Understanding the benefits of live chat for your business

Live chat is important for business

In such a fast-paced digital environment, customers want to connect with businesses which are convenient, have innovative customer service tools, and offer seamless omnichannel shopping experiences. Whether that be through website live chat, social messaging or in-app chat, communication is constantly changing.

To keep up with digital transformation and customers’ ever-growing needs, business owners will need to identify these changes and realize how important the detail is. If you follow your customer’s journey and adjust your channels according to their actions, you’ll be able to give your customers what they want.

How can live chat add value to your business?

Live chat is a website platform where your business can communicate directly with its customers. It’s an ‘always on’ approach to giving your customers that instant attention and assistance they need in the moment. Not only can it improve business to customer communication but it can make business operations smoother. Here are five benefits of using live web chat to speak to your customers:

Reduced call expenses: As local and international toll charges continue to spike, contacting your customers through voice calls can be extremely time-consuming and costly. While voice call is more personal, bulk SMS and live web chat allow you to reach more people for less, while your trained staff get to tackle the more complex inquiries. This means that your company can still respond to generic FAQs as well as have personal conversations with other customers over a humanized business interface.

It improves customer loyalty: Live chat is an instant communication platform. You’ll be able to answer your customer’s queries within seconds of them getting in touch with you. And, because your employees will be able to manage more than one chat at a time while your automated chatbot answers hundreds of generic questions at once, your customers won’t be sitting in voice call ‘waiting rooms’ before getting help. This is especially important when it comes to purchasing products online, agents must remember that customers are in a hurry, so the quicker they are helped, the quicker the problem is solved and the greater the chance of the purchase being made. Instant customer satisfaction will help to improve customer service and build long-term customer loyalty.

Fix customer headaches: When you’re new to the digital space, it’s important to take advantage of analytical tools to learn more about your customers. The more information you have on your customers’ behavior and how they interact with your brand, the easier it’ll be for you to understand exactly what they want and when they want it. With live chat, the conversations you have with your customers will give you a better perspective on what’s expected and how you can meet those expectations.

Offer convenience for customers: The appeal of online shopping is that it’s convenient. Shoppers have limited time and they want to get the job done quickly with time to spare. If they start to experience a problem during their purchasing process, you’ll need to support them in real-time and fix their issue. Being able to deliver these services will be the deciding factor for customers on whether or not they’ll choose you again or turn to your competitors for assistance. When your customers see that you’re willing to help them, they’ll become more confident in your business.

Create a competitive advantage: To this day, many companies are still unaware of the benefits that live web chat can offer their business. More so, they’re not even utilizing social or SMS marketing to reach their customers. When you make use of these tools, you’ll have a competitive digital advantage, and it’ll give you free reign to engage with your website visitors daily, make more sales, and improve customer service for existing customers.

It’s all about meeting your customer where they’ve been all along

Live web chat in an omnichannel environment is innovative, growing in popularity, and allows you to chat with your customers in real-time. It’ll add a human factor to your website, allowing your business to tell its story and solve customer issues. For more information on the benefits of live chat for your business, read our recent article on how automating workflows can hugely benefit your bottom line.