Customer Service Live Chat And Sales

[Mahriyah]

Do you think that having a customer service live chat option on your website would help increase sales?

I was thinking some potential customers may not want to pick up a phone to ask questions when browsing a website because most of us are pretty busy. Having a live chat feature available would allow potential customers to ask questions and learn more while not taking away from their other daily tasks.

Any thoughts or experience on the subject? I'm all ears!

[Karri]

Personally, I "resort" to live chat when either the website doesn't give me the information I need or I have a very specific technical question about the company's product.

All depends on what you're selling. If you suspect you have prospects who prefer this type of interaction or you have a product / service that can be complex in nature, then it's worth testing if feasible to do so.

Regardless, the copy on your website has to be informative and enticing.

HTH!
Karri

[Wayne Liew]

Yes, a live chat will definitely helps but do not resort to using "live chats" that are powered by some kind of robot.

Apart from helping a customer out by providing more information or to guide him/her towards the checkout, you can also find out what are your site viitors looking for and some potential site navigation problems as stated by Karri.

[torka]

And please, if you do this, always let the customer initiate the chat session.

I find few things creepier than having a chat window suddenly pop up on my screen with a "helpful" customer service rep offering to assist me when all I was doing was browsing the site.

As Karri said, live chat may work for you, it may not. Depends on your visitors and what you're selling.

Keep in mind, too, it does require a time commitment. If you have a button that offers "live chat" but every time a customer visits your site it says live chat is closed, they're going to start to wonder if you really do offer it or if you just put a button there to make it seem as though you do (not to mention that a "closed" live chat can't do the job of answering questions for the customers.)

So you'll need to take into account the "opportunity cost" -- what else might you potentially be doing instead of making yourself available for customer chats? Could those "other things" benefit your business more than live chat?

If you can get a free/low-cost trial, it might be worth giving it a try to see what happens.

--Torka

[David Jackson]

Originally Posted by Wayne Liew

Yes, a live chat will definitely help.

Mahriyah, there's no way of knowing for sure without testing and monitoring the results.

Like Karri said, it all depends on what you're selling.

Nothing is cut and dried in business or marketing. So many techniques and procedures depend on what you're selling.

That's why you have to test to find out what works best for you.

David Jackson

[FireFold-Jennie]

We have been using livechat for sometime now and find it quite convenient both for us and the customer. A customer is likely to have more patience over livechat than on the phone. Our employees also have the capablilities of talking to more than 1 customer at a time rather than being stuck on the phone with just one!! I would recommend trying it, hopefully you would see the same results we have.

[Mahriyah]

Originally Posted by torka

And please, if you do this, always let the customer initiate the chat session.

I find few things creepier than having a chat window suddenly pop up on my screen with a "helpful" customer service rep offering to assist me when all I was doing was browsing the site.

I agree with you! I use to work for a place that would pop on your screen and ask if you need help while browsing the site. I always felt that was extremely creepy!

[Mahriyah]

Originally Posted by FireFold-Jennie

We have been using livechat for sometime now and find it quite convenient both for us and the customer. A customer is likely to have more patience over livechat than on the phone. Our employees also have the capablilities of talking to more than 1 customer at a time rather than being stuck on the phone with just one!! I would recommend trying it, hopefully you would see the same results we have.

That's great that you've had a positive response to it. I've always thought it was a great idea but I was curious about other's experience with it. I'm hoping that we can implement this feature soon.

[Mahriyah]

Originally Posted by torka

And please, if you do this, always let the customer initiate the chat session.

I find few things creepier than having a chat window suddenly pop up on my screen with a "helpful" customer service rep offering to assist me when all I was doing was browsing the site.

--Torka

I completely agree. That happened to me once while browsing on a site and it gave me such a creepy feeling of being watched.

[Samuel Craig]

Adding the chat is a good idea if you are trying to make a complex sale online. For simple sales its overkill.

Do us all a favor... don't use one of those lame stock photos of a model with a headset. Use a real pic or at least a realistic pic. I have had success with just a text link.