What if your customers could contact you directly through your website, getting instant answers to their questions? Or if they could ask a question about a product ub your online shop right when they are poised to buy? With a live chat facility on your website, all this is possible – and more, But is it right for your business?.
Live chatting on websites is becoming more and more common and many big businesses are already using it.
And that’s not a surprise because, in our 24-hour society, people increasingly expect an instant answer to their questions, and problems to be solved straight away.
But this can be an opportunity to give your business a big boost, both in terms of efficiency and customer satisfaction, but they are not right for every business. This post looks at why that is, and whether a live chat facility is right for you.
We’ll also look at how we can help, and there’s a special offer if you want to try it yourself.
So, let’s get started with the big question:
Why might my business even need a website live chat?
People are increasingly doing things online, and text is the favoured way to communicate, so they are less likely to pick up the phone, too.
But a live chat on a website – with a real person – can bridge that gap.
They can have uses for all kinds of businesses – especially online shops – and today it’s possible to have a (reliable) chat box on your website at a surprisingly reasonable cost.
In fact, for the right kind of business a chat box can quickly pay for itself.
So why should you have a live chat box on your website?
Let’s get this straight – they are not for everyone. For a start to serve your customers somebody needs to be there, so if you’re a one man band and you’re away from a computer a lot of the day, it’s probably not for you.
But if you have a team handling customer service, or even if you spend the day in the office it could work for you. Most live chat apps also have mobile access, so all you need is a phone an internet connection.
If you haven’t thought about it, it’s worth considering because the benefits for your business and your customers can be huge.
Live chat is a great route to happy customers
With people avoiding phone calls, email (or some form of text) is the main way for some businesses to communicate with customers, and especially solve problems. But email means delays.
Email and contact form enquiries can often take days to deal with, and the customer has to wait for a response. With a live chat facility on your website, you can resolve simple issues in real time, and even if you can’t answer straight away, the customer still feels heard.
Live chat is a great tool to help you build better relationships with your existing customers.
Live chat can win you more sales and customers – especially with e-commerce
We’ve all done it – gone to a website, put things in the shopping cart, but bottled it at the last moment. Somehow there’s a question that needs answering or a nagging doubt.
A live chat can help turn visitors into customers by answering those questions. Even if you’re not active in your live chat at that time, it’s more inviting to the customer than using a contact form.
Even away from e-commerce, whatever your business, a rapid answer to a potential customer’s question can win them over to becoming a customer.
So how does a live chat box work, and is it right for your business?
The basic premise is this: There’s a chat link on your website that people click on.
If you’re available, it invites them to open a chat and you can talk to them how you would in any other chat app. If you’re not it lets them send you a message.
It’s that simple, but there’s a lot more going on behind the scenes. Chat boxes are much less intimidating to use than contact forms, and more immediate. Website live chat boxes are easy for customers to use -after all they look like many other messaging app.
But as a business owner, they can also tell you more about your website’s visitors and customers. There’s more about that later.
If your business deals with customer service by phone and/or email, especially during the day, then a live chat box on your website is worth considering.
Website chat boxes have been around for a while. So why are we so keen now?
Like so many good ideas on the web, chat boxes have been around for quite a few years, but have taken a while to mature.
A few years ago they existed but often caused more problems than they solved – causing websites to slow to a crawl. And that was when they worked at all. Often ‘live’ chat boxes were not live at all, and just returned limited, pre-programmed responses, without a real person on the other end.
Now the technology has moved on, and the live chat market has developed and matured. And prices have reached a level where they are within reach of many small businesses.
There are now many services offering a live chat system that can be easily integrated into your website without causing performance problems – an it’s easy to use, both for you/your team and your customers.
These days the chat interface itself doesn’t intrude on the rest of the website.
Moreover, it is as easy to use on mobile as on a computer, which was another big drawback of old systems.
It’s there if you want it, easy to ignore if you don’t. But because these chat boxes are everywhere on the web these days, they are familiar and easy to spot, yet unobtrusive.
The best solution for our clients
We started to look into live chat facility at the request of a client and quickly saw not only how the software has improved, but also that it was easily affordable for small and medium businesses.
We investigated the market and the many apps available, and now we’ve chosen to partner with LiveChat. To us LiveChat offered the best, easiest to use software, at a pricing structure that matches our client group, but also with a good WordPress integration. And they have a long track record, which we see as important.
The app can be accessed on the web, but also a desktop or a mobile app, which is another major plus for us.
We have already started implementing it on client sites, where we’re seeing instant take-up by customers (they start using it within minutes!) and improved customer service, and we’re looking to add it to our client support site.
Our LiveChat setup and support service
We have a track record of finding ways to bring the latest technology in a way that makes it affordable (and therefore worth doing) for small businesses, while taking care of the technical headaches, and this is why we’ve launched our new LiveChat setup service.
You do not have to be an existing client or even have a WordPress website for us to be able to help you. To find out more, see our LiveChat setup service offer
LiveChat features
LiveChat has the following features:
- A chat widget on your website
- Visitors can see if you’re available and open a chat. If you’re not there they can leave a message
- Connection with messages on your Facebook business page, so you can handle live chats and Facebook messages all in the same place. You can also configure email to send in to the LiveChat app
- You can access LiveChat via the web, a desktop app, but also on your phone via Apple or Android app
- Website chat widget is fully configurable to match your website, set your wording and even custom greetings
- Three pricing levels, based on the number of chat agents, payable monthly or yearly. Prices start at less than £20 per month. We recommend the Team plan as it allows you to use your own logo.
- Ask customers for feedback after a chat, and give them the option to receive a transcript
A special bonus for reading this far…
If you think this is for you but don’t need our help in setting it up, here’s a little bonus for you.
Sign up through this link to the LiveChat website and get a free trial for 30 days instead of the usual 30.
Yes, this is an affiliate link.
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