5 Trending Benefits of Live Chat
I’m not one to jump on just any, average, over-hyped fad because it’s trending. I’m more the type of person that lets a new restaurant be open for a few months before giving it a try. Let them work the bugs out on everyone else, you know? When it comes to websites, web design, and eCommerce I do try to be a bit more on the cutting edge of what’s new and am willing to jump in as an early adopter of something looks promising. So, though the concept of conversational commerce isn’t necessarily new, I can definitely tell you that it’s a wave that you’re going to want to jump on ASAP if you haven’t incorporated it into your overall business strategy yet.
What is Conversational Commerce? Simply put, it’s using live chat or messaging to build relationships with your eCommerce customers. This can happen at any stage of the relationship: before, during, or after the purchase.
Live Chat Trends
Before we dig deeper, I thought it would be helpful to outline just how customers are using and experiencing live chat or messaging currently:
61% of customers say they have messaged with a business in the last 3 months
69% expect messaging to enable better customer experiences
61% of customers expect to use messaging more to make a purchase in the future
These trends make sense when you think about them. Chat and messaging are where people spend most of their time talking with friends and family so it’s natural to want to talk to a business in the same way. Overall, people have very positive associations with live chat vs. other support methods such as making a phone call or submitting a ticket/email. They know that they are getting a better experience and a more authentic, honest interaction with your brand. This builds trust and loyalty.
Looking ahead, many people are looking to move their entire commerce experience (getting product info, accessing a shopping cart link & checking out) all completely within the messaging conversation.
1. Live Chat Helps Meet Customer Expectations
Conversational commerce isn’t just a buzzword for big retailers like Amazon and Walmart. The technology is there for small businesses to take advantage of it and not only that - customers are demanding live chat as part of their online shopping experience.
What is the most satisfying way to communicate with a business?
Live chat really shouldn’t be a “wish list” integration on your web design list anymore; it’s become a baseline requirement for anyone and everyone in the eCommerce game whether you sell physical, digital, service-based, or subscription-based products. Even those offering online courses, memberships, and digital downloads should be thinking of how to incorporate live chat into their website experience. When asked, 44% of online consumers say that having questions answered by a live person during an online purchase is one of the most important features a website can offer - even for small retailers they shop with!
2. Live Chat Builds Trust With Buyers
One of the biggest objections to adding live chat - especially from small business owners - is the worry that it will suddenly take up all their time responding to live questions from online shoppers. To this I say 1) good problem to have if it was true and 2) in reality out of every several hundred visitors you may only get one who actually chats.
Now, you may be thinking that if every visitor isn’t going to chat, why even bother adding the feature? Here’s why: a staggering 90% of customers said that just seeing a live chat button reassures them that they could get help if they need it and gives them confidence even if they don’t actually chat. (!!!) So, basically just setting up the widget itself is worth it even if it never gets used! Going farther, 77% of customers surveyed actually said they won’t make a purchase on a site if there’s no live chat option available which even furthers reinforces the point.
What all of this says is that just the mere presence of a live chat option helps build trust with visitors and the absence of one may mean you’re missing out on sales for no other measurable reason. Bonus: 63% of consumers said they are more likely to come back to a website that offers live chat. Now that’s brand loyalty!
“90% of customers said that just seeing a live chat button reassures them that they could get help if they need it and gives them confidence even if they don’t actually chat. ”
3. Live Chat Increases Sales & Conversions
I think the biggest mindset shift I could offer my clients when it comes to their eCommerce experiences is to start thinking of it as if they were running a brick-and-mortar location. If you sell physical products, envision the physical retail space your store would take up if it existed. If you’re a service provider, do you have a comfortable office to meet with clients? Are you meeting over coffee in a lively coffee shop? What would it feel like in person?
You likely imagined having a friendly, interactive, and personal exchange with your customers or clients. This is the heart of conversational commerce: building a connection with another human.
If someone walked into your location in real life would you ignore them? Let them wander around confused and try to figure things out on their own? Of course not! You’d welcome them warmly, ask how their day is, get to know them as a person so that you could help them find what they’re looking for. Just because you’ve taken your business online doesn’t mean you can abandon your responsibility to take care of your customers personally.
The correlation between live chat and sales & conversions is clear. 57% of customers abandon their purchase if they cant’ get their questions answered quickly.
Customers who chat with a brand are 3x more likely to make a purchase.
Customers who chat with a brand have a 10-15% higher average order value
Customers who chat with a brand are 50% less likely to make a return
Starting to think about commerce from a conversational standpoint has so many benefits. You can reduce abandoned carts, increase the likelihood of visitors making a purchase, increase average order value and decrease returns. Just by adding live chat!
4. Live Chat Boosts ROI on Paid Ad Campaigns
This benefit is short and sweet but good! If you’re running paid ad campaigns on Google or Facebook, you need to have live chat on your website! Since we know that having it can help convert more visitors to buyers, why would you pay to send people to your site without it? Adding live chat basically makes all of your ads more powerful by making sure that you’re actually getting the most bang for your buck on your ad spend.
5. Live Chat Helps You Understand Your Customers & Get Direct Product Feedback
Has anyone ever said they love Google analytics? No. No one says that. It’s cold and impersonal and sure it’s fun to see that someone visited your site from their iPad in Finland but what does this really tell you? Not a lot. Site analytics are telling you the who and what but if you listen closely your customers will tell you the why.
Customers and clients are seeking authentic interaction which means listening to them, sharing your knowledge, making recommendations based on what they’re telling you. Through the conversations you have with your site visitors, you can learn more about them than Google analytics will ever tell you.
Are they concerned about how earth-friendly your packaging is? Are they wondering about the safety of your products for their kids? Are they interested in which services go best together? Through listening to your customers you can find out how to target messages to your core demographic. Through conversation, you can help them make the right product or service choices, send them a coupon for their loyalty or help them track a package.
You can also start to see patterns in the types of questions that are asked and use that to inform future content creation or website updates. If people are always asking you whether upgrading to a certain product/service is worth it, maybe add a comparison chart to those pages. If people seem to wonder a lot about sizes, product specs, shipping questions, or other basic info it’s probably a sign that this info needs to be added to your site on either product info pages or a FAQ page.
Chances are if 10 people have asked, 100 more aren’t and are leaving your site without making a purchase because they couldn’t quickly find the answers to their questions.
How to Implement:
Here are some ways you can use live chat at each stage in a customer’s journey. You may also find this post with tips for adding live chat to your website helpful!
Pre-Purchase
During the deliberation stage you can help personalize & enhance a customer’s shopping experience, or just start building the customer relationship.
Purchase
During the purchasing process, the goal is to have a conversation with your customer, removing all friction and (if possible) helping them with their transaction directly within the conversation.
Post-Purchase
After a purchase, you can provide customer support and nurture the customer relationship. This builds loyalty and increases the customer lifetime value.
Here’s the TL;DR if you skipped to the bottom!
Live Chat Can Be Your Key Competitive Advantage
If you’re a small business owner here’s where you're not going to be able to beat the big guys: purchasing power, shipping rates, turnaround time, ad spend…
And here’s where you can win: you can be personal. You can be authentic. You can use tools and technology available to you to build relationships and loyalty. Live chat can be your competitive advantage. No one knows your products or services as you do and getting to speak 1:1 with someone with that level of knowledge isn’t happening over at Amazon or Walmart. There’s a tremendous advantage here to increase the value of the customer over time. Just by having a conversation.
