectively used live chat is Hubspot. While reading one of their blog entries on innovative ways to utilize live chat, a live chat window appears, asking whether you want to enhance your marketing in 2020, prompting you to respond positively.
When you click “Start here,” you’ll be sent to a landing page where you’ll be given a crash course in conversational marketing. The training is entirely free, and it provides immediate value to prospective clients who sign up for the course.
Ensure enough chat slots
One of the most significant advantages of using live chat is serving numerous consumers at the same time. If you’re new to live chat, on the other hand, you can feel overwhelmed if you attempt to manage too many conversations at the same time. In addition, customers will have a negative experience if your initial responses are not received as quickly as anticipated (within 30 seconds).
We thus suggest beginning with no more than one chat session and gradually increasing this to two or three as your comfort level increases over time. Experts can handle up to five conversations at a time, but this is dependent on how many prepared messages you have in your inventory.
It is possible to make the chat vanish or switch it into ‘offline mode’ if none of your agents have open chat slots. This allows your visitors to post their questions and your agents still to respond when they have more available chat slots.
Scenario planning with decision trees
When using live chat, it is assumed that responses would be quick. However, the initial response time is critical since the “first sign of life” informs the consumer that someone is on the other side of the line, ready to assist them.
As a potent channel for first-contact resolutions, online chat’s ability to respond immediately puts a lot of strain on the agents, who must work under a strict schedule. This is especially true if the agent does not instantly recognize the solution.
Consider the following scenario: you’re in the middle of two simultaneous customer conversations (A and B) when a third one (C) comes in. Suppose a new client comes in and asks you a question regarding a subject you’ve never heard of before. Chat A, on the other hand, sends you a new inquiry at the exact moment. What are you going to do?
In the case of most beginners, you’ll experience tension. Setting up a scenario-based decision tree in advance of a crisis is our best practice for coping with these types of events.
With if-then planning, you go above and beyond what most people do: hoping for the best (you know the answer to the customer’s query) and freaking out when things don’t go according to plan (you have no idea).
Instead, by creating a scenario-based decision tree, you may prepare for less-than-ideal scenarios and choose what you will do if and when they occur. As a result, there is a significant reduction in tension and an increase in self-confidence.
It’s pretty OK if you don’t have an immediate solution to your customer’s query. Your consumers don’t expect you to know everything right immediately; they want you to be there to assist them as soon as possible.
When using chat assistance, you have the added benefit of having everything recorded right away. This makes it simple to take your time to resolve the problem later on or to escalate it to someone who does know the solution without having to ask the client to repeat themselves over and over again.
Be upfront about linguistic restrictions.
There may be times when you will have to deal with conversations in a language that you are not entirely competent in or cannot communicate in. Fortunately, some chat platforms, such as Userlike, include rapid translation services, which eliminate the burden of attempting to construct the right message in a foreign language from the start of the conversation.
Because language is delicate, accidental translations may arise. Take, for example, the Spanish term “coger,” which in European Spanish means “to take,” but which in Latin American Spanish has a sexual connotation. Because of this, you should inform your customers that you are not a native speaker and that you will be using a live translation tool before beginning the transaction.
Because you are honest, you can manage your customers’ expectations while also providing them with the option to switch to your native tongue or English, which occurs often.
It’s a good idea to create a prefabricated message for this situation since you’ll most likely see it again and again:
As a courtesy, I’ll happily assist you with your queries; but, I’d want you to be aware that I am not fluent in your language, and therefore I am relying on a translation tool to aid you.”
The premade messages in Userlike are also automatically translated in the same way that all of your other directives are.
Learn how to use shortcuts for pre-written texts
Customer inquiries follow a power-law distribution: a small number of different queries account for the lion’s share of the total volume. Canned messages are a fantastic time-saver in live chat situations. These are pre-written messages that save you the time and effort of having to type out the same response again and over.
A built-in feature of most chat programs is sending pre-written messages, which we refer to as chat macros. Another option is to utilize a text-to-speech program such as TextExpander, which converts keyword combinations into whatever scripted message you’ve created.
The number of chat macros you have will grow as time goes on. Therefore starting with a large number of chat macros is recommended from the beginning. In addition, consider the use of policy macros to ensure that your company’s policy is conveyed consistently, as well as conversational macros like “Please give me a second, I’ll be right with you” and “Do you have any other questions?”
You may also have a peek at your current FAQ area to see if there are any new conversation macros you can add to your arsenal.
Personalized client service
The American Express Survey found that 78 percent of customers refrain from purchasing due to a negative customer service experience. That is why you should not limit yourself to providing the most excellent possible client service.
It would help if you strived to provide the most individualized customer service possible.
Adding a personal touch to a conversation is a simple process. The first thing you may do is provide images of the agents to make the experience more real and interactive. You may also make the welcome message more customized. Offers that are more specifically targeted convert better!
Additionally, the program provides you with all essential information about your consumers, including their name, email address, geolocation, the sites they were visiting, and information about their prior chat sessions.
Is it reflected in the level of client satisfaction? Yes, without a doubt. A customer satisfaction survey from LiveChat found that an overall 86.63 percent of customers were satisfied with their experience across more than 8.4 thousand enterprises across 21 sectors and 118 countries. This implies that almost nine out of ten users were happy with their live chat experience.
Post-chat surveys
Customer satisfaction surveys after live chat sessions are another opportunity to learn what consumers think about your organization, about the quality of your customer support, or simply about their problem areas.
There is a significant advantage in that in most circumstances. You may utilize preset survey questions or tailor them to your own needs and preferences. Consequently, if you believe that your clients are experiencing difficulties with your paying procedure, you might include this question in the post-chat survey.
Alternatively, you may ask your customers to score their interactions, which can provide valuable insight into how excellent (or awful) your customer care staff is.
Using post-chat surveys is a fantastic way to get valuable input that can be used to enhance your service or product in the future. The ability to get to know your guests is equally essential for offering excellent personal service.
Team performance monitoring
One of the reasons your clients will continue to purchase from you is the high quality of your products. And I’m not only talking about the quality of your stuff; I’m also talking about the whole experience they have while on your website.
Your website may be sluggish, the paying procedure is cumbersome, landing pages are tough to understand, and your staff is not responding to consumer queries promptly. All of these factors indicate that your customer experience is below average.
Fortunately, there is a technique to measure the efficacy of your conversations. You are well aware that you may conduct post-conversation surveys or ask clients to review their overall chat experience with you. There’s another advantage: you can keep track of the progress of your support staff.
Your agents’ performance data may inform you how many conversations they’ve had, how fast they’ve reacted, how many consumers enjoyed the conversation, and how many talks resulted in a purchase.
Increase your social media presence
This is something that the majority of live chats do not do. After receiving favorable feedback from online visitors and customers via live chat, consider telling your reps (or salespeople) to pleasantly encourage your visitors to “like” your Facebook page and leave a remark on it.
What strategies do you use to increase revenue using live chat?
Measure, make improvements and repeat.
The ability to monitor performance on various levels is crucial to the running of any contact center. For example, you may be interested in learning which agents are more successful on messaging channels or even the amount of time it takes to resolve specific queries according to the nature of the inquiry.
To gain such knowledge from both a historical and real-time perspective, be sure your chat platform enables you to do so.
Allow the consumers to choose the pace.
Chat interactions may have gaps in time as agents wait for the client to answer, or the consumer will be distracted by something else, which will delay the dialogue.
Look for a platform that employs an Adaptive Response Timer (ART) to intelligently monitor the pace of a discussion depending on the speed with which the client responds to questions. Chat agents can manage 4 – 6 talks at the same time in a single session. Agents may manage several conversations simultaneously with the assistance of ART’s expertise, and the system automatically prioritizes various discussions depending on which consumer is ready to receive a response.
Offline chat for after-hours assistance
The majority of businesses do not provide help 24 hours a day, seven days a week. However, just though your offices are closed does not rule out the possibility of receiving chat messages. One of the reasons chat is so popular is that it enables consumers to multitask while conversing with a representative.
Because your website visitors will know your business hours and that their message will be answered as soon as an agent is available, they may leave a message and go about their business with confidence, knowing that you will react to them as quickly as possible.
Make chat accessible on all pages.
Although it may be tempting to limit chat availability to specific sites, you never know when a consumer may want your assistance.
As previously stated in point 1, as long as your live chat isn’t deterring clients from completing a purchase, you should make it available on every page.
Make your website mobile-friendly
A rising number of customers are shopping and purchasing on their mobile phones or tablets, and they may want assistance in the same way that desktop shoppers do.
Set up a live chat feature on your mobile-optimized website to assist consumers in completing purchases on their mobile devices.
Be a resource rather than a distraction.
Customers arrive at your website prepared to make a purchase. Therefore, it is not recommended that your live chat become a distraction and divert their focus from completing an investment.
Make use of proactive conversation wherever possible, but only in moderation. For example, the ability to connect with an agent one-on-one is shown to website visitors based on “trigger events,” such as the visitor’s current page or time on the website; however, you must be careful not to disrupt your buyer’s trip if they are not experiencing difficulties.
Use the live chat on your website without triggers to figure out where your users are getting stuck.
Final Thoughts
This checklist of conversion optimization guiding principles for live chat is not complete, but it represents what we have found most effective in our research.
While setting up a live chat system may seem daunting, it does not need to be. There are specific fundamental guidelines to follow, but in the end, you’ll be testing and improving your chat overtime to make it great for your company and consumers.
If you manage to get live chat set up, you’ll discover that clients who take advantage of it have a simpler time making their purchases.
