On average, a customer service team takes about 10 hours to respond on social media, and over 12 hours to respond through email! This often ruins the experience for the customer, and it makes him or her more likely to look for other options. The solution? Live chat! Let’s take a look at some numbers:
- Sales and Conversions
By implementing live chat capabilities on your website, you have the potential to increase your sales. According to the American Marketing Association, B2B companies that implement live chat on their website see an increase of 20% in their conversion rate on average. A considerable percentage of prospective buyers that visit your site will have questions about the product, and through live chat, you can answer those questions right away. This often turns a prospect who is on the fence into a buyer. On top of that, eMarketer released a report that showed a 35% increase in sales after customers use live chat.
- Support Costs
Customer support is generally a considerable expense. In the case of traditional call centers, the personnel have to handle both phone and email queries one by one. With live chat, on the other hand, customer service agents are able to handle up to 6 chats at a time, according to Telus International. This means that you can hire a much smaller team to handle the same number of requests, thus lowering your customer service costs. Furthermore, live chat is already over 50% cheaper than customer support carried out via phone calls.
- Customer Trust
Online shopping is very impersonal, which means that there is no rapport-building process involved in a sale. Conversely, retail stores have an eager sales person at the counter who is ready to help prospects with any questions and objections they may have. This helps ease the customer’s skepticism and encourages a sale through direct conversation. Live chat in Chicago works in a very similar way. In a study, ATG found that 90% of customers are more confident in a brand when they see the Live Chat option on the website.
- Average Order Value
Live chat helps your bottom line in two ways: first, by increasing the number of sales, and second, by increasing the average value of a sale. When a customer talks to one of your agents through the live chat feature, the agent can recommend similar or related products and up-sell the customer. For example, if a client wants to buy a laptop, the live chat agent can recommend a wireless mouse, a USB hub, or a laptop case to go along with it. According to Internet Retailer, Virgin Airlines up-sold customers through live chat, converting them three and half times more often and increasing the average order value by 15%.
- Customer Satisfaction
Live chat always improves the customer experience on a website. If a customer has any issues or questions, they can receive an answer right away. This is why live chat scores the highest in terms of satisfaction when compared to other customer service channels, with live chat scoring a 73% customer satisfaction level, compared to email at 61% and phone at 44% (according to eDigital). As a result, by providing live chat support on your website, you can increase customer loyalty and retention.
If you would like to implement a live chat feature for your website, contact Digital Destination today to learn more. We are the premier provider of Live Chat solutions for websites in Chicago. We provide free evaluations and free consultations.